Rutka's Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust
by Rutka Laskier
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Book Summary Information
Author: Rutka LaskierEditor: Daniella Zaidman-Mauer
Editor: Kelly Knauer
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-28
ISBN: 1603200193
Number of pages: 96
Publisher: Time / Yad Vashem
Book Reviews of Rutka's Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust
Book Review: Rutka (Ruth) Laskier: "The Polish Anne Frank" in Historical Context
Summary: 5 Stars
Rutka lived in the town of Bedzin in SW Poland, not far from Auschwitz, where she and most of her family later perished. Rutka's diary itself is brief, and is supplemented with helpful information. The reader learns that the Star which the Jews were required to wear by the Nazis had similarly been required, in different places and times past, by both Christian and Muslim leaders (p. 29). There are many photos from the Nazi occupation.
The life of Jews in prewar Poland is often portrayed as one of unrelieved misery. In contrast, the prewar lives of Rutka's relatives and friends are shown in terms of happiness. There is a photo of Rutka's parents enjoying skiing at Zakopane in 1930 (p. 41), of Rutka and her friend Danusia in a private airplane in 1932 (p. 17), and scores of uniformed Jews participating in activities (such as Zionist movements; p. 80).
No sooner had the Germans entered Poland than they burned the Bedzin synagogue with worshippers inside. As reported by Holocaust historian Bella Gutterman, a Polish Catholic priest, Mieczyslaw Zawadzki, saved scores of Jews by offering them sanctuary at his nearby church (p. 71). During the German Nazi rule over Poland, the Germans took practically everything owned by Jews, as noted by Bedzin Holocaust survivor Dasha Rittenberg (p. 45).
Fourteen year-old Rutka entertained revenge fantasies against the Germans (February 6, 1943, p. 24): "I would like to torture them [the Germans], their women and children, who set their doggies on us, to beat and strangle them vigorously, more and more."
Well-to-do Jews tend to be nonreligious, and this is exemplified by Rutka's thinking. At one point (January 28, 1943; p. 18) Rutka would like to know if it would be all right to confess to a Christian priest. When she expresses a loss of faith in God as a result of the circumstances (February 5, 1943; p. 22), she acknowledges that she had little faith in God's existence in the first place. She repeatedly expressed sympathy for Communism (p. 38, 50), and this fact is also noted in the commentary by Dreifuss (p. 81).
Rutka wasn't alone. Although the diary of Anne Frank is by far the best known, there are many little-known diaries in existence written by Jewish children and adolescents during the time of the Holocaust. At the end of the book, Havi (Ben-Sasson) Driefuss provides a bibliography of them (p. 86-89). Some of them haven't yet been translated into English.
Summary of Rutka's Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust
Rutka Laskier, a 14-year-old Jewish girl in the town of Bedzin in Poland, died in Auschwitz in 1943. But she left behind a notebook in which she recorded her thoughts, fears and dreams. Some are the musings of any adolescent girl; others are the despairing cries of an individual caught in history's vortex. Now, after 60 years in the keeping of a friend, that notebook has been recovered - and it opens a unique, moving window into the everyday life of Polish Jews caught in the throes of Adolf Hitler's Final Solution. Hailed as the "Polish Anne Frank," Rutka Laskier now speaks to us across the decades: a witness to evil, a voice for the silent, and a timeless symbol of resolve. The editors of "TIME" add annotations, photos, maps, and quotations that help bring this tragic era into compelling focus for today's readers.Jewish Books
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