Afbeelding auteur

Renia Spiegel (1924–1942)

Auteur van Renia's Diary: A Holocaust Journal

3 Werken 211 Leden 14 Besprekingen Favoriet van 1 leden

Werken van Renia Spiegel

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Algemene kennis

Officiële naam
Spiegel, Aurelia
Geboortedatum
1924-06-18
Overlijdensdatum
1942-07-30
Geslacht
female
Nationaliteit
Poland
Geboorteplaats
Uhryńkowce, Poland
Plaats van overlijden
Przemyśl, Poland
Oorzaak van overlijden
executed by Nazis
Woonplaatsen
Przemyśl, Poland
Beroepen
diarist
Relaties
Bellak, Elizabeth (sister)
Korte biografie
Aurelia "Renia" Spiegel was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Uhryńkowce, Poland (now Ukraine), a daughter of Bernard Spiegel and his wife Róża Maria Leszczyńska. She grew up on their large estate on the Dniester River near the border between Poland and Romania with her younger sister Ariana (now Elizabeth Bellak), who was a child film star in Poland. In 1938, Renia's mother sent her to live with her grandparents in Przemyśl, Poland, while she herself moved to Warsaw to promote Ariana's acting career. Ariana went to join Renia in Przemyśl during the summer of 1938. Renia began keeping a diary in January 1939. Later that year, after Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland, it became impossible for the two girls and their mother to reach each other. Bernard Spiegel, who had stayed on the family estate, subsequently disappeared during World War II. In the first years of the war, Renia attended school and socialized in Przemyśl, and in 1940 began to develop a romantic relationship with Zygmunt Schwarzer, two years older than she, the son of a prominent Jewish physician. The Przemyśl Ghetto was established July 1942 and the sisters moved in, along with 24,000 other Jews. After about two weeks, Zygmunt Schwarzer helped Renia escape from the ghetto and hid her along with his own parents in the attic of his uncle's house. They were betrayed to the Nazis, who found and executed 18-year-old Renia and Schwarzer's parents in the street on July 30, 1942. Schwarzer kept the diary for a while, and wrote the final entries about Renia's death. He then left the diary with someone else before he was deported to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. Schwarzer survived the war, and retrieved the diary. He emigrated to the USA, where he gave the diary to Renia's mother and sister, who had also survived. Elizabeth Bellak took possession of the diary in 1969 and stored it in a bank vault. It remained there, unread, until 2012, when Elizabeth's daughter, Alexandra Renata Bellak arranged to have it translated from Polish into English. Excerpts were first published in English in Smithsonian magazine in 2018. The first full English publication was titled Renia’s Diary: A Young Girl’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust, published in the UK in 2019. In the USA, it is called Renia's Diary: A Holocaust Journal, and contains a prologue and epilogue by Elizabeth Bellak. The diary is also the subject of a Polish documentary film called Broken Dreams, directed by Tomasz Magierski.

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Besprekingen

 
Gemarkeerd
IreneCole | 13 andere besprekingen | Jul 27, 2022 |
This book shows a different side of the invasion of Poland. Reina's first hand account of what is going on is very interesting. It should be noted that this is nothing like Anne Frank's diary...nothing. Reina's diary goes through every day life during the invasion, this includes (mainly) her crushes and how much she misses her Mother whom she has been separated from due to the war. There is far more teenage angst that anything else. As long as the reader does not open this book expecting the deep insights received from Anne Frank, then they will be able to enjoy the read.… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
Micareads | 13 andere besprekingen | Jun 21, 2022 |
Renia’s Diary is just that, a diary of a young Jewish girl from Poland. She was just 14 when she started her diary because she wanted a friend. Actually, she had friends, I feel more likely that she wanted a confidant and some way to express all her hopes, dreams and sorrows without fear of ridicule from pears.
As you can imagine, the diary entries are about Renia’s daily life. When she starts the diary, she is living with her grandparents. Her parents are in Warsaw and have been traveling with her sister who is a child actress. As expected, most of the writing is centered around school, her friends and her longing for her family, mainly her Mother. At the beginning, she does speak occasionally of the troubling times and a few of the historical events.
As Renia gets older, she talks about going to parties with friends, dating and dreams about the future. She goes to movies and takes long walks with Zygument (Zygu), her boyfriend. In December of 1941 she decides to start writing about the war. She says, “Blood is flowing, cities are ruined, people are dying.” Despite her declaration, most of her writing remains the same.
It is obvious Renia is deeply religious. All throughout the diary she periodic asked God to take care of her and her family. Later in the diary, most entries end with a plea, “You will help me, Bulus and God”. Even though she did not mention the trying times often, they must have weighed heavily on her mind. Sadly, her life ends shortly after her 18th birthday. The final few diary entries are made by Renia’s boyfriend, Zygu, because she along with his parents are shot in July 1942.
The prose I struggled with because it was written by someone so young and was of course immature. She talked about life with her friends and petty things that happened to her and others. As she gets older, the discuss turns to going to parties and boys and finally falling in love.
It is difficult to compare this book to other works of nonfiction because it is a diary and not a book. It was never written for or intended to be read by an end consumer. Therefore, I struggled with how to assign any kind of rating to a nonliterary work? Ultimately, I choose my rating mostly based on the poetry contained in the diary.
There was a lot of poetry in the diary. Enough for an entire collection to be published of just the poetry. There were all types of poems, long (some ran several pages) to short, some sad, some lively and some longing. Regardless of the theme, they were lovely. The poems are the real star of the book. I found it to be not only good, but contemplative. For the prose to be so immature, the poetry was the exact opposite. I am left wondering what her poetry would have been like if she had lived. Would she have been a great poet in the 20th century?
I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
… (meer)
½
 
Gemarkeerd
purpledog | 13 andere besprekingen | Jul 10, 2020 |
This book is the edited version of Renia Spiegel‘s diary that spans nearly 700 pages and nearly four years in 1939-1942.

