Salvaged pages: young people's diaries of the Holocaust

Zapruder, who works in the education department at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, has done a great service to history and the future. Her book deserves to become a standard in Holocaust studies classes, particularly those aimed at youth or focusing on individuals. The 14 diaries in this anthology most appearing in English for the first time detail the lives of teens and their families, some on the run, some in camps, some in hiding and some during the chilling last days in the ghettoes in Nazi-occupied Europe. Each is prefaced with a biography of its author, information on family background and, when known, his or her fate. Zapruder also provides other facts that would have been known to the diarists and their peers, providing readers with a more complete context. Their experiences and reactions vary widely. Peter Feigl's parents baptize him as a Catholic and send him to church, but eventually are forced to send him from Austria to France. He blames the Jewish-identified teens around him for the circumstances that have ripped him from his parents. In contrast, Belgian Moshe Flinker becomes more attached to traditional Judaism, but increasingly depressed. His last entry, in the fall of 1943, reads, "I am sitting facing the sun. Soon it will set; it is nearing the horizon. It is as red as blood, as if it were a bleeding wound. From where does it get so much blood? For days there has been a red sun, but this is not hard to understand. Is it not sufficient to weep, in these days of anguish?" These writings will certainly impress themselves on the memories of all readers. This collection of diaries, written by young people during the Holocaust, reflects a diverse range of experiences. It contains excerpts from 15 diaries, and the diarists range in age from 12-22. The accounts explore daily events, ideas and feelings. This stirring collection of diaries written by young people during the Holocaust reflects a vast and diverse range of experiencessome of the writers were refugees, others were hiding or passing as non-Jews, some were imprisoned in ghettos. The book offers the first comprehensive collection of such writings, with extensive excerpts from fifteen diaries, ten of which have never before been translated and published in English. The diarists ranged in age from twelve to twenty-two; some survived the Holocaust, but most perished. Taken together, their accounts of daily events and their often unexpected thoughts, ideas, and feelings serve to deepen and complicate our understanding of life during the Holocaust. The volume begins with a discussion of Anne Franks diary and offers a new framework for thinking about the diaries young people produced in this time of extreme crisis. Alexandra Zapruder assesses the value of these literary fragments as part of the historical record of the Holocaust and provides informative introductions about when and where each diary was written; the diarists biographical, religious, cultural, and economic circumstances; the fate of the diarist; the circumstances of the diarys discovery. Finally she offers a view of the diarys significance. An appendix gives details about the known diaries written by young people during this period, more than fifty-five in all. A second appendix provides a study of related materials, such as rewritten and reconstructed diaries, letters, diary-memoirs, and texts by non-Jewish young victims of the war and Nazism "This stirring collection of diaries written by young people during the Holocaust reflects a vast and diverse range of experiences - some of the writers were refugees, others were hiding or passing as non-Jews, some were imprisoned in ghettos. The book offers the first comprehensive collection of such writings, with extensive excerpts from fifteen diaries, ten of which have never before been translated and published in English. The diarists ranged in age from twelve to twenty-two; some survived the Holocaust, but most perished. Taken together, their accounts of daily events and their often unexpected thoughts, ideas, and feelings serve to deepen and complicate our understanding of life during the Holocaust.". "The volume begins with a discussion of Anne Frank's diary and offers a new framework for thinking about young people's diaries produced in this time of extreme crisis. Alexandra Zapruder assesses the value of these literary fragments as part of the historical record of the Holocaust, and provides informative introductions about when and where each diary was written; the diarist's biographical, religious, cultural, and economic circumstances; the fate of the diarist; the circumstances of the diary's recovery; and offers a view of the diary's significance. An appendix gives details about the known diaries written by young people during this period, more than fifty-five in all. A second appendix provides a study of related materials, such as rewritten and reconstructed diaries, letters, diary-memoirs, and texts by non-Jewish young victims of the war and Nazism."--BOOK JACKET.

