'I don't want to die, because I have hardly lived' (Children's Wartime Dairies - Laurel Holliday)

Member Name: michaird

Product:	Children's Wartime Dairies - Laurel Holliday
Date:	19/03/03 (325 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Powerful accounts from those who were really there. Makes you think about your life and the things you should be thankful for.

Disadvantages: The fact that they ever needed writing in the first place.

Title quote Eva Heyman aged 13, Hungary, murdered at Auschwitz.

I've always loved history, not political history the origins of world war one and such like, but the history of people. The stories of ordinary people during the industrial revolution, the poetry of the trenches during world war one and the contemporary diaries of those who lived through the Second World War always fascinated me.

Probably the most famous of these Diaries is the diary of Anne Frank, the heart-warming yet harrowing diary of a young Jewish girl spending her adolescence hiding from the Nazi's in war-torn Holland. Yet the story of Anne Frank was not unique, in fact in many ways Anne was not truly representative of the children of the war, for she spent much of her time in hiding rather than in the ghettos and concentration camps. For the most part her diary is a right of passage, a young girl becoming a woman in difficult circumstances. The most shocking thing about Anne Frank's diary is its abrupt end and the knowledge of her death from typhoid cutting short such a promising young life.

It appears that the keeping of a diary was quite a common thing among the many children caught up in the conflict, for many each word written was an act of heroism and defiance. If they were discovered it would almost certainly mean being sent to the concentration camps or even instant execution.

These diaries are hard to come by now, apparently, many did not survive the destruction of the possessions of millions of people. Those that did have been consigned to archives around the world, it seems that to read such things, to acknowledge the depths to which humankind will sink, is too much for many people.

Children Wartime Diaries is a collection of excerpts from twenty three young diarists between the ages of 10 and 18 detailing their thoughts and feelings about the horrors of the world around them. The children originate from all over Europe, Hun

gary, Belgium, Lithuania and even the UK. Some are so short it jars. Others are long and recount their situation in such vivid detail you can almost close your eyes and imagine yourself there.

The writing skills of these children are remarkable, considering their age, they all write with passion and poetry that I could not even aspire to. It is also surprising how little anger is contained within their words. There is much despair, confusion, defiance and hope. Yet anger and hatred barely feature in many of the diaries.

Each diary begins with a short introduction from the anthologist, it gives as much background information about the diarist as is available and tells us of their fate, did they survive did they die or do we not even know what happened to them. Many of the entries are undated and the diaries are often only excerpts from much longer detailed accounts of their daily life.

Particularly memorable accounts include:

The story of Ephraim Shtenkler as he recounts the years he spent being hidden by a Polish woman after the death of his mother and father. Ephraim was kept in solitary confinement in a cabinet between the age of two and seven until he was freed by a chance meeting with a family friend and finally ended up in a children's village in Israel.

'After the elder daughter had gone to play outside I wanted to cry, for I envied her. It was already three to four years that I hadn't gone out of doors'

Twelve-year old Dawid Rubinowicz's diary was found in the rubble of a Polish ghetto after the war. It is not known what happened to him although it is said in the book that it is almost certain that he was sent to Treblinka death camp and executed. The most memorable thing about Dawid's diary is that it simply stops mid sentence after Dawid describes the murder of two Jewish women earlier that day.

'They then went into the woods and shot them there. The Jewis
h pol
ice immediately went to bury them in the cemetery. When the cart returned it was full of blood. Who....[end of diary]'

Tamarah Lazerson was only thirteen when she wrote of her life in the Terezin. After she is separated from both of her parents she is left with only her beloved younger brother, whom she later also loses. Tamarah wrote the most beautiful and harrowing passage.

'Before me pass scenes of our happy past. Why do I say a 'happy past'? Even though my hands and legs were manacled, my heart was free. Now even my poor heart is chained. Alone in thick forest, I seek the way to a sympathetic heart - my mother's. Physically I exist, but spiritually? I learn, I live, I swallow bitter grub, I subsist.
'Daughter mine, what else do you need?'
'You, mother mine,' I reply silently in the corner of my heart.'

Macha Rolinkas was fourteen years old and managed to keep a diary not only in the Vilnius ghetto but also in the Stutthof concentration camp where she spent the final days of the war. Macha even carried on mentally writing her diary during the forced march from the camp when the Nazi's realised that the Russian army were drawing close.

Macha's experiences are horrifying, brutally beaten and forced to act as an undertaker to her dead friends in the camp. She was ordered to undress the bodies and pull out their gold teeth. Its hard to pick a quote from Macha's diary, they're all simply heartbreaking. This short one describes her treatment from the chief of her block in Stutthof.

'We have been here for nine days already. Max beats us brutally. We are covered with bruises. You don't see any 'unmarked faces' I call these bruises Max's autographs'

The final diary in the books book is for me the most powerful. It is of an unknown brother and sister aged twelve or so living without their parents in the Lodz ghetto
in Poland.


The diary was found scribbled in the margins of a French novel salvaged from the wreckage after the war, the names and the fate of the two are not known. The diary is included as a tribute for all of the lost and forgotten children who died during the holocaust and it is remarkable how much you realise how important a name is, for history not to forget the person you were. Yet these children are only remembered through a few scraps of writing filled with despair.

'My after all human heart is cut to pieces when I perceive how terrible my little sister is tormented. She lost literally everything - no stockings, no clothes... no tenderness. O you poor orphan, and what you have to suffer by my unjust treatment'

All of the writings are powerful, I chose only those which touched me especially, yet the entire book leaves a feeling of total emptiness. It is not an easy read, nor should it be. It's a book that makes you think about how even when things are as bad as you could ever imagine you are still incredibly lucky to have your life. It depicts a humbling bravery that stops you in your track whenever you decide to complain about life.

I think everyone should own a copy of this book, or at least read it. Children should read it and be made to understand the horror humanity is capable of alongside the incredible things they can also achieve, even if those achievements are in the mind only.

It is important that these people and their stories are not forgotten, if only to ensure that their fate is never repeated.

I got my copy from the publishers site www.piatkus.com for £6.39 plus postage.

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