Renia Spiegel

The long-hidden diary of a young Polish woman's life during the Holocaust, translated for the first time into English Renia Spiegel was born in 1924 to an upper-middle class Jewish family living in southeastern Poland, near what was at that time the border with Romania. At the start of 1939 Renia began a diary. “I just want a friend. I want somebody to talk to about my everyday worries and joys. Somebody who would feel what I feel, who would believe me, who would never reveal my secrets. A human being can never be such a friend and that’s why I have decided to look for a confidant in the form of a diary.” And so begins an extraordinary document of an adolescent girl’s hopes and dreams. By the fall of 1939, Renia and her younger sister Elizabeth (née Ariana) were staying with their grandparents in Przemysl, a city in the south, just as the German and Soviet armies invaded Poland. Cut off from their mother, who was in Warsaw, Renia and her family were plunged into war. Like Anne Frank, Renia’s diary became a record of her daily life as the Nazis spread throughout Europe. Renia writes of her mundane school life, her daily drama with best friends, falling in love with her boyfriend Zygmund, as well as the agony of missing her mother, separated by bombs and invading armies. Renia had aspirations to be a writer, and the diary is filled with her poignant and thoughtful poetry. When she was forced into the city’s ghetto with the other Jews, Zygmund is able to smuggle her out to hide with his parents, taking Renia out of the ghetto, but not, ultimately to safety. The diary ends in July 1942, completed by Zygmund, after Renia is murdered by the Gestapo. Renia's Diary has been translated from the original Polish, and includes a preface, afterword, and notes by her surviving sister, Elizabeth Bellak. An extraordinary historical document, Renia Spiegel survives through the beauty of her words and the efforts of those who loved her and preserved her legacy.

A Holocaust Journal

Renia's Diary

Anna Blasiak

Marta Dziurosz

A Young Girl's Account of the Holocaust

Elisabeth Bellak

Por que decidi começar meu diário hoje? Algo importante aconteceu? Eu descobri que minhas amigas estão escrevendo seus próprios diários? Não! Só quero um amigo. Por que decidi começar meu diário hoje? Algo importante aconteceu? Eu descobri que minhas amigas estão escrevendo seus próprios diários? Não! Só quero um amigo. Quero alguém com quem possa conversar sobre minhas preocupações e alegrias cotidianas. Alguém que sinta o que eu sinto, acredite no que digo e nunca revele meus segredos. Nenhum ser humano poderia ser esse tipo de amigo, e é por isso que decidi procurar um confidente na forma de um diário. Hoje, meu querido Diário, é o começo de nossa grande amizade. Quem sabe quanto tempo irá durar? Pode ser até o fim de nossas vidas. De qualquer forma, prometo sempre ser honesta com você, me abrirei e lhe contarei tudo. Em contrapartida, você escutará minhas preocupações e meus pensamentos, mas nunca os revelará para mais ninguém; permanecerá calado como um livro enfeitiçado, trancado com uma chave mágica e escondido em um castelo encantado. Você não me trairá. Se acontecer, a culpa será destas letrinhas azuis que as pessoas conseguem reconhecer. Em primeiro lugar, permita que eu me apresente. Estou no terceiro ano do ginásio na Escola Maria Konopnicka para Garotas. Meu nome é Renia.

UM DIÁRIO DO HOLOCAUSTO

O Diário De Renia

"1942. július 15-e, szerda Emlékezz erre a napra. Soha ne feledd. El kell mesélned a következő nemzedékeknek. Ma nyolc óra óta bezártak minket a gettóba. Most itt lakom. Elszigeteltek a világtól, és a világot tőlem." Egy fiatal lány, Renia arról ábrándozik, hogy majd költő lesz. De zsidó, Lengyelországban él és most 1939-et írnak. Amikor Oroszország és Németország betörnek a hazájába, Renia világa összeomlik. Az anyjától elszakadva, sietve kell menekülnie Przemyslből az éjszakai bombázások elől. Látja, hogy vész nyomuk más zsidó családoknak, végül tanúja lesz a gettó létrehozásának. De a háború borzalmain túl számtalan szépségben is része van, amikor kezd íróként rátalálni a saját hangjára, és életében először lesz szerelmes. Ő és Zygmunt, a fiú, akibe beleszeret, pár órával azelőtt váltják az első csókot, mielőtt a nácik elérik a szülővárosát. És Zygmunté az utolsó, szívfájdító bejegyzés is Renia naplójában. Renia naplóját, amire hetven év után most bukkantak rá ismét, máris a holokauszt irodalom klasszikusaként emlegetik. Az Anna Frankra emlékeztető tiszta hang és tehetség révén különleges tanúságtételt tartunk a kezünkben a háború szörnyűségeiről és a legsötétebb órákban is létező életről.

Egy fiatal lány élete a Holocaust árnyékában

Renia naplója

Introduction by Deborah E. Lipstadt, author of Denial July 15, 1942, Wednesday Remember this day; remember it well. You will tell generations to come. Since 8 o’clock today we have been shut away in the ghetto. I live here now. The world is separated from me and I’m separated from the world. Renia is a young girl who dreams of becoming a poet. But Renia is Jewish, she lives in Poland and the year is 1939. When Russia and Germany invade her country, Renia's world shatters. Separated from her mother, her life takes on a new urgency as she flees Przemysl to escape night bombing raids, observes the disappearances of other Jewish families and, finally, witnesses the creation of the ghetto. But alongside the terror of war, there is also great beauty, as she begins to find her voice as a writer and falls in love for the first time. She and the boy she falls in love with, Zygmunt, share their first kiss a few hours before the Nazis reach her hometown. And it is Zygmunt who writes the final, heartbreaking entry in Renia’s diary. Recently rediscovered after seventy years, Renia’s Diary is already being described as a classic of Holocaust literature. Written with a clarity and skill that is reminiscent of Anne Frank, Renia's Diary also includes a prologue and epilogue by Renia's sister Elizabeth, as well as an introduction by Deborah E. Lipstadt, author of Denial. It is an extraordinary testament to both the horrors of war, and to the life that can exist even in the darkest times.

A Young Girl’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Renia’s Diary

Introduction by Deborah Lipstadt, author of Denial July 15, 1942, Wednesday Remember this day; remember it well. You will tell generations to come. Since 8 o'clock today we have been shut away in the ghetto. I live here now. The world is separated from me and I'm separated from the world. Renia is a young girl who dreams of becoming a poet. But Renia is Jewish, she lives in Poland and the year is 1939. When Russia and Germany invade her country, Renia's world shatters. Separated from her mother, her life takes on a new urgency as she flees Przemysl to escape night bombing raids, observes the disappearances of other Jewish families and, finally, witnesses the creation of the ghetto. But alongside the terror of war, there is also great beauty, as she begins to find her voice as a writer and falls in love for the first time. She and the boy she falls in love with, Zygmunt, share their first kiss a few hours before the Nazis reach her hometown. And it is Zygmunt who writes the final, heartbreaking entry in Renia's diary. Recently rediscovered after seventy years, Renia's Diary is already being described as a classic of Holocaust literature. Written with a clarity and skill that is reminiscent of Anne Frank, it is an extraordinary testament to both the horrors of war, and to the life that can exist even in the darkest times.

Renia Spiegel

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