Renia Spiegel is a teenager in war-torn Poland. Her diary charts the simple things about everyday life in Poland during the occupation. Renia's friendships, first love and everyday trials and tribulations are laid out in her diary.
What struck me was that the first year or so didn't seem to have any effect on Renia apart from being seperated from her mother Renia in the Russian occupied half, mum in German occupied half
Then very suddenly she is being made to wear an armband marking her out as Jewish and is forced into a Ghetto as Germany took all of Poland from the Russians.
As Renia matured so did the poems and I felt they told more about what was going on around her than the diary.
I found it a bit hard to follow at times but I suspect that is a lot to do with the translation from Polish to English. The part that really moved me was Zygmunt’s final entry in the diary.
I found Renia’s sisters comments at the end more enlightening than the actual diary.

If you’re interested in World War 2 history, everyday lives of that period and how lives were affected, add this to your reading list. Particularly touching is that this wasn’t meant for publishing and its author didn’t survive. I appreciate the digital copy from Netgalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I know this is an important book, which deserves to be preserved as a memorial to all those whose lives were cut short in such an appalling way, but I found it rather boring until the Epilogue and Commentary. The diaries of teenage girls are seldom very interesting, and this was, in the main, no exception. The poetry, whilst itegral to the diary, wasn't of much interest to the ordinary reader.

I wasn't overly impressed with this book. Its a diary about a teenager and, although its during the war years, it has very little about life in war-torn Poland. Until the very end, which is literally the last pages. The best thing about it is the afterword at the end, explaining what happened and being breath takingly sorrowful. It doesn't make up for the rest of it though.

A very hard hitting, heart breaking read that needs to be heard. Many many other people suffered at the hands of the nazis yet sadly not many survived and yet any documents that can be salvaged and made into a book is a must.
Thank you to both NetGalley and publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

I was sent a copy of Renia’s Diary by Renia Spiegel to read and review by NetGalley.
I have to say I found this book a struggle – not, as you may think, because of the wartime subject matter but more basically because it is the musings of a teenage girl. In fact, until you get to the end of the diary itself and into Renia’s sister Elizabeth’s part of the story that more of the horror of the girls’ experiences hit home. I personally found the main body of Renia’s diary rather tiresome and I only continued with the book because I felt somehow that I owed it to the author. I remember feeling the same sort of teenage angst and writing the same sort of poems as Renia when I was young and at heart I couldn’t really be bothered to go back there! Some of the poetry is beautiful but it has to be said that some of it is, as you may expect, juvenile and self-absorbed. In the end a diary is a private thing and I think it should really remain private. I think, for me, a book containing selected poems and some pertinent paragraphs from the prose along with Elizabeth’s account of the facts would have made for a more satisfying read without losing any of the historic importance that was originally intended.

About 10 years ago I wrote my MA dissertation on the Holocaust as portrayed in children's literature and after the emotional overload of this experience I have not read much on the topic since. Renia's Diary drew me in with the way that she wrote - in the immediate there and then. No thoughts of editing or rewriting at all this is the story of one young woman growing up and falling in love under the most horrific of circumstances. Even Anne Frank reworked her diary after hearing that after the war diaries would be collected and then it was substantially edited and altered by her father.

More movingly than even Renia's words are the interactions from her sister, giving context and showing how the trauma of WW2 never goes away.

Such an important book. Showcasing the horrors of such a brutal part of history, whilst still showing how love and hope can blossom. A frightening read at times, but so important. I defy anyone not to be moved.

I feel that I can not dismiss this young girl's diary as it was personal to her and her family. Before I started the book, I thought it would be about life as a young Jewish girl in the Second World War; discussing the horrors etc. But it wasn't until 46% into the book did she start to talk about the war.
I'm sorry that the book didn't grab hold of me as I expected it too. This book is really about young love and a girl separated from her mum. She writes poems and keeps a regular diary but it just didn't capture me at all.

Renia's Diary begins in January 1939, and the last entry was made on the twenty-second of July 1942. There have been many memoirs covering this time period, but this being a diary account, gives us an insight into how life was for a young woman, first living under Soviet rule, and then under Nazi occupation, without the benefit of hindsight. Renia is a prolific poet and the diary includes all of her musings on life and love. What is touching is that despite the incredibly difficult times she was living in, her main diary entries focus on the everyday minutiae and her interactions with friends. She also documents her first love that filled her with equal amounts of joy and insecurity. Renia was only a teenager when she began writing her diary and she was incredibly articulate - 'I want to live until I can hold my head up high, when I'm an equal, free person in a free, democratic country'. As events become darker, we can feel Renia's hopes fading for an end to war. Her diary is her only outlet, the only place she feels free to express herself fully - 'I have to write to silence the pain, to open the wounds and let worries seep out. Such a terrible, grim time. We don't know what tomorrow will bring.' Sadly this entry was written on the twenty-second of July 1942, and eight days later, Renia's life was tragically cut short, when the Nazi's discovered her hiding place, and shot her. The diary had been given to her boyfriend Zygu who kept it safe and passed it on to her sister after tracing her many years later. This historical account is touching, harrowing at times, but a valuable and precious document.

