The Long -Lost Holocaust Diary of Renia Spiegel

An English translation of the diary of Renia Speigel a young Jewish Polish woman, discovered in hiding in Premzysl and shot by Germans on 30th July 1942, is to be published in September 2019. Renia had just turned 18. A Polish language edition is already available.

The 'Smithsonian ' magazine had an interesting feature on Renia Spiegel in November last year
How an Astonishing Holocaust Diary Resurfaced in America | History | Smithsonian

Particularly interesting to read how Jewish People were treated in the Eastern part of Poland under Soviet control until the German seized the whole of Poland in June 1941.

 

I suppose she would have preferred her real name "Spiegel"
btw way they say her poetry was excellent.
It is said her sister was a talented actress and appeared in a few Polish movies.

As to the treatment they were lucky they weren't executed or deported to Siberia. Her family was wealthy, basically, they were Polish one percenters.

 

Greetings wm. Yes apologies, I have managed to spell Renia's surname both as 'Speigel' and 'Spiegel' ! Indeed, should be the latter -Spiegel.

I am writing a post -with some lines of a poem from the diary- for the World War 2 Poetry blog. Will spell check it ! And announce when it is ready.
Regards

 

wm- I have just found a clip about Ariana Spiegel . Seems that there was recently a fund raising appeal to raise cash for a film about the sisters. And Ariana was still alive in 2018 .




Regards

 

Have written up some thoughts on Renia Spiegel and have reproduced a poem from the diary on my blog. The English translation of the diary should be published in a few months time, and a film about the life of Renia Spiegel is near completion.
WorldWar2poetry.blogspot.com

 

I wonder maybe really someone planned to copy the success of Shirley Temple and create a Polish one.
It says there she was going to play in a few new Polish movies, and leading Polish film directors (including Joseph Lejtes, later an American director) were fascinated by her.
She says she did dance - a little, bit but the article says she danced like Ginder Rogers.
She says she recited poorly but according to the article she recited like a good lawyer, sang better than many operetta singers and generally was much more talented than Shirley Temple.

btw have you seen the poems here?

 

.

 

Greetings wm

Indeed, I lifted a poem from 'The Smithsonian Magazine' extract of Renia's diary for 7th June 1942 that you have linked below , and got permission to use it for my blog.

WorldWar2poetry: April 2019

Thanks

BTW From looking at Amazon UK, the English language version of the diary is available for pre-order , and due out on 15th September 2019.

 

Glad to see that the BBC News webpage has featured the forthcoming English translation of Renia's diary : I am not so sure about the 'Polish Anne Frank' description but inevitable. Also the notion that the diary spent 70 years in a bank vault seems not to be quite accurate. But glad that the diary is getting attention.


'Polish Anne Frank' diary to be published

 

Have got hold of a kindle version of the Diary which I am reading at present and will review when ready. Particularly interested to see the large amount of poetry in the Diary.
Deborah Lipstadt also wrote an introduction to the Diary, looking at its place in relation to other Holocaust memoirs.

'The Jewish Chronicle' , Britain's most popular Jewish newspaper has just had a feature on Renia Spiegel .
Also NBC News has a related webpage

Diary of 'Polish Anne Frank' to be published after being rediscovered

 

I've listened to a few of her poems (recited by an average quality performer).
Of course, my opinions about poetry are worthless, but damn she was good.
Smooth like Tuwim's poetry and that man was an absolute poetic genius.
Of course, she somewhat imitated his style (and Brzechwa), but you could imitate someone's style - not skills.

 

From her diary:
We, the Poles fight chivalrously, in open field, so that the enemy and God could see us.
Unlike the Germans who bomb civilian homes, who turn churches into dust, and poison small children.

 

Glad to get your opinion wm , particularly on the influence of Tuwim and Brechwa. Have found the diary very difficult to review. As well as the awareness of how tragic and short Renia's life was, there are always issues surrounding posthumous work of a writer which was not necessarily intended for publication
I am in favour of the diary's publication for its historical value, but virtually impossible to criticise the poetry. Vastly different from a collection that was published with the writer's full co-operation.
Will be interesting to see how much of Renia's work gets included in future anthologies.

 

Well, I'm not going to read any Holocaust diaries written by children - and by emotional women. The rest, written by adults is at least moderated by self-control, cynicism, or even humor.
I inadvertently listened to parts of her diary lately and that's enough for the foreseeable future.