Hélène Berr
Encyclopedia
Hélène Berr was a Jewish French woman, who documented her life in a diary during the time of Nazi occupation of France. In France she is considered to be a "French Anne Frank
".
, France
, a member of a Jewish family that had lived in France for several generations. She studied Russian and English literature at the Sorbonne
university. She also played the violin
.
She was not able to pass her final exam at the university because the anti-Semitic laws of the Vichy regime prevented her from doing so. She was active in the “General Organization of Israelites in France” (Union générale des israélites de France, UGIF). On March 8, 1944 she was captured and later she was deported from Drancy internment camp
to the Auschwitz concentration camp
. She died in April 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
, just 5 days before the liberation of the camp.
In her text, which has many citations from William Shakespeare
and Lewis Carroll
, the war appears at most as an evil dream. But little by little she gets more conscious of her situation. She reports about the yellow badge
that Jews were ordered to wear, of expulsions from public parks and about abuse against her family members and friends.
She hears rumours about gas chambers and complains about her fear of the future: "We live from hour to hour, not even from day to day." A deported Jew told her about the plans of the Nazis. The last entry in the diary is about a conversation with a German prisoner of war
. The diary ends on February 15, 1944 with a citation from Shakespeare's Macbeth: Horror! Horror! Horror!“
Berr ordered her notes to be released to her fiancé Jean Morawiecki after her death. Morawiecki later followed a career as a diplomat. He gave the diary that consists of 262 single pages to Berr's niece Mariette Job. She decided in the end to publish the diary which has been stored at Paris' Mémorial de la Shoah (Holocaust Memorial Museum) since 2002.
The book was published in France in January 2008. The Libération
paper declared it as “the editorial event at the beginning of 2008” and reminded the readers of the lively discussions about the book of Jewish Irène Némirovsky
. The first print of 24,000 copies was sold out after only 2 days.
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
".
Life
Hélène Berr was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, a member of a Jewish family that had lived in France for several generations. She studied Russian and English literature at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
university. She also played the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
.
Drancy internment camp
The Drancy internment camp of Paris, France, was used to hold Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps. 65,000 Jews were deported from Drancy, of whom 63,000 were murdered including 6,000 children...
to the Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
. She died in April 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
, just 5 days before the liberation of the camp.
Diary
Hélène Berr began her notes on April 7, 1942 at the age of 21. At first the horrors of anti-Semitism and the war do not show in her diary. The landscape around Paris, her first love and her friends at the Sorbonne are the topics of her diary.In her text, which has many citations from William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
and Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
, the war appears at most as an evil dream. But little by little she gets more conscious of her situation. She reports about the yellow badge
Yellow badge
The yellow badge , also referred to as a Jewish badge, was a cloth patch that Jews were ordered to sew on their outer garments in order to mark them as Jews in public. It is intended to be a badge of shame associated with antisemitism...
that Jews were ordered to wear, of expulsions from public parks and about abuse against her family members and friends.
She hears rumours about gas chambers and complains about her fear of the future: "We live from hour to hour, not even from day to day." A deported Jew told her about the plans of the Nazis. The last entry in the diary is about a conversation with a German prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
. The diary ends on February 15, 1944 with a citation from Shakespeare's Macbeth: Horror! Horror! Horror!“
Berr ordered her notes to be released to her fiancé Jean Morawiecki after her death. Morawiecki later followed a career as a diplomat. He gave the diary that consists of 262 single pages to Berr's niece Mariette Job. She decided in the end to publish the diary which has been stored at Paris' Mémorial de la Shoah (Holocaust Memorial Museum) since 2002.
The book was published in France in January 2008. The Libération
Libération
Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...
paper declared it as “the editorial event at the beginning of 2008” and reminded the readers of the lively discussions about the book of Jewish Irène Némirovsky
Irène Némirovsky
Irène Némirovsky was a French novelist who died at the age of 39 in Auschwitz, Nazi Germany occupied Poland. She was killed by the Nazis for being classified as a Jew under the racial laws, which did not take into account her conversion to Roman Catholicism.-Biography:Irène Némirovsky was born in...
. The first print of 24,000 copies was sold out after only 2 days.
See also
- Hana BradyHana BradyHana Brady was a 13-year old Jewish girl murdered in the Holocaust. She is the subject of the 2002 non-fiction children's book Hana's Suitcase, written by Karen Levine.-Biography:Hana Brady was born in Nové Mesto, Czechoslovakia on May 16, 1931...
