The Future of Diaries
Holocaust diaries are far and in between. Lots of diaries are just sitting there in archives and museums without any future of seeing the world.
Mary Berg’s diary is being republished in 2025, which is very exciting, but her diary should not be the only one to be published for the first time or republished.
Mary’s diary was first published in Feb of 1945. She did a lot of press for it and she did a lot of interviews. In 1950, she decided she’d remove herself from public view and she didn’t ever want the diary to be out there again.
Well in 1992, a woman named Susan L. Pentlin decided she’d republish the diary and with Ben Schindermann’s help ( his father was S.L. Schindermann, who helped publish the original and who had the rights to the diary), decided that they’d republish it. Mary, wasn’t always easy to work with, and they did it without her. It was republished in 2007, Mary was still alive, but there wasn’t a lot of press about it, except people tried to find her.
In 2013, Mary Berg died, and the diary was hanging in the balance. “What are we going to do with this diary?” Said the world. Well, the educators of the United States, thought that it should be out again. It was republished by One World Publications in 2018. Mary had been gone for a little while at that time, now it’ll be republished in 2025.
Otto Wolf’s diary has been half-published in English and it’s just sitting there in the archives. I’ve tried to get this diary published in English, but to be honest, it’s been a very difficult challenge trying to get this diary published in English. Otto’s sister, Felicitas, who also had some diary entries, was the only sole survivor of the Wolf Siblings ( there were three of them- Kurt, Felicitas and Otto- only Felicitas Survived), she decided that she’d only give some of Otto’s diary to be published in Salvaged Pages, which is great, because we have some of it. But, we don’t have Otto’s full diary published and that was my goal for 2022. Sadly, the Museum that the diary is at, informed me that to be able to publish this diary, I have to go through the nieces. Sadly, I don’t think that this diary will ever see the American light of day, other than Salvaged Pages. Educators are trying to convince the family to publish it, but hopefully they will do it for educational purposes. It’s an incredible document that still does exist.
I wish there were more ways to publish this diary and try to get it out into the open. But, at least it’s been half-published, so that is good. It makes me wonder if the educators can pull it off, we can definitely get Otto’s name out there for people to research and to study. I did a whole research book on them and that took so much energy and time, but it was well worth it.
Hopefully, someday in the future, Otto’s diary will see the light of day.
This one is tricky. Elisbeth (Elizabeth) Kaufmann Koenig (1924–2003)’s diary was first published also in Salvaged Pages. Koenig survived the Holocaust and now, her diary is one that I would like to have published on it’s own. Would I have to go through her family to do this also? Probably. But I don’t know any of her family. How do I go about contacting them? All I have is Koenig’s obituary and her daughter is said to be in England. I’m not good at tracking down people in England, but I can try to ask the Museum in DC if they know where I could probably publish this diary. I have wanted to translate Koenig’s diary for a while now and I try to talk about Koenig while I’m at the Holocaust Museum (I volunteer at one- I am their Youth and Diary Historian). But, trying to publish the diary is going to be a challenge, that I know, because she’s been dead for 20 years now and it really is a challenge to publish something from someone whose been dead for that long (before you say it, Yes, Anne Frank has been dead for more than that, and her diary gets republished every so often, why? Because the foundations have to keep up the copyright). Elisabeth’s diary is different, but I think it would be good to publish. Is it long enough to publish? That I don’t know? I would have to review the whole diary (which you can view it here). I hope that the diary, I can view it and hopefully publish it soon, but I’ll need to do a lot of digging and see if I can even attempt to do it. I would have to go get the diary, make copies and send it to someone who knows French.
It’s a big task and a risk, but I am hoping to get that published.
