Renia Spiegel

Spiegel began to keep her diary on January 31, 1939, when she was fifteen years old.[2] The nearly 700-page diary was mostly kept in secret, and was made of seven school exercise books sewn together.[6] The diary largely discusses Spiegel's everyday school, social, and family life in Przemyśl, touching in particular on her distress at being separated from her mother, her romantic relationship with Zygmunt Schwarzer, fear around the growing war, and the terror of moving into the ghetto.[2] In addition to handwritten entries, the diary contains drawings and original poems.[7] In her final entry on July 25, 1942, Spiegel wrote:

My dear diary, my good, beloved friend! We’ve gone through such terrible times together and now the worst moment is upon us. I could be afraid now. But the One who didn’t leave us then will help us today too. He’ll save us. Hear, O, Israel, save us, help us. You’ve kept me safe from bullets and bombs, from grenades. Help me survive! And you, my dear mamma, pray for us today, pray hard. Think about us and may your thoughts be blessed.[8]

At the end of July, Schwarzer took possession of the diary and wrote the final entries about hiding Spiegel outside the ghetto and about her death: "Three shots! Three lives lost! All I can hear are shots, shots."[8] Schwarzer left the diary with someone else before he was subsequently sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. After surviving the camp, Schwarzer brought the diary to the United States and gave it to Spiegel's mother in 1950. Spiegel's sister Elizabeth (née Ariana) Bellak came into possession of the diary in 1969 and stored it in a bank vault until 2012.[6][9]

Though it was in the possession of Spiegel's family for decades, the diary was not read by others until 2012, when Bellak's daughter, Alexandra Renata Bellak, a Manhattan realtor, had it translated to English for the first time by Anna Blasiak and Marta Dziurosz. The diary was published in Polish in 2016 and has since inspired a Polish stage play. Excerpts were first published in English in Smithsonian magazine in 2018. The first full 90,000-word English publication is titled Renia’s Diary: A Young Girl’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust, published in the United Kingdom on September 19, 2019, by Ebury Publishing, and distributed by Penguin Books. In the United States, it is titled Renia's Diary: A Holocaust Journal, and was published by St. Martin's Press and distributed by Macmillan Publishers on September 24, 2019.[9][10] The publication contains a prologue and epilogue by Elizabeth Bellak.[11] This edition was published in Spanish by Plaza & Janés on December 17, 2019.[12]

The diary is also the subject of a documentary film directed by Tomasz Magierski titled Broken Dreams. The film premiered at the United Nations in New York City as part of its Holocaust remembrance program.[1][13][14] The film opened at a Polish cinema on September 18, 2019.[4]

In 2022, the story of Renia Spiegel formed part of the stage production WITNESSES, which tells the stories of five Jewish diarists during the Holocaust. The production debuted in Escondido, California and was based on a book by dramatist Robert L. Freedman.[15][16]

Journalists have compared and contrasted Spiegel's diary with that of Anne Frank, with Robin Shulman of Smithsonian noting that "Renia was a little older and more sophisticated ... She was also living out in the world instead of in seclusion."[2] Also writing for Smithsonian, Brigit Katz said that both Frank and Spiegel were "lucid writers, articulate and insightful in spite of their young age."[17] The Columbia University professor Anna Frajlich-Zajac called the diary "an incredible historical and psychological document, as well as an authentic literary achievement."[3] Writing for The New York Times, Joanna Berendt said, "At a moment when basic agreement over simple truths has become a political battleground and history a weapon, the publication of the book, 'Renia’s Diary,' offers a reminder of the power of bearing witness."[4]