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DESIGNS IN DECORATOR WO
A Girl,
A Diary,
A Mystery
The Writings
of a Jewish Girl from
the Lodz Ghetto
FOUND AT AUSCHWITZ
v945 AND PUELISHED
SEVENTY YEARS LATER.
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SAJE program tells of the beauty and
anguish of a young diarist in WWII.
Elizabeth Applebaum I Special to the Jewish News
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32
November 26 2015
,_ -
2038630
hen the Soviet Army
liberated Auschwitz, a
physician named Zinaida
Berezovskaya made a chance discovery
that became both an extraordinary rev-
elation and one of World War II's great
mysteries.
Near the crematoria, Berezovskaya
found a 112-page notebook, heavily
stained but still readable, the penmanship
vertical, neat and strong.
It was a diary, written in Polish, and for
more than 70 years it remained safe, but
mostly forgotten, in Berezovskayis home.
When Berezovskaya died, her grand-
daughter inherited the notebook and
began to research its story.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 13, the Jewish
Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit's SAJE (Seminars for Adult Jewish
Enrichment), in partnership with the
Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman
Family Campus and the Jewish Family
and Children's Services Holocaust Center
of San Francisco (JFCS), will present
"The Diary of Rywka Lipszyc," the story
of a Jewish girl in the Holocaust, her
remarkable diary and the many questions
surrounding her disappearance.
Rywka (pronounced Rivka) Bajla
Lipszyc was born in 1929. When the
Nazis came to power, her family was
forced to the Lodz Ghetto, where Rywka's
parents died and where, from October
1943 to April 1944, Rywka kept a diary.
Her entries are painful, describing the
brutal conditions in the ghetto; thought-
ful, as Rywka considers her relationship
to God; and inspirational, as the writer
reflects on the world and her struggles to
remain hopeful.
From Lodz, Rywka was sent to
Auschwitz, transferred to Gross-Rosen,
survived a death march and was impris-
oned at Bergen-Belsen, which was liber-
ated in 1945 by the British Army. Rywka
survived Bergen-Belsen and was taken
to a hospital — the last place where any
record of her life exists.
Dr. Yedida Kanfer is coordinator of
Education Services at the JFCS Holocaust
Center in San Francisco and one of the
guest speakers at the Dec. 13 event.
"Teens today relate to 14-year-old
Rywka, as do adults who remember their
own adolescent angst:' she said of the
diary. "Rywka's teenage years, of course,
were compounded by the harshness of
ghetto life, Nazi dehumanization and
genocide. In these circumstances, Rywka
was one of few youth diarists we know
of who directly addressed the question
of faith. Rywka lost both of her parents
in the ghetto and two of her siblings,
yet her religious belief gave her hope to
persevere"
She added that "Rywka shows us that
the way to combat hatred and intoler-
ance — whether during the Holocaust
or in today's world — is through hope
and love. She dreamed that people would
someday read her words, and the diary
itself can be seen as a prayer: a call for a
better future
Published in 2014, Rywlds diary
already has been translated into French,
Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and
Slovakian, with Hebrew and Polish lan-
guage editions in progress.
"The Diary of Rywka Lipszyc" will
include lectures and a 17-minute film
presentation. The event will be held at the
Berman Center for the Performing Arts,
6600 W. Maple Road in West Bloomfield.
Also on the panel will be moderator
Dr. Jan Maisel, associate clinical profes-
sor at the University of California in
San Francisco, and Dr. Anna Muller, an
assistant professor at the University of
Michigan-Dearborn and curator of the
Holocaust exhibit at the Second World
War Museum in Poland.
Tickets are $12 and include a meet-
and-greet, book sale and dessert recep-
tion. To purchase: theberman.org or
(248) 661-1900.
The JFCS Holocaust Center in San
Francisco would appreciate any informa-
tion that might help in the search for
what happened to Rywka Lipszyc. Please
contact the Tauber Holocaust Library at
HolocaustCenter@jfcs.org . *