Anne Frank's harrowing account finished before the concentration camp. This remarkable diary by a teenage girl takes readers inside.
Alongside her father and mother and the 45,000 Jews who live in Prague, Helga endures the Nazi invasion and regime: her father is denied work, schools are closed to her, she and her parents are confined to their flat. Then deportations begin, and her friends and family start to disappear.
In 1941, Helga and her parents are sent to the concentration camp of Terezín, where they live for three years. Here Helga documents their daily life—the harsh conditions, disease and suffering, as well as moments of friendship, creativity and hope—until, in 1944, they are sent to Auschwitz. Helga leaves her diary behind with her uncle, who bricks it into a wall to preserve it.
Helga's father is never heard of again, but miraculously Helga and her mother survive the horrors of Auschwitz, the grueling transports of the last days of the war, and manage to return to Prague. Helga writes down her experiences since Terezín, completing the diary. Out of the 15,000 children interred in Terezin, she is 1 of just 132 children who survived.
Reconstructed from her original notebooks, which were later retrieved from Terezín, and from the loose-leaf pages on which Helga wrote after the war, the diary is presented here in its entirety, accompanied by an interview with Helga and illustrated with the paintings she made during her time at Terezín. As such, Helga's Diary is one of the most vivid and comprehensive testimonies written during the Holocaust ever to have been recovered.
“The most moving Holocaust diary published since Anne Frank.” —The Telegraph
“A breathtaking account…a chilling testament to the tragedy of the Holocaust.”
—Publishers Weekly
“What's startling throughout is the resilience with which her buoyant spirit keeps bobbing up past the hardships, indignities, and cruelties.” —Francine Prose
“Page after page of writing that candidly, expertly, showcases humanity at its best and its worst.” —The Rumpus
(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)