Chava’s Diary – Condensed

I’ve been reading the November issue of The Smithsonian which is filled with stories of the Holocaust. So, dear friends, this is what I came up with for Pegman’s trip to Krakow.

March 28, 1939
To provide a friend who will keep my secrets I started a diary.
Present: Mother left for France. Father joined the army.
A memory: Ten-year-old Lev playing violin.

January 10, 1940
We’ve moved into a school with boys! Sixteen-year-old girls shouldn’t be subjected to such horrors!

March 6, 1942
Horrid night. Clanking wheels. Jangling keys.
Nazis, moving people to unknown places.
Lev kissed me last week! We shared sweet caresses while spring flowers scented the air.
We shall marry when this horror is over.

June 16, 1942
The pogrom has begun. Mother! Where are you?

July 17, 1942
Except for barbed wire and guards, the ghetto is quite ordinary, filled with beloved neighbors.
But not Lev. My love, my protection disappeared on last night’s transport.
Writing squelches the pain.

August 17,1942
At dawn, soldiers marched five families toward a shallow trench.
One shot, two, twenty, on and on …
The sound of boots and laughter. Oh, God, they’re coming back.

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Fires of Hate

May 10, 1933 – Joseph Goebbles’ Diary
Tonight the era of Jewish intellectualism was committed to flames
guaranteeing the brilliant youth of Germany will not be molded by books,
but through man’s character.
From the wreckage of subversive literature,
the phoenix of a new spirit will triumphantly rise.
Now our youth can face the pitiless glare and regain respect for death.

May 10, 1933 Erich Kästner’s Diary
Tonight I witnessed members of the National Socialist Agenda
burn ten copies of “Emil und die Detektive”.
I was pleased to find my books in good company – burning beside
missives written by Hellen Keller, Ernest Hemingway, and H.G. Wells.

(A bit of background: Erich Kästner  was a German satirist, poet and novelist whose military experiences made him a pacifist after World War I.  He was present when his book “Emil und Die Detektive” was burned at one of the Nazi book burnings.  In spite of pressure from the Nazis, Kästner refused membership in the Reich Chamber of Literature, controlled by Goebbels’s propaganda ministry. Unlike several other intellectuals and writers who suffered from Nazi policy, Kästner remained in Germany during Hitler’s rule.
I created Goebbles’ diary entry from a speech he gave to students in Berlin.)