Questa commovente raccolta riunisce alcune incredibili storie scritte durante l'olocausto da ragazzi tra i dodici e i ventidue anni. I protagonisti erano rifugiati o abitanti dei ghetti, o ancora giovani costretti a nascondersi dalla violenza delle leggi razziali (fonte: Google Books)

It took me a couple of years to get through this, mostly because I had a lot of other books to read and this kind of book lends itself to reading a chapter at a time. Now I don't really remember which ones I liked better than the others. ( )

'A mark of the writer's place in the world, a gesture undertaken against obliteration',, August 30, 2014

This review is from: Salvaged Pages: Young Writers' Diaries of the Holocaust (Paperback)
A terribly moving work that brings the European Jews' suffering in the Holocaust to life. While Anne Frank's Diary is well-known, there were in fact numerous young Jewish people recording their lives in this period, and in this work we read selections from fourteen of them, placed in chronological order - from a German youth in 1939, suffering the first Nazi persecution and focussing on his Zionist group as a way out, through to a girl in Terezin ghetto in the last days, hoping they will survive till liberation.

The editor introduces each diary with a few pages of notes and biography as to the final outcome of the individual's life. In an insightful introduction, she contrasts her message - 'not to confuse the reading of them with the rescue of individual lives, even symbolically, but to allow them to be seen as the partial records that they are; and to contemplate at one and the same time what is before us and what is lost and irrecoverable' - with the efforts of other editors of similar works to try to put a positive spin on these heart-rending works ('the final impression is not of tragedy or despair but of the transendence of the human spirit and the eternity of the Jewish message', wrote one such introducer.)

After reading this, one's feelings are entirely of tragedy and despair. As one reads the diary of deeply religious Moshe Flinker, and his efforts to work out a scriptural explanation for the events; the highly intelligent Petr Ginz, confined to Terezin ghetto, and struggling to pursue what education he could there; the diary of Peter Feigl, a Catholic convert, kept for his parents - little knowing they lost their lives almost immediately he was sent away.... Others, more basic, as the privations kick in, focus on the desperate hunger, the cold; a family in hiding must rely on temperamental, unreliable locals to supply them...

An extremely well-constructed book that will remain with the reader forever. ( )

Though this is a collection of diaries and writings by adolescents, it's not a young adult book. It's more academic. Many if not most of the diary excerpts included are either out of print elsewhere or have never been published before. The diaries vary in quality and in detail, reflecting the variety of writers; the only thing they have in common is they were young Jews in occupied Europe. Each diary is prefaced with a detailed introduction describing what is known of the author's life and fate. The book also includes two excellent appendices which list other known Holocaust diaries and discusses other personal Holocaust writings that don't fall within the scope of the author's project.

This is, I believe, a definitive collection and should be included in every library's Holocaust section. I was very impressed by the editor's scholarship and the wide range of diaries included. ( )

Zapruder, who works in the education department at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, has done a great service to history and the future. Her book deserves to become a standard in Holocaust studies classes, particularly those aimed at youth or focusing on individuals. The 14 diaries in this anthology most appearing in English for the first time detail the lives of teens and their families, some on the run, some in camps, some in hiding and some during the chilling last days in the ghettoes in Nazi-occupied Europe. Each is prefaced with a biography of its author, information on family background and, when known, his or her fate. Zapruder also provides other facts that would have been known to the diarists and their peers, providing readers with a more complete context. Their experiences and reactions vary widely. Peter Feigl's parents baptize him as a Catholic and send him to church, but eventually are forced to send him from Austria to France. He blames the Jewish-identified teens around him for the circumstances that have ripped him from his parents. In contrast, Belgian Moshe Flinker becomes more attached to traditional Judaism, but increasingly depressed. His last entry, in the fall of 1943, reads, "I am sitting facing the sun. Soon it will set; it is nearing the horizon. It is as red as blood, as if it were a bleeding wound. From where does it get so much blood? For days there has been a red sun, but this is not hard to understand. Is it not sufficient to weep, in these days of anguish?" These writings will certainly impress themselves on the memories of all readers.

For the millions who read The Diary of Anne Frank (1952), this collection of 14 Holocaust diaries by young people from all over Europe will extend the history beyond Anne's attic walls. Scholars will want this volume--editor Zapruder's research is meticulous, drawing on archives and museums across the world--but the intensely personal voices of these young people who record the unimaginable will also draw a general audience. In her clear overview and introductions to each diary, Zapruder gives historical context and biography and decries any message of consolation or redemption, pointing out that these stark narratives banish forever the stereotypes of sweet victim, beneficent rescuer, and unfeeling bystander; instead, they suggest the immense complexity of ordinary people. Some writers are dull; some write with heartbreaking power. One diarist focuses on hunger: he's absolutely obsessed with food. Another's anguish is the loneliness, the separation; she cannot forget having to leave her grandmother in the street. The places range from the Czech forests and the Lodz ghetto to Auschwitz and the horrific scenes at liberation. A landmark collection.