Rutka Laskier: Difference between revisions

| name = RutkaRut Laskier

| image = Rutka LaskierRutkaHeniusLaskier1938.jpgJPG

| caption =Rutka (left) and Heniuś Laskier

| birth_date = 12 June 1929<!--{{Birth date|1929|6|12|mfdf=y}}-->

| death_date = December 1943 (aged 14)

'''Rut "Rutka" Laskier''' (June 12, June 1929&ndash; – December 1943) was a [[Jews|Jewish]] [[Poland|Polish]] diarist who is best known for her 1943 diary chronicling the three months of her life during [[the Holocaust]] in Poland. She was murdered at [[Auschwitz concentration camp]] in 1943 at the age of fourteen. Her manuscript, authenticated by Holocaust scholars and survivors, was published in the Polish language in early 2006. English and Hebrew translations were released the following year. It has been compared to the [[The Diary of a Young Girl|diary]] of [[Anne Frank]].

Rutka Laskier was born in [[Gdańsk|DanzigKraków]]<ref (Gdańsk)name="tumas" /> to Dwojra Hampel, daughter of Abram Chil Hampel, and Jakub Laskier, who worked as a bank officer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.geni.com/people/Rutka-Laskier/6000000011186025561|title = Rutka Laskier| date=12 June 2024 }}</ref><ref name="AutoTZ-1">[http://jri-poland.org/announcements.htm#rutka-laskier Rutka Laskier's Birth Record Finally Located]: Announcement by Jewish Records Poland-Indexing, Inc. and The Bedzin-Sosnowiec-Zawiercie Area Research Society</ref> Her family was well -off. Her grandfather served as co-owner of Laskier-Kleinberg & Co, a milling company that owned and operated a [[Gristmill|grist mill]].<ref name=JerusalemPost/>

In 1939, the municipal government was taken over by the German [[Nazi Party]] (NSDAP) following the city's surrender during the German invasion of Poland. It quickly began to engage in anti-Semitic violence and state-sponsored discrimination. Many Jews were fired from their positions and fled Danzig.<ref name=shoa>{{cite web|url=http://www.zukunft-braucht-erinnerung.de/die-loesung-der-judenfrage-in-der-freien-stadt-danzig|title=Die "Lösung der Judenfrage" in der Freien Stadt Danzig|publisher=Zukunft braucht Erinnerung|first=Wolfgang|last=Gippert|language =German}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1a3lkHv9NZ0C&pg=PA103&dq=jewish+danzig&q=jewish%20danzig&pg=PA103|title=Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the Occupation of Western Poland|first1=Catherine|last1=Epstein|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-19-954641-1|page=103}}</ref>

Rutka moved with her family to the southern [[Poland|Polish]] city of [[Będzin]], from whence her paternal grandparents hailed. Following the German [[invasion of Poland]], while in the [[Będzin Ghetto]], Rutka Laskier, age 14, wrote a 60-page diary in [[Polish language|Polish]], chronicling several months of her life under the [[Nazi]] rule in 1943. Her diary remained in the hands of Rutka's surviving friend for 64 years and was not released to the public until 2005.<ref name="JerusalemPost">Etgar{{Cite Lefkovitsweb (5|date=2016-05-05 June|title='Polish 2007),Anne [Frank' diary revealed. 14-year-old's memoirs given to Yad Vashem by victim's friend after 64 years - Jerusalem Post {{!}} HighBeam Research |url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-140232437.html |access-date=2023-07-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505011503/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-140232437.html "Polish 'Anne Frank' diary|archive-date=2016-05-05 revealed"], [[The Jerusalem Post]]; retrieved 6 June 2007.}}</ref><ref>[{{Cite web |title= |url=http://ep00.epimg.net/internacional/imagenes/2007/06/05/actualidad/1180994414_740215_0000000000_noticia_normal.jpg |access-date=2023-07-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304203834/http://ep00.epimg.net/internacional/imagenes/2007/06/05/actualidad/1180994414_740215_0000000000_noticia_normal.jpg The 2007 photograph of original manuscript by Rutka Laskier], Internet Archive via |archive.org;-date=2016-03-04 accessed 21 December 2016.}}</ref>

Laskier's family was forced to move to the newly formed Jewish [[Będzin Ghetto|Ghetto in Będzin]] during the Holocaust in World War II. Rutka was deported from the [[Ghettos in occupied Europe 1939-1944|ghetto]] and was believed to have diedbeen murdered in a [[Gas chamber#Nazi Germany|gas chamber]], age 14, along with her mother and brother, upon arrival with her family at the [[Auschwitz concentration camp]] in August 1943.<ref name=JerusalemPost/>

Rutka's father was the only member of the family who survived the Holocaust. Following World War II, he emigrated to [[Israel]], where he remarried and had another daughter, Zahava Scherz. He died in 1986.<ref>[http://www.wpr.org/hereonearth/archive_070612k.cfm WPR Interview with Zahava Scherz] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928003444/http://www.wpr.org/hereonearth/archive_070612k.cfm |date=2007-09-28 }}, wpr.org; accessed 21 December 2016.</ref> According to Zahava Scherz, interviewed in the BBC documentary ''The Secret Diary of the Holocaust'' (broadcast in January 2009),<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gn734 BBC One Programmes - The Secret Diary of the Holocaust] {{webarchive|url=https://wwwweb.webcitationarchive.org/5wUmpytQg?url=web/20110401125323/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gn734|date=141 FebruaryApril 2011}}</ref> he never told Scherz about Rutka until she discovered a photo album when she herself was 14, which contained a picture of Rutka with her younger brother. Scherz asked her father who they were, and he answered her truthfully, but never spoke of it again. She went on to explain that she only learned of the existence of Rutka's diary in 2006, and she expressed how much it has meant to her to be able to get to know the young woman she regarded as her half-sister through Rutka's words.<ref name=YV2007/>

