48 | DECEMBER 21 • 2023 
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my Simon, who 
teaches Jewish 
studies at Michigan 
State University (MSU), has 
long been fascinated by the 
personal revelations and 
feelings confided in diaries, 
and she kept her own diary 
for many years.
When it was necessary for 
her to pick a dissertation 
topic to complete require-
ments for her doctoral degree 
at Indiana University, Simon 
thought about an appropriate 
approach to the topic of 
diaries. 
Her ultimate choice — 
diaries of Holocaust victims 
— came from both analysis 
of subjects by those who 
taught her and increasing 
insights from related research 
experiences. She tied that to 
the Yiddish language found 
in diaries.
All of her efforts event-
ually reached beyond the 
dissertation, and Simon 
came up with a book that 
covered her topic: Emotions 
in Yiddish Ghetto Diaries: 

Encountering Persecutors and 
Questioning Humanity. It was 
published by Routledge some 
months ago.
“I did not have family 
directly affected by the 
Holocaust,” Simon said. “My 
family immigrated to Ellis 
Island in the late 1800s. 
What got me interested in 
Holocaust studies was when I 
had a chance to take a trip to 
Germany with other Jewish 
students. 
“I was studying abroad in 
England so it was a British 
Jewish students group. They 
went to Berlin to talk about 
the future of British German 
identity, and I was so struck 
about how present the 
history of World War II still 
was in 2001. 

“I was struck by the idea 
that if I had been living in 
Berlin in the 1930s or 1940s, 
I would have been killed. I 
couldn’t get my head around 
that. It started the whole 
long process of exploring and 
defining what I wanted to 
teach and research.”
Simon, 45, is the William 
and Audrey Farber Family 
Endowed Chair of Holocaust 
Studies and European Jewish 
History. She participates in 
the Department of History in 
the James Madison College 
and the Jewish Studies 
section at MSU, and her book 
covers people who faced the 
ghettos in Warsaw, Lodz and 
Vilna.
“Getting the book 
completed was a long, 

long process,” Simon said. 
“I worked with different 
editors and colleagues for the 
dissertation and had many 
drafts and peer reviews. I did 
so much work over so many 
years. 
“I was really pleased that I 
was able to capture the voices 
of the diarists in a way that 
emphasized empathy and 
emotion. When I started, I 
wasn’t thinking of that, but 
the final book does get across 
what I really care about, 
which is how people felt 
during the Holocaust.”

DOING THE RESEARCH
The first place where Simon 
investigated was the YIVO 
Institute for Jewish Research 
in New York. She went online 

Holocaust Diaries

ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS

MSU Professor Amy Simon publishes 
anthology on Yiddish ghetto diaries.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Amy 
Simon