- Jewish girl and holocaust victim; subject of the children's book Hana's Suitcase - Helga DeenHelga DeenHelga Deen was the author of a diary, discovered in 2004, which describes her stay in a Dutch prison camp, Kamp Vught, where she was brought during World War II at the age of 18....
– wrote a diary in Herzogenbusch concentration camp (Camp Vught) - Anne FrankAnne FrankAnnelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
- a Jewish girl and holocaust victim; author of The Diary of a Young GirlThe Diary of a Young GirlThe Diary of a Young Girl is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944 and Anne Frank ultimately died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen... - Etty HillesumEtty HillesumEsther "Etty" Hillesum was a young Jewish woman whose letters and diaries, kept between 1941 and 1943 describe life in Amsterdam during the German occupation...
– wrote a diary in Amsterdam and Camp Westerbork - Etty Hillesum and the Flow of Presence: A Voegelinian AnalysisEtty Hillesum and the Flow of Presence: A Voegelinian AnalysisEtty Hillesum and the Flow of Presence: A Voegelinian Analysis is a 2008 book by Dutch philosopher Dr. Meins G. S. Coetsier, staff member of the Etty Hillesum Research Centre , director of the Centre of Eric Voegelin Studies at Ugent and founder of the Flow of Presence Academy .-Eric...
- Věra KohnováVera KohnováVěra Kohnová was a Jewish girl from Czechoslovakia. She wrote a diary about her feelings and about events during the Nazi occupation. Her diary was published in 2006....
- a Czech diarist - David KokerDavid KokerThe Jewish student David Koker lived with his family in Amsterdam until he was captured on the night of 11 February 1943 and transported to camp Vught....
– wrote a diary in Herzogenbusch concentration camp (Camp Vught) - Janet LanghartJanet LanghartJanet Langhart Cohen is an American model, television journalist and author. She serves as President and CEO of Langhart Communications and is the spouse of former Defense Secretary William Cohen...
– Writer of one act play "Anne and Emmett" - Rutka LaskierRutka LaskierRutka Laskier was a Jewish teenager from Poland who is best known for her 1943 diary chronicling three months of her life during the Holocaust.-Biography:...
- a Polish diarist - List of diarists
- List of posthumous publications of Holocaust victims
- Sam PivnikSam PivnikSam Pivnik is a Holocaust survivor born on 1 September 1926 in Bedzin, in South-western Poland near the border with Germany, the second son of Lajb Piwnik, a tailor, and Feigel Piwnik....
- Rainer Maria RilkeRainer Maria RilkeRené Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
, a German poet who influenced her thoughts and diary writings. - Tanya SavichevaTanya SavichevaTatiana Nikolayevna Savicheva , commonly referred to as Tanya Savicheva was a Soviet child diarist who endured the Siege of Leningrad during World War II.- Early life :...
- Sophie SchollSophie SchollSophia Magdalena Scholl was a German student, active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. She was convicted of high treason after having been found distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich with her brother Hans...
- German student executed by the Nazis - Henio ZytomirskiHenio ZytomirskiHenio Zytomirski , was a Polish Jew born in Lublin, Poland and was murdered at the age of 9 in a gas chamber in Majdanek concentration camp, during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Henio became an icon of the Holocaust, not only in Lublin but all over Poland...
- Polish boy who was a holocaust victim
Literature
- Hélène Berr: Hélène Berr Journal, 1942-1944, Foreword by Patrick ModianoPatrick ModianoPatrick Modiano is a French novelist born 30 July 1945 in Boulogne-Billancourt of a father of Jewish Italian origins and a Belgian mother, Louisa Colpijn . He is a winner of the Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française in 1972, the Prix Goncourt in 1978 for his novel Rue des boutiques obscures...
, January 2008, Éditions Tallandier, ISBN 9782847345001 - Préface du «Journal» d'Hélène Berr, Foreword (French)
External links
- France finds its own Anne Frank as young Jewish woman's war diary hits the shelves The Observer, 6. January 2008 (English)
- Helene Berr's Holocaust Diary Flies Off the Shelves SpiegelOnline International, 9 January 2008 (English)
- Student's Diary Tells of Occupied Paris, Excerpts from `Helene Berr Journal,' Jewish student's diary on Nazi occupation of Paris, Associated Press, 10 January 2008, (English)