Book Review - Helga's Diary

It has been sixty-eight years since the end of the Second World War, and in that time, many book and memoirs have been released regarding the events of the Holocaust. Among the most notable is without a doubt Anne Frank’s diary, which shows the war through the eyes of a young Jewish girl. There has not been any other similar book, dealing with these hard-hitting issues, until now.

Helga’s Diary takes readers one step further than Anne Frank’s account did; through the gates of the concentration camp. Helga’s account begins in Prague, 1939, when she is only eight years old. Alongside her mother, father and the 45,000 Jews who lived in Prague, she must adjust and adapt her life to live peacefully under the tough Nazi regime: she and her friends are denied schooling, her father is refused work, Helga cannot even play in a children’s playground without coming into contact with signs saying, ‘No Jews Allowed’. Then deportations begin, and Helga must stand-by, helpless, as all around her friends and family members start to disappear.

This inevitable deportation comes for Helga and her family in 1941, when they are sent to the concentration camp of Terezin, where they will be held for three years. Terezin is rife with disease and suffering, and Helga makes note of the harsh living conditions in her trusty diary. In 1944 things take a turn for the worst as they are sent to Auschwitz. Luckily, Helga leaves her diary with her Uncle, just before transportation, who bricks it into a wall for safe keeping during the war.

Helga’s Diary is an accurate, heart-breaking and truthful account of life in the death camps thought a child’s eyes, reconstructed by Helga herself from her original notebooks. Written in first person, as if it’s happening now, it is hard to distance yourself from the horror as you read. With an all-too knowing hand, Helga describes the fate of the Jewish under Hitler’s power. The further you read, the more you as a reader become aware of Helga’s almost acceptance of the situation as she notes each disappearing friend, or a neighbour dying from disease as if it is an everyday occurrence for humans to be treating fellow human in this way. In young Helga’s reality death does, of course, become an everyday occurrence.

The diary features illustrations and paintings Helga made during her time at Terezin, and an interview with her. The only redeeming feature that makes this harrowing tale a barable read is the fact that Helga and her mother both escape the atrocities of the war, and Helga still lives to this day in the flat where she was born. A truly astonishing tale.