The Diary of Rene Ravensbrook
(A Fictional Holocaust Diary)
Monday, December 7, 1942
I am so lonely; my parents have sent me to the country so the Nazis won’t get me. I used to live in Warsaw with my family. We had a nice apartment with two bedrooms for my parents and my brother and I. My brother and I had always wished for a bedroom all to ourselves. Now we don’t even know where each other sleep. To be honest I miss my brother, he may have been a pest but I love him. The lady I am now living with is a very nice woman, she is maybe in her early sixties late fifties. Her name is Maria. She had two sons but they had been killed during the First World War. I don’t exactly know where I am but I think I am north of Warsaw near the Vistula River. I must get going now. I have to wash up for dinner.
Yours,
Rene
Thursday, December 10 1942
Help! Now the Nazis have taken Maria. She had told me that someone must have found out that I am Jewish. She told me to go to the tree (where I am in now at this moment.) and hide. This tree is helping me to hide from the Nazis. It has a hole in the bottom by the roots. I can squeeze myself in the hole so I can be protected. I am shivering as I write; I should not make any sound. For fear of the Nazis finding me. I wonder where they have taken Maria? I guess I will stay here for the night. It is getting cold. I wish I had a better blanket. It is just like wrapping myself in a holey piece of paper. Cold and shivering, I leave you diary, but I will write again.
Yours,
Rene
Saturday, December 12, 1942
I have been wandering for two days hoping to find my family. I have somehow made it through the cold nights with that “holey newspaper” of a blanket. During the days I wonder through the woods in search for my family. I sometimes hear their voices calling to me at night. Oh, how I miss them so. I pray that they be not in one of those camps. I heard that the Nazis kill hundreds of people at one time. Why do they hate us so much? We have the same features as they do, we have legs, arms and hands just like them. I don’t want to know how they do it. Someone said that the Nazis are not only looking for Jewish people, but also Gypsies and handicap people as well as homosexuals. When I walk by and hear of people like me that have been sent to camps I cry. The ones I see laying in the streets that have been killed, I sometimes burst into tears. I pray that none of them are my family. I can’t write any more. I just burst into tears just talking about it.
Yours,
Rene
Tuesday, December 22, 1942
My legs are tired. I have been traveling for such a long time. The places I have slept aren’t so unusual- trash-dumps, sewers, and even old shops that have been ruined. I have made it back to Warsaw. I went into my old neighborhood and up to my apartment everything gone. I saw my doll, lying there with bullet holes in it. My brother’s little invention of what he calls a toy had been smashed to pieces. My mother’s best china smashed to bits. At the sight of this I had to leave. I am determined to find my family. No matter what it takes! I walk down to the orphanage that is about two blocks from my house. They take me in (thinking that I am a little German girl. Which of course I am but labeled a “Jude”). I only stayed there for the night. I don’t think I have eaten anything better than that mush they were feeding the children. It tasted like the best thing I have ever had. I must go on and continue my search for my family. So long for now, I will write again.
Yours,
Rene
Wednesday, January 13, 1943
I should say Happy New Year. Will it be one? I hope so. I was wandering the streets yesterday and this old man came and asked if I needed a place to sleep tonight. I went with the man and he let me stay with him for the night. He told me that he was a Jew and that was also trying to find his family, and was “living” in an abandoned home. He told me to come with him to a special place. His name is Mr. Kraler. He is a gentle old man. Well I should better get going to bed; I am excited for tomorrow. He has told me that he may have seen my family!
Yours,
Rene
Saturday, January 25, 1943
Mr. Kraler (who was a Nazi looking for any more Jews) took me to a train station. The train then took me to a camp called; oh I don’t even want to mention it. But in the camp I found my mother (and father) I ran to her with tears in my eyes. She too had tears. My father had been sent with the men at the camp. I asked her where my brother was, then she told me what happened. My brother who was only 7 had broken his leg, and the Nazis saw that he was disabled and they shot him. When I heard this I cried so much that I can’t stop and I am still crying to this day. So many people killed in that camp, including my brother. Innocent lives taken away from the living, their identities taken away.
We no longer have names they are replaced with a number.
Monday, January 27, 1945
On a day I will remember for the rest of my life,
people from Russia came and freed us from the horrible place where lived. Now I am home; my mother is expecting another baby. Although no one can replace my little brother, we can always accept more.
Yours,
Rene
Epilogue
Rene lived with her parents until she was 16. She then got married to a Jewish survivor named Michel, they had three children. They lived in the country near her friend Maria’s old home, which was burned down. Her parents had two more children and lived near to their daughter and her family. Maria was taken to a concentration camp and there she was killed in a gas chamber with hundreds of other women. So many things happened in that time, all was bad. I hope nothing like what Rene has been through happens again.
Written by Aniscia M. and Caitlin M.
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