Rutka's Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust

Product Information

The last entry is dated April 24 1943, at which point she hid the notebook in the basement of the house her family were living in, a building that had been confiscated by the Nazis to be part of the Bedzin ghetto. In August that year, the teenager and her family were transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp and it is thought she was killed immediately. a b c d e " 'Polish Anne Frank' diary revealed. 14-year-old's memoirs given to Yad Vashem by victim's friend after 64 years - Jerusalem Post | HighBeam Research". 2016-05-05. Archived from the original on 2016-05-05 . Retrieved 2023-07-25. Writing on February 5 1943, she said: "I simply can't believe that one day I will be allowed to leave this house without the yellow star. Or even that this war will end one day. If this happens I will probably lose my mind from joy. News of the concentration camps, and the brutal killings of Jews, filtered through to her. Writing on February 5 1943, she said: "I simply can't believe that one day I will be allowed to leave this house without the yellow star. Or even that this war will end one day. If this happens I will probably lose my mind from joy. The Polish Anne Frank—did I miss something? Then I remembered Rutka Laskier’s diary. Apparently she was the Polish Anne Frank, a detail that had completely escaped me.

With help from Sapińska's nephew, he obtained a photocopy of the diary and was instrumental in the publishing of its Polish-language edition. Its publication by Yad Vashem Publications was commemorated with a ceremony in Jerusalem by Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority), Israel's Holocaust museum, on 4 June 2007, in which Zahava Scherz took part. At this ceremony, Sapińska also donated the original diary to Yad Vashem. [16]Rutka's father was the only member of the family who survived the Holocaust. Following World War II, he emigrated to Israel, where he remarried and had another daughter, Zahava Scherz. He died in 1986.[citation needed] According to Zahava Scherz, interviewed in the BBC documentary "The Secret Diary of the Holocaust" (broadcast in January 2009),[4] he never told Scherz about Rutka until she discovered a photo album when she herself was 14, which contained a picture of Rutka with her younger brother. Zahava explains that she asked her father who they were and he answered her truthfully, but never spoke further about it. Zahava went on to explain that she learnt of the existence of Rutka's diary in 2006, and she expressed how much it has meant to her finally to be able to get to know her half-sister, to whom she felt a closeness after reading her diary. When the Przemyśl ghetto was established in July 1942, Renia and her sister were forced to move there along with her grandparents. After a few weeks, Renia’s boyfriend, Zygmunt Schwarzer, who had a work pass, smuggled the sisters out of the ghetto and hid them and his own parents in the attic of his uncle's house. Their hiding place was eventually exposed by an informer, and Renia along with Zygmunt’s parents were executed in the street. For four months in 1943, Rutka Laskier kept a diary. She lived in the Polish town of Bedzin, which had fallen under German occupation at the beginning of World War II. She was 14 years old at the time and recorded mostly her feelings regarding her friends and the daily details of her personal life. Her self-image was in a constant state of flux, as is common for teens, and this colored the way she interpreted all of her relationships. The focus of her writing was so intensely introspective that it might seem at first as if she didn’t realize that she was living in the shadow of Auschwitz during the depths of the Final Solution. Although she may have appeared at times to ignore the larger context of her situation, she was probably much more aware than she let on. Shortly after arriving in the US in 1944, her diary was published in American newspapers in serialized form, making it one of the earliest accounts of the Holocaust. Her diary was published as a book the following year. Tanya Savicheva