I have incredibly mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it is diary kept under the most extreme circumstances, a diary filled with a teenage girls hopes and dreams that you know will never come true - and that breaks my heart. On the other hand, it is a diary filled with the mundane and ordinary, a diary that differs very little to the diary of any other teenage girl. The diary is fairly light on the trauma of war, the bombing, the fear, and the oppression - these episodes appear only sporadically and are described against the backdrop of how it will effect her romance with her precious Zygu. Between pleas to keep her mother, sister and Zygu safe, Renia writes constantly of her love for Zygu and how she is torn over whether he loves her back, or if he loves her enough, or if he likes someone else etc etc etc. Interspersed are poems on various topics. some of which are really good.

The final heartbreaking chapter is written by Zygu, who Renia has entrusted with the diary when she goes into hiding. Finding out what happened to her in such a short number of words is shocking, heartbreaking and poignant even though you know it is inevitable. I really enjoyed the end notes of the book where her sister recounts her memories of particular events - in many ways her memories are all the more upsetting because she is the one that survived.

I feel mean giving it only a three star - I wish you could give half stars too because I would! But for me, it was too much teenage angst for me personally. Others will love it but it didn't hit the spot for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I gave up at 60% of the way through.
It was too much teenage angst and poetry for me.
I didn't feel I was getting anything from the book.

This is an interesting look at the life of a young Polish Jewish girl before and during the Second World War. It’s very different to what I expected as it’s a touch more juvenile than I anticipated and more focus on pre war than I had also anticipated however it does provide a genuine first hand view of those terrible times and also some joys to be found within.

A beautiful, emotional and heart/soul destroying read. Raw and honest every step of the way, a must read for absolutely everyone and I truly believe books like this should be compulsory, especially today and the current situation. A beautiful book, thoroughly recommended

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This book is understandably a disturbing story. Whilst reading about the true story of a young girl's first love and her anxieties the reader knows, from history, what is coming and dreads the writer's realisation and ultimate fate. This is a powerful story and is completed by Renia's sister who has her own dramatic life to relate. Thank you to the publishers and all involved as these stories must be told "lest we forget".

Renia's diary is a difficult book for me to review. Not because of it's subject matter (although this does of course at times make for uncomfortable reading), but because of the way it is mostly written.

Of course Renia was not writing her diary to be read by others, but readers looking for something similar to other Holocaust/WWII diaries, may be disappointed.

So, I feel the need to talk about the diary format - it is obvious from the title that the book is 'Renia's Diary. However, much of the novel is about Renia's school life, love life and poetry, there is barely any reference to the horrors of the world around her, and that left me a little disappointed.

I'd go so far as to say, it is not quite the novel I was anticipating it to be.

However, it is an important book, and one that should be read. The final pages in particular do give the reader a little more insight in Renia's fate (although these were not written by Renia herself).

Renia is visiting her grandparents when WWII breaks out. Her Mother and Father are far away, and it is impossible for them to reunite due to the volatile situation in Poland. It is 1939 and Renia is fourteen.

Throughout the next few years, until Renia reaches Eighteen, we are taken on a very personal journeu with her. This book may not be for all, but it is an important part of history nonetheless.

We weren't meant to read this. Renia's Diary was her friend, the repository of her hopes, dreams, thoughts, opinions. She was a Jewish teenager who, unfortunately, lived in Poland in the Second World War. But, despite that, a lot of the book has little reference to the war, and any impact it is having on her life. She sees people being deported to Siberia, and comments on their suffering, little knowing what we now know. Then, they have to start wearing armbands which she knows will make her seem inferior to others, even if, to herself and her diary, she is the same. But still her life, as a teenager, continues. She spends more time confiding, to her diary, about her boyfriend, and typical teenage ups and downs, than discussing the wider situation. We must remember she is a teenage girl who takes every day as it comes; unlike us who can see the bigger picture, with hindsight. It is heartbreaking that someone so alive and with such hopes didn't survive. But, through, his actions, her boyfriend ensured its survival.
Recommended.

Raw, incredible and so dreadfully sad. One never forgets of course, but to be reminded so powerfully makes one think all over again about this crime against a whole race of people and the echos of it in todays politics

We all have r a sons to keep a diary and what we write is such a personal record of life and feelings.
This diary shares the memories whose life was cruelly taken at the age of 18 during World War II.
Her poems are personal and full of feeling. She knew what it was to love and be loved before her life was stolen.
A book worth reading.

I am obsessed with this time in history and was so thankful to get an advanced copy of this book. It was a very touching read. Similar to Anne Frank's diary. I couldn't get through this heartbreaking story quick enough. It will stay with me for a long time. Highly recommended.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy.