The Three “Anne Franks”
In the recent years, Holocaust diaries have emerged . People have been calling these diarists “The ___ Anne Frank”. There have two women who have been called “The Polish Anne Frank.” Anne Frank spent half of the war, in hiding from the Nazis, as so did so many other Jewish children.
But what makes a diary like “Anne Frank?” Well Anne Frank’s diary is so iconic that every diary that is presented to the world is going to be compared to Anne’s.
In the last few years, more and more Holocaust diaries have surfaced and are being published.
Renia Spiegel (1924–1942)’s diary was only resurfaced in the last few years. She was Polish. She was shot, like Otto Wolf and was in hiding for a short time. By some miracle, her diary survived the war, and was placed in a bank vault for years, until Alexandra Bellak, Renia’s niece decided it was time for Renia’s story to become known to the world. In 2019, Renia’s diary was fully published in English. Poland hailed her as an “Anne Frank”, though there were many differences between her and Anne. Renia spent 1940–1941 with her grandparents, and was placed in a ghetto in 1942, only to be smuggled out of the ghetto in 1942 and then murdered a few months later. Anne died in 1945 from Typhus and her diary was found and kept by Miep Gies.
In Rutka Laskier’s case, people also call her the “Polish Anne Frank”. But she was not in hiding at all. She was in a ghetto, but managed to give her diary to a Christian friend, who in turn kept it for more than 60 years, until she decided to give it to Yad Vashem, in Israel, and then her voice became loud.
The only thing now, is that everyone is considered an “Anne Frank”. To me, I think of Anne Frank in hiding, and then dying, but every diary has it’s own nature, but with Renia’s, she really beat Anne to the romance pulpit. In Reni’a diary, she talks about school, romance and other daily things, but when she is in the ghetto or in hiding she does talk about that too. No one knows how her diary was saved, but it remains in the hands of her sister, Elizabeth Bellak.
For me, I’m glad all these diaries are coming out and being published, but try not to compare them all to Anne Frank, because they are all different in their own ways.