Ms Sapinska, now in her late 80s, took the diary and kept it secret for more than 60 years until one of her nephews last year convinced her to present it to Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust museum and archive in Jerusalem. Si Dios existiera no permitiría que seres humanos fuesen arrojados vivos a hornos crematorios ni que aplastaran las cabezas de niños pequeños a golpes de culata o que los metieran en sacos para que murieran gaseados. Al final, esto se parece a un cuento de abuela: quienes no lo hayan visto no lo van a creer, pero no es ningún cuento, es la verdad.» This is a diary from an approximate four month period from a teenage girl. The notebook she was writing in was hidden beneath her stairs when her and her family was sent from the ghetto where they were living to a Nazi camp. It's believed that Rutka and her entire family, with the exception of her father, died in that camp soon after. Brazil, Rocco; Czech Republic: Academia; France: Laffont; Germany, Aufbau Verlag; Greece, Patakis; Holland, De Geus; Hungary: Jaffa; Italy, RCS Libri; Japan: PHP Institute; Poland, Polskapresse; Portugal: Sextante Editora; Spain, Suma; USA, Time Books The diary begins on 19 January with the entry "I cannot grasp that it is already 1943, four years since this hell began."[1] One of the final entries says "If only I could say, it's over, you die only once... But I can't, because despite all these atrocities, I want to live, and wait for the following day."[1]

Broadcasts

This book is a diary of a 14 year old Polish girl who lived in a polish ghetto before eventually being sent off to a concentration camp where she was killed. Rutka kept the notebook and recorded many of her thoughts and some of the details of what was happening before the ghetto was cleared out. Rutka hide the notebook and told her non Jewish friend of its location, which is how the notebook survived after her death. The Secret Diary Of The Holocaust (WW2 Documentary) | History Documentary". Reel Truth History . Retrieved 26 January 2022. The diary of Rutka Laskier, a 14-year-old Jewish girl writing in 1943 just before her deportation to Auschwitz, was released by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum, in cooperation with Rutka’s family. More than 60 years later, her words provide a rare and authentic perspective of history and tragedy, offering both a daily account of life in the Polish ghetto of Bedzin and the memoir of a teenager trapped in the the Holocaust. Rutka Laskier is 14 years old when she starts a diary in January 1943, “four years since . . . hell began.” The Nazis occupy Poland, and Rutka is well aware of the atrocities surrounding and awaiting her. According to Stanislawa Sapinska, a friend of Rutka who keeps the diary until 2006, Rutka suspects her own death is imminent. She hides the diary and arranges with Stanislawa to find and keep it. I would like to pour out on paper all the turmoil I am feeling inside, but I'm absolutely incapable."

The diary begins on 19 January, with the entry "I can not grasp that it is already 1943, four years since this hell began". Like many teenage girls, 14-year-old Rutka Laskier kept a diary of her hopes, her dreams and her disappointments. She wrote a lot about boys — the ones she liked and the ones she didn't — and her friends. She wrote in pencil in a spiral notebook, offering a glimpse of life in the Polish town of Bedzin during three months in 1943, under the growing oppression of the Holocaust.The diary was authenticated by Yad Vashem, which has now published it as Rutka's Notebook, in Hebrew and English. Rutka's father, Yaakov, was the only member of the family to survive the camp. He moved to Israel and had a new family. He died in 1986. Time passed and I forgot about Rutka Laskier. A few days ago, I found a message in my mailbox with the question: íDid you have time to read the diary of the Polish Anne Frank?ë Discovery of Laskier's diary[edit] In 1943, while writing the diary, Laskier shared it with Stanisława Sapińska (21 years old, at that time), whom she had befriended after Laskier's family moved into a home owned by Sapińska's Roman Catholic family, which had been confiscated by the Nazis so that it could be included in the ghetto. Rutka Laskier was fourteen years old during the period when she kept her diary. For the most part, her entries covered a three month period between January 19th and April 24th, 1943. During this time, her family lived in the open ghetto of Bedzin, but would soon be forced to move into a closed ghetto nearby. Rutka’s diary ended at that point. THE INESCAPABLE FINAL SOLUTION Gunvor Hofmo kept Ruth's diaries and much of her correspondence. She originally tried to get her diary published, and approached a publisher but was rejected. It wasn’t until after the death of Gunvor Hofmo, in 1995, when a Norwegian author and poet discovered the diary, and impressed by the journal’s literary values, got it published in 2007. The book was translated to English in 2009. Philip Slier