Sergey Yarov wrote brilliantly about morality in the siege of Leningrad during World War II. He read a lot of previously redacted diaries that belonged to people who were part of the siege. Those diaries told a clear tale of how things changed gradually, and how what was once considered extreme behaviours were normalised, from making potato-skin soup to pilfering corpses for food stamps.

Equally, Viktor Klemperer‘s essential diaries from World War II told a most chilling tale where Jews were violently targeted, people that weren’t The Teutonic Ideal were persecuted, and entire populations razed off the face of the Earth. But not without testimony.

Most importantly, diaries offer us something that memoirs do not: an emotional immediacy. And it is this immediacy that is so very compelling. I am reminded of Helene Berr, the Israelite young Parisian woman who kept a diary from 1942 through to the day she and her parents were rounded up in March 1944. Fortuitously, she begins to write but a short time before the decree that all Jews must wear a yellow star.

She confides to the diary her struggle with whether to wear it or not. Was wearing it an act of compliance with a hateful regime or did it demonstrate a pride in one’s Jewish identity? We read of her reactions to passerby’s comments. Some express solidarity and others pity. She reflects on them, not from a distance of many years, but on the day she encountered them. She does not—because she cannot—contextualize this act as the first step in an array of far worse persecution to come.


The above is part of the introduction that is written by Renia’s sister, Ariana Spiegel, who is currently named Elizabeth Leszczyska Bellak.

JANUARY 31, 1939

Why did I decide to start my diary today? Did something important happen? Have I discovered that my friends are keeping diaries of their own? No! I just want a friend. I want somebody I can talk to about my everyday worries and joys. Somebody who will feel what I feel, believe what I say and never reveal my secrets. No human could ever be that kind of friend and that’s why I have decided to look for a confidant in the form of a diary. Today, my dear Diary, is the beginning of our deep friendship.


Renia was fourteen years old when she started her diary, a tumultuous time for any teenager, for sure.

She writes of everyday troubles, of boys that she likes, of friends, family, her constant longing for her mother, and to begin with, this diary offers a reprieve from all things sensationalistic – which is exactly why it is extraordinary; the horrors of World War seep in over time.

FEBRUARY 13, 1939

Can there be a worse day than Monday the 13th? Monday on its own is usually quite bad, and now we have the number 13 added to it. Bad luck! It was definitely not a good day for me.


There are naturally sudden changes all throughout the book, as war is seldom predictable, especially for the victims.

SEPTEMBER 10, 1939

Oh, God! My God! We’ve been on the road for three days now. Przemyel was attacked. We had to flee. The three of us escaped: me, Arianka and Grandpa. We have left the burning, partially destroyed city in the middle of the night on foot, carrying our bags. Granny stayed behind. Lord, please protect her. We heard on the road that Przemyel was being destroyed.


One stand-out thing about Renia is her poetry. She writes poetry all throughout her diary, about all kinds of things. To me, it is apparent how the poetry changes, both from her age and also from the war.

Even if your beauty could outshine that of Greek goddesses’ line
Your fate will remain the same
Your life will not be reframed
Life doesn’t care about your eyes
Your ugly lips
Nose the wrong size!
Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Tell me the truth you reflect and all.


Her words on her love interests radiate from the page:

JANUARY 5, 1941, SUNDAY

And? Didn’t I say it was better not to see him? I was so regretful, but tough. It always so happens that when you love somebody, you tease them. The greetings were sweet, but then he didn’t dance with me, he sat there fuming, in a bad mood, but tough, after all (oh, God) love can (i.e., must!!!) sulk too. Today I’m in bed; I’m unwell. Oh, I so hope that everything pans out well!! Please, Great One! I find evidence of his liking even in anger.

A 16-YEAR-OLD

When you’re 16 years old you dearly love the whole world with all its parties, pranks and jokes and especially with your favorite folks.
When you hide your crumpled diary from your mother’s strict inquiries.
When you sing love songs
Then you are 16 years old.


Her true beloved, Zygu, shines through the pages, even when he is “a boor”, and their love is mutual. It makes me remember the turmoils and torpor that youth entails.

JULY 1, 1941

We’re all alive and well. All of us, Norka, Irka, Zygu, my friends, my family. And today I want to speak with you as a free person still. Today I’m like everyone else … Tomorrow, along with other Jews, I’ll have to start wearing a white armband. To you I will always remain the same Renia, a friend, but to others I will become someone inferior, I will become someone wearing a white armband with a blue star. I will be a Jude. I’m not crying or complaining. I have resigned myself to my fate. It just feels so strange and sorrowful. My school vacation and my dates with Zygu are coming to an end. I don’t know when I’ll see him next. Everyone is working today. No news about Mama. God protect us all. Goodbye, dear Diary. I’m writing this while I’m still independent and free. Tomorrow I’ll be someone else—but only on the outside. And perhaps one day I’ll greet you as someone else still. Grant me that, Lord God, I believe in You. You will help me, Bulus and God!


Zygu and Renia loved each other dearly, seemingly as she loved her mother. Renia’s sister, Elizabeth, provides a loving epilogue to this book, which also details as much as we know happened to Renia, and also to Zygmunt (Zygu).

This diary stood the test of time, and will forever be a tome over what happened to a young person who was murdered during the Holocaust.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
pivic | 13 andere besprekingen | Mar 21, 2020 |

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Statistieken

Werken
3
Leden
211
Populariteit
#105,256
Waardering
3.2
Besprekingen
14
ISBNs
24
Talen
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Favoriet
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