Diary of 'Polish Anne Frank': on the horrors of the Holocaust and first love

The diary of a Jewish girl from Poland, who was killed by the Nazis in 1942, was published in an English translation. He talks not only about the horrors of the Holocaust, but also about everyday life in the conditions of the first Soviet and then German occupation, as well as his first love before the Nazi invasion.

Renya Spiegel. Photo: Bellak Family Archive

"Reni's Diary: A Girl's Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust" was released in English in 13 countries, including Russia, Britain, the United States and Germany.

Records begin in January 1939 and end with the death of a girl in 1942. Notebooks have been stored in a bank cell in New York for over 60 years.

From the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to the Holocaust

Renya Spiegel began keeping a diary in 1939, when she turned 15 years old.

The girl's family was divided as a result of the well-known Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, when the border between German and Soviet territories ran along the San River, on which the city stood. Therefore, Renya stayed with her grandmother in Przemysl, and her mother lived in Warsaw, occupied by Germany.

In the diary, the girl described the bombing, the hardships of the war years, the humiliation of the Nazi regime and the atmosphere of terror during the creation of the ghetto. But there is a place for personal experiences.

Renya Spiegel. Photo: Bellak Family Archive

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Renya wrote poems, which were sometimes published in the school newspaper. She left detailed notes about her falling in love with a boy named Zygmunt Schwarzer and their first kiss a few hours before the Nazis entered Przemysl.

Renya died on 30 July 1942 year. She was 18 years old when Nazi soldiers killed her after escaping from the ghetto.

From a record of January 31 1939

“Irka Lozinska is the most beautiful girl in our class, and perhaps in the whole school. The impression is not spoiled even by her dark, almost orange skin (due to the powder, of course) and her condescending tone or the harsh words uttered by her coral-red lips, revealing beautiful snow-white teeth. But Irka has the worst handicap - tuberculosis... Yes, sometimes she bleeds from her mouth and nose. I feel sorry for Irka."

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Half a century in a bank cell

Schwarzer wrote the last lines of a book about events after Reni's death. He was sent to Auschwitz (Auschwitz), but managed to survive in a concentration camp and, after the war, enlisted as a doctor in the American army.

Renya Spiegel. Photo: Bellak Family Archive

In 1950, in New York, he found Reni's surviving relatives - mother Rose and sister Elizabeth - and returned the diary to them.

According to Elizabeth, her mother never recovered from Reni's death, so relatives could not decide to read her diary. The family gave it to Schwarzer, and he put the notebooks in a bank cell. In 2012, Elizabeth ordered the first translation of the text into English.

From a record of June 7 1942

“Everywhere you look, there is bloodshed. Horrific pogroms. Murder and death. Almighty God, once again I humbly appeal to you, help us, save us! Lord God, let us live, I pray you, I want to live! I lived so little. I don't want to die. I'm afraid of death. It's so stupid, so petty, so unimportant, so petty. Today I worry about being ugly, and tomorrow I may stop thinking forever.”

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