DECEMBER 21 • 2023 | 49

and found some Yiddish 
diaries especially from Vilna 
because YIVO was in Vilna 
and exported itself to New 
York. The organization 
collected writings after the 
war. 
Simon worked at the 
Holocaust Memorial 
Museum in Washington, 
D.C., when she graduated 
college in 2001. She started 
researching there and added 
to that by spending time 
at Yad Vashem in Israel 
and talking to one of the 
archivists at the Jewish 
Historical Institute in 
Warsaw 
“I was able to organize 
almost every known Yiddish 
diary that has survived,” 

said Simon, who earned her 
master’s degree in Holocaust 
studies at University College 
London and emphasizes 
that responses of the Jewish 
people become the most 
important element of what 
she teaches in classrooms 
and in her writing efforts. 
Entering into the classes 
taught by Simon are topics 
related to Holocaust history, 
European Jewish history, 
Holocaust narrative, 
Holocaust memory in 
the United States and 
antisemitism. She also has 
published a couple of articles, 
one about teaching Holocaust 
diaries and another about 
using diaries as historical 
sources.

“The diaries become the 
thread that holds a lot of this 
together, and this is my first 
book,” she said. “I’m working 
on two smaller projects right 
now. One is anxiety in the 
Warsaw Ghetto as related 
to my book. The other is on 
interdisciplinary approaches 
(to my subjects) looking at 
perceptions of the allies and 
the underground press.”
Simon said that the 
personal discipline involved 
in finishing her varied 
projects involves meeting 
deadlines and what she has to 
get done by specific dates to 
meet her deadlines. Entering 
into those considerations are 
household commitments that 
have to do with her husband, 

David, an economist, and 
their twin sons.
The family lives in Okemos 
and attends Shaarey Zedek 
Congregation in East 
Lansing. She grew up in 
Texas. 
As Simon thinks about 
the book and schedules 
presentations related to her 
subject, she calls attention to 
a diary passage she especially 
respects and quotes toward 
the end of her book:
“The most terrible and 
unholy, the most destructive 
thing for our nervous 
system and our health, was 
to live day and night in an 
atmosphere of unending fear 
and terror for our physical 
survival.” 

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