Renia's Diary

A Holocaust Journal

By: Elizabeth Bellak, Renia Spiegel, Sarah Durand, Deborah Lipstadt

Narrated by: Ann Richardson

A New York Times best seller

A USA Today best seller

The long-hidden diary of a young Polish woman's life during the Holocaust, translated for the first time into English

Renia Spiegel was born in 1924 to an upper-middle class Jewish family living in Southeastern Poland, near what was at that time the border with Romania. At the start of 1939, Renia began a diary. "I just want a friend. I want somebody to talk to about my everyday worries and joys. Somebody who would feel what I feel, who would believe me, who would never reveal my secrets. A human being can never be such a friend and that’s why I have decided to look for a confidant in the form of a diary." And so begins an extraordinary document of an adolescent girl’s hopes and dreams. By the fall of 1939, Renia and her younger sister, Elizabeth (née Ariana), were staying with their grandparents in Przemysl, a city in the south, just as the German and Soviet armies invaded Poland. Cut off from their mother, who was in Warsaw, Renia and her family were plunged into war.

Like Anne Frank, Renia’s diary became a record of her daily life as the Nazis spread throughout Europe. Renia writes of her mundane school life, her daily drama with best friends, falling in love with her boyfriend, Zygmund, as well as the agony of missing her mother, separated by bombs and invading armies. Renia had aspirations to be a writer, and the diary is filled with her poignant and thoughtful poetry. When she was forced into the city’s ghetto with the other Jews, Zygmund is able to smuggle her out to hide with his parents, taking Renia out of the ghetto, but not, ultimately to safety. The diary ends in July 1942, completed by Zygmund, after Renia is murdered by the Gestapo.

Renia's Diary has been translated from the original Polish, and includes a preface, afterword, and notes by her surviving sister, Elizabeth Bellak. An extraordinary historical document, Renia Spiegel survives through the beauty of her words and the efforts of those who loved her and preserved her legacy.

©2019 Text copyright Elizabeth Bellak; English translation copyright Anna Blasiak and Marta Dziurosz; Introduction copyright Deborah E. Lipstadt (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

I thought it was very good and I appreciate it!

I thought the story was very good and I appreciate being able to get to know of Renia,of her thoughts and poems in her diary!

Heartfelt

We must never ever forget and we must never ever let the evil acts be repeated not now Today is now a time to remember and learn the the horror and terror did happen stop denying it.

Faith, Hope & Love is captured in a diary of a girl as war came to Poland

Renia’s Diary: A Holocaust Journal Is a diary of a teen-age girl who’s heart and unending faith in God and her mom, hope for her family and friends to be safe, happy and love for a boy that filled her heart completely!

Unlike many books that spotlight certain people or events later in the war that were horrific at the hands of the Nazi; Renia’s Diary shows how it is possible safeguard your heart, hopes and dreams even in the face of evil.

It is also a celebration of youth, a time of innocence, joy, concerns, first love, first kisses and the the sorrow living apart from those she loved.

It is also a book of over 60 poems weaved throughput and within the thoughts written within.

Renia’s faith, hopes and dreams were alive in spite of the world beginning to fall apart around her. It is also a “time capsule” of Reina’s heart and beauty now revealed, during a time when the world again, turns to extremes of hate, division, fear and conflict.

May the beauty of her words inspire you to excel in faith, hope and love!

A young girl’s life in her own words

I wasn’t sure I could keep listening as the majority of the book is indeed a diary. But Renia also wrote some beautiful poems and could have been a renowned writer if her life had not been taken during the war. The performance really brought her to life. It’s a miracle that her diary was given to her family by the man she so loved and dreamed of marrying.

Touching and Tragic

Filled with the poetry of a young girls heart, this is an Innocent journey that comes to a tragic end. The most compelling parts being the entries of Zygmund and ne'e Ariana.