The secret diary of a Jewish teenage girl, who was killed by the Nazis in a ghetto in occupied Poland, is set to be published in English for the first time. Renia's Diary, written by 14-year-old Renia Spiegel, is a heartbreaking account of the horrors of the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland. The diary that was kept locked away in a bank vault for nearly 70 years, will be released on September 24 in the United States.
“I’m looking for someone, to whom I could tell my worries and joys of everyday life,” she wrote on January 31, 1939. “From today on, we start a very hearty friendship. Who knows how long it will last?” Over 700 pages, the teenager goes on to write about her feelings, fears, terrors of the Holocaust and even simple things like her crush and first kiss.
On 26 June 1941, shortly after she turned 17, Renia wrote of being forced to wear a white armband with a blue star to signify she was a 'Jude' (Jew). In the entry on July 15, 1942, Renia wrote of being “shut away in the ghetto” before being smuggled out by her first love Zygmunt Schwarzer, who was working with the local resistance.
According to reports, she spent the last days of her life hiding in an attic with Zygmunt’s parents. Her final entry was recorded on July 28: “Hear O Israel, save us, help us! You have kept me safe from bullets and bombs, from grenades, help me to survive, help us!”
Two days later, they were discovered by German soldiers and the three were shot dead. It is not clear how the diary made it safe out of the country. But The Independent reported that Zygmunt was able to deliver the blue-lined notebook to Renia’s mother and sister in New York in 1950.
Unable to read through the harrowing account, the family kept it locked in a bank vault. And now, Renia's sister Elizabeth Bellak brought it out for the world to see. It was in fact Elizabeth's daughter Alexandra who took the initiative to get the entries translated into English.
Speigel's account is being likened to Anne Frank whose diary entries were equally heartbreaking and an eye-opener into the atrocities of the Holocaust. And hence, Spiegel is being referred to as the 'Polish Anne Frank'.
The book, which was earlier published in Poland, is now being brought out in English by Penguin Books.