This stirring collection of diaries written by young people, aged twelve to twenty-two years, during the Holocaust has been fully revised and updated. Some of the writers were refugees, others were in hiding or passing as non-Jews, some were imprisoned in ghettos, and nearly all perished before liberation. This seminal National Jewish Book Award winner preserves the impressions, emotions, and eyewitness reportage of young people whose accounts of daily events and often unexpected thoughts, ideas, and feelings serve to deepen and complicate our understanding of life during the Holocaust.

The second paperback edition includes a new preface by Alexandra Zapruder examining the book's history and impact. Simultaneously, an enhanced e-book incorporates a wealth of new content in a variety of media, including photographs of the writers and their families, images of the original diaries, artwork made by the writers, historical documents, glossary terms, maps, survivor testimony (some available for the first time), and video of the author teaching key passages. In addition, an in-depth, interdisciplinary curriculum in history, literature, and writing developed by the author and a team of teachers, working in cooperation with the educational organization Facing History and Ourselves, is now available to support use of the book in middle- and high-school classrooms.

This moving book presents diaries written by Jewish children and young adults during the Holocaust, the first comprehensive collection of such writings. The diarists ranged in age from twelve to twenty-two; some survived the Holocaust, but most perished. Taken together, their accounts of daily events and their often unexpected thoughts, ideas, and feelings serve to deepen and complicate our understanding of life during this dark time in European history. The volume begins with a discussion of Anne Frank's diary and offers a new framework for thinking about the diaries young people produced in this time of extreme crisis. Alexandra Zapruder assesses the value of these literary fragments as part of the historical record of the Holocaust and provides informative introductions about when and where each diary was written; the diarist's biographical, religious, cultural, and economic circumstances; the fate of the diarist; the circumstances of the diary's discovery. Finally she offers a view of the diary's significance. An appendix gives details about the known diaries written by young people during this period, more than fifty-five in all. A second appendix provides a study of related materials, such as rewritten and reconstructed diaries, letters, diary-memoirs, and texts by non-Jewish young victims of the war and Nazism. This stirring collection of diaries written by young people during the Holocaust reflects a vast and diverse range of experiences -- some of the writers were refugees, others were hiding or passing or passing as non-Jews, some were imprisoned in ghettos. The book offers the first comprehensive collection of such writings, with extensive excerpts from fifteen diaries, ten of which have never before been translated and published in English. The diarists ranged in age from twelve to twenty-two; some survived the Holocaust, but most perished. Taken together, their accounts of daily events and their often unexpected thoughts, ideas, and feelings serve to deepen and complicate our understanding of life during the Holocaust. - Jacket flap. Editor's note Introduction Klaus Langer (Essen, Germany) Elisabeth Kaufmann (Paris, France) Peter Feigl (France) Moshe Flinker (Brussels, Belgium) Otto Wolf (Olomouc, Czechoslovakia) Petr Ginz and Eva Ginzova (Terezin Ghetto) Yitskhok Rudashevski (Vilna Ghetto) Anonymous girl (Lodz Ghetto) Miriam Korber (Transnistria) Dawid Rubinowicz (Krajno, Poland) Elsa Binder (Stanislawow, Poland) Ilya Gerber (Kovno Ghetto) Anonymous boy (Lodz Ghetto) Alice Ehrmann (Terezin Ghetto) Appendix 1 : Young diarists of the Holocaust Appendix 2 : At the margins Presents excerpts from the Holocaust diaries of fifteen young people, ranging in age from twelve to twenty-two, each with an introductory essay that looks at the writer, and the historical context of the diary, with a study of the text and its relevance in the context of Holocaust history or literature. Includes a list of over fifty additional known diaries written by young people during the period This is a stirring collection of diaries written by young people, ages 12 to 22, during the Holocaust. Some of the writers were refugees, others were hiding or passing as non-Jews, some were imprisoned in ghettos, and nearly all perished before liberation.