An exhibition of photographs by Jan Lukas and texts by Ondřej Kundra capturing the life of a Jewish girl Vendulka V. takes place in the Czech House Jerusalem from 1 to 30 April 2021.
The exhibition presents the life story of Vendulka Vogel, a girl who survived the Holocaust. Her story would probably never have been written if it had not been for the photographs of the Czech photographer Jan Lukas, who captured the Vogel family just a few hours before his deportation to the Terezín-Terezín ghetto. Eighty years later, Vendulka Vogelová talked about her busy life and friendship with the photographer Jan Lukas and author of texts for the exhibition Ondřej Kundra.
© Památník ticha Bubny
Video greeting from O. Kundra
Jan Lukas
Jan Lukas (1915-2006), a legend in the world of Czech photographers, lived through two periods of totalitarianism. In the 1930s, his photos captured large and small events in Czech life and he is famous for his stylized images as well as portraits of important personalities. By the mid-1960s, he emigrated to the United States of America where he also continued to apply his distinctive talents to photograph everyday life. Karla and Šimon Vogel's friendship with the young photographer Jan Lukas began many years before the war. At that time, Vendulka's family still lived in Karlovy Vary, from where they moved to Prague after the violent activities of Sudeten German activists.
Ondřej Kundra
Ondřej Kundra (1980) is a journalist. Since 1999, has worked for Respekt, where he is a deputy editor-in-chief. He has won numerous journalism awards for political analysis and investigative reporting, including the prestigious Ferdinand Peroutka Prize. He is the author of Meda Mládková’s biography My Amazing Life (2014), a book about Russian spies; Putin’s Agents (2016), which was turned by the Czech Radio into a radio book, and for which he received a nomination for the Magnesia Litera award. Together with Tomáš Lindner, he wrote the documentary book My Son, the Terrorist (2017).
More information about the event is available on the website of Czech House Jerusalem.
