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Rywka's Diary: The Writings Of A Jewish Girl From The Lodz Ghetto

The newly discovered diary of a Polish teenager in the Lodz ghetto during World War II—originally published by Jewish Family & Children’s Services of San Francisco, now available in a revised, illustrated, and beautifully designed trade edition.After more than seventy years in obscurity, the diary of a teenage girl during the Holocaust has been revealed for the first time. Rywka’s Diary is at once an astonishing historical document and a moving tribute to the many ordinary people whose lives were forever altered by the Holocaust. At its heart, it is the diary of a girl named Rywka Lipszyc who detailed the brutal conditions that Jews in the Lodz ghetto, the second largest in Poland, endured under the Nazis: poverty, hunger and malnutrition, religious oppression, and, in Rywka’s case, the death of her parents and siblings. Handwritten in a school notebook between October 1943 and April 1944, the diary ends literally in mid-sentence. What became of Rywka is a mystery. A Red Army doctor found her notebook in Auschwitz after its liberation in 1945 and took it back with her to the Soviet Union.Rywka’s Diary is also a moving coming-of-age story, in which a young woman expresses her curiosity about the world and her place in it and reflects on her relationship with God—a remarkable affirmation of her commitment to Judaism and her faith in humanity. Interwoven into this carefully translated diary are photographs, news clippings, maps, and commentary from Holocaust scholars and the girl’s surviving relatives, which provide an in-depth picture of both the conditions of Rywka's life and the mysterious end to her diary.Moving and illuminating, told by a brave young girl whose strong and charismatic voice speaks for millions, Rywka’s Diary is an extraordinary addition to the history of the Holocaust and World War II.

Hardcover: 240 pages

Publisher: Harper; F First Edition edition (September 15, 2015)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0062389688

ISBN-13: 978-0062389688

Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.9 x 9.1 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #599,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #115 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Essays & Correspondence > Diaries & Journals #1191 in Books > History > World > Jewish > Holocaust #11016 in Books > History > Europe

Perhaps a better title would have been: Where is Rywka? It is certainly the question I was left with after reading this book. The diary of Rywka Lipszyc has been verified as one of the many manuscripts hidden or buried by some of the unfortunate individuals on the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz. Those brave men hid detailed manuscripts, diaries and other written accounts of concentration camp victims in an attempt to retain some kind of evidence. Evidence of the atrocities committed by the Nazis and their many collaborators. As we now know, they were right to think there would be a highly organised attempt to cover up everything that took place during the Holocaust.It’s interesting to note that a lot of the pictures of the Lodz Ghetto used in the book are actually propaganda photos (much like the ones taken in the Warsaw Ghetto) taken by the Nazis themselves in an attempt to manipulate what the world thought was going on in the ghettos. Instead of the truth they presented healthy and glorified images of the situations, which is why many of the photos seemingly portray happy workers and healthy people.The truth was and still is an indicator of the abysmal deeds the human race is capable of.Holocaust survivors are plagues by survivor guilt, pain, despair, anger and feelings of helplessness. Is it any word the majority of them choose to bury the memories of this period in their lives in a deep dark locked box, hidden away in the back of their minds. Some of them never speak of their experiences at all, others changed their identities and even religion, which means the people around them may never know what their loved ones went through in the Holocaust.Rywka’s diary is much like that of any other young girl, full of emotional turmoil and personal drama.

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