==Discovery of Laskier'sthe diary==

After the ghetto was evacuated and all its inhabitants sent to the death camp, Sapińska returned to the house and retrieved the diary. She kept it in her home library for 63 years and did not share it with anyone but members of her immediate family. In 2005, Adam Szydłowski, the chairman of the Center of Jewish Culture of the [[Zagłębie Dąbrowskie|Zagłębie]] Region of Poland, was told by one of Sapińska's nieces about the existence of the diary.<ref name=NaszeMiasto1.pl>[http://katowice.naszemiasto.pl/pamietnik_rutki/specjalna_artykul/534152.html "Rozmowa z Adamem Szydłowskim, prezesem Zagłębiowskiego Centrum Kultury Żydowskiej" (Conversation with Adam Szydłowski, the chairman of the Center of Jewish Culture of the Zagłębie Region)], by Marek Nycz, after [[Dziennik Zachodni]] (Polish) {{webarchive|url=https://wwwweb.webcitationarchive.org/5wUmuZenR?url=web/20090522205052/http://katowice.naszemiasto.pl/pamietnik_rutki/specjalna_artykul/534152.html|date=1422 FebruaryMay 20112009}}</ref><!--English sources, as well as the interview with Scherz linked below, state that Sapińska showed her nephew the diary, and the nephew convinced her to make it public. That might be true. From Polish sources cited below, the chain of events is not that clear. It seems that Szydlowski, after learning about the diary from her niece, called Sapińska (the niece gave him Sapinska's telephone number). After the phone call, the nephew conveyed the copy of the notebook to Szydlowski. Sapińska mentioned that the nephew convinced her to make the diary public, but it is unclear whether it was before or after the conversation with Szydlowski.-->

With help from Sapińska's nephew, he obtained a [[Photocopier|photocopy]] of the diary and was instrumental in the publishing of its Polish-language edition. Its publication by Yad Vashem Publications was commemorated with a ceremony in [[Jerusalem]] by [[Yad Vashem]] (the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority), [[Israel]]'s Holocaust museum, on 4 June 2007, in which Zahava Scherz took part. At this ceremony, Sapińska also donated the original diary to Yad Vashem.<ref name="polskatimes.pl">[http://www.polskatimes.pl/dziennikzachodni/stronaglowna/51078,biblioteka-narodowa-dziennik-rutki-laskier-wywieziono,id,t.html Biblioteka Narodowa: dziennik Rutki Laskier wywieziono nielegalnie&nbsp;(National Library: Rutka Laskier's diary was illegally exported)], after ''[[Dziennik Zachodni]]'' &nbsp;(5 October 2008)&nbsp;(Polish) {{webarchive|url=https://wwwweb.webcitationarchive.org/5wUmwjtWp?url=web/20090625001140/http://www.polskatimes.pl/dziennikzachodni/stronaglowna/51078%2Cbiblioteka,biblioteka-narodowa-dziennik-rutki-laskier-wywieziono%2Cid%2Ct,id,t.html|date=1425 FebruaryJune 20112009}}</ref>

The diary, which has been authenticated by Holocaust scholars and survivors, has been compared to the [[The Diary of a Young Girl|diary]] of [[Anne Frank]], the best known Holocaust-era diary. Coincidentally, Rutka Laskier was born the same day as Anne Frank.,<ref name="AutoTZ-1"/> and, in both cases, of their entire families, only their fathers survived the war.<ref name="McCarthy">{{cite journal|title=Polish girl's Holocaust diary unveiled after 60 years|at= Diary reveals horror of life in Polish ghetto|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/05/israel.secondworldwar|workjournal=The journalJournal of Rutka Laskier, the 'Polish Anne Frank'|quote=Rutka Laskier wrote the 60-page diary over a four-month period in Bedzin, Poland.|author=Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem|date=5 June 2007}}</ref>

===Publication of the diary===

The manuscript, as edited by Stanisław Bubin, was published in the Polish language by a Polish publisher {{which one|date=September 2024}} in early 2006. In June 2007, Yad Vashem Publications published [[English language|English]] and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] translations of the diary, entitled ''Rutka's Notebook: January–April 1943''.<ref name=YV2007/>

* Laskier, Rutka (2007). ''Rutka's Notebook: January–April 1943''. Foreword by Dr Zahava Sherz; historical introduction by Dr Bella Gutterman. Jerusalem, Israel: Yad Vashem Publications.<ref name=YV2007>Yad Vashem, [https://archive.today/20070611123809/http://www1www.yadvashem.org/research_publicationssites/temp_publicationsdefault/temp_index_Rutkas_Notebookfiles/yv_magazine46_0.htmlpdf Publishing Rutka's Notebookdiary], -in January-AprilYad 1943]Vashem PublicationsJournal, 2007, pp. 6-7.</ref>

* Laskier's diary is the focus of the 2009 [[BBC One]] documentary ''The Secret Diary of the Holocaust''<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gn734 BBC 2009, The Secret Diary of the Holocaust] retrieved 21 October 2017</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Secret Diary Of The Holocaust (WW2 Documentary) {{!}} History Documentary |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnD_EtHqW44 |website=Reel Truth History | date=9 July 2019 |access-date=26 January 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Category:20th-century Polish civilians killed in World War IIdiarists]]

[[Category:JewishPolish childrenpeople who died in theAuschwitz Holocaustconcentration camp]]

[[Category:HolocaustPolish diaristsmurder victims]]