Helga's Diary

A Young Girl's Account of Life in a Concentration Camp

In 1941, aged 12, Helga Weiss and her parents were interned in the Nazi concentration camp of Terezin. Here she began to document her experiences in a diary. Three years later, they were sent to Auschwitz. Forced to abandon all of her belongings, Helga hid the diary in a wall. Of the fifteen thousand children from Prague sent to Auschwitz, Helga was one of only a hundred who survived. When she finally returned home, she managed to retrieve her diary and completed her account of her experiences. The result is one of the most compelling testimonies written during the Holocaust ever to have been recovered.
The most moving Holocaust diary published since Anne Frank
Telegraph

About Helga Weiss

Helga Weiss was born in Prague in 1929. Her father Otto was employed in the state bank in Prague and her mother Irena was a dressmaker. Of the 15,000 children brought to Terezín and later deported to Auschwitz, only 100 survived the Holocaust. Helga was one of them. On her return to Prague she studied art and has become well known for her paintings. The drawings and paintings that Helga made during her time in Terezín, which accompany this diary, were published in 1998 in the book Draw What You See (Zeichne, was Du siehst). She has two children, three grandchildren and lives to this day in the flat where she was born.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9780241959503
  • Length: 272 pages
  • Dimensions: 197mm x 16mm x 128mm
  • Weight: 195g
  • Price: £10.99
All editions