Monthly Archives: September 2019

Renia’s diary. Her sister said that she stashed it for decades in a safe deposit box because she could not bear to read it. Credit Brian Harkin for The New York Times

In an incredible story in The New York Times, Joanna Berendt tells this story: “a Jewish teenager in a small trade city in southeastern Poland … began writing her diary, months before the advent of World War II. By the time she was shot in the head by Nazi soldiers, she had chronicled life under two totalitarian regimes: the Soviets who advanced from the east and the Nazis who came from the west.”

It will now be published in various languages. Read the heart-breaking story of her sister, her young boyfriend, and the material in the novel.

Diaries by anyone–famous or private, young or old–can tell us so much about a time period. Read this book.