Ondřej Kundra: Vendulka, Flight to Freedom
12.09.2023 / 00:13
So many lives were cut short by the Holocaust, many with no trace to leave behind for future generations to remember. Vendulka tells the story of a single scrap of remembrance—a candid photograph taken in the midst of this unspeakable tragedy—and that artifact’s amazing aftermath.
Famed Czech photographer Jan Lukas snapped an offhand portrait of twelve-year-old Vendulka Vogl in March 1943. A friend of the Vogls, Lukas was saying goodbye to the family, who were soon to leave Prague for a concentration camp. The photograph almost didn’t see the light of day—Lukas knew that if the Nazis found it on him, he could wind up in the camps as well—but the image was eventually developed and came to symbolize the Holocaust and humanize its victims. Seventy years after this famous picture was taken, investigative journalist Ondřej Kundra discovered that, despite all odds, Vendulka Vogl had survived the camps of Terezín, Auschwitz, and Christianstadt, and was in fact still alive and living in the United States. Kundra persuaded her to tell the remarkable story surrounding the photograph: her survival, her later decision to flee the Communist regime for America, and how she later reconnected with Jan Lukas, maintaining a lifelong friendship.
Vogl’s thrillingly moving story, Kundra’s sharp and engaging writing, and Lukas’s striking photography all combine to make Vendulka an inspiring investigation into the horrors of totalitarianism and the redemptive beauty of friendship.
Part of the presentation will be an exhibition, reading from the book and story behind it.
The event is free but registration through Eventbrite required.
Invitation
Author
Ondřej Kundra currently works in the Respekt weekly as a deputy managing editor.
He became a stable team member in 2002. In his texts, he focuses on corruption, Russian and China espionage and aggression. He was awarded with the journalism award for a couple of times for his investigative work. Kundra also cooperate with international investigative team Bellingcat and he is published author – in 2014 he published a book on a well-known arts benefactress called Meda Mládková. My Wonderful Life. Putinovi agenti (Putin’s Agents), Můj syn terorista (My Terrorist Son) and Novičok nebo kulka (Novichok or bullet) are his latest releases. He has been eight times in Ukraine since last February when the Russian full scale invasion started.