Terezin, and a look back at a 1940s diary

[MsAmerica]

One thing I find frustrating about Mumsnet is the limited forums, and the limiting way they're set up. There is nothing for history, for instance, so I thought I'd share this here, if anyone is interested. It's by a Theresienstadt survivor, looking at the diary from her childhood and assessing everything as an adult. But the most touching part for me is the letter from someone else at the end.

My Terezin Diary
What is most striking to me today about the diary I kept in the camp, seventy-five years ago, is what I left out.
By Zuzana Justman

I regret that I will never be able to describe what I experienced and what I saw. I ask one thing of you: do believe that everything you will hear is true. Nothing that you will hear can compare with what I knew about and witnessed...
Tomorrow I will leave, separately from the rest of my family. After tomorrow you will never hear from me again. I will vanish into the endless nothingness to join those who had to pay for what they knew and witnessed, while for many years the whole world watched with folded arms. We are at war, we are the enemies, and we have to know how to die like soldiers. In the next forty-eight hours, my fate will be sealed, and my wife Gerta’s as well. All I ask of you is to take care of our father’s grave and, if you should find us, to bury us next to him.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/16/my-terezin-diary?verso=true

[iVampire]

History topic exists:


www.mumsnet.com/Talk/history_club

[MsAmerica]

Thanks. It's certainly not visible on the main page. In fact, the design is so poor that even in the History forum, as your link so kindly provided, there is no way to know what section it is, to find it in the future.

[MatterhornMadness]

I have visited Teresenstadt.
There are lots of history-specific internet talk sites/bulletin boards. MN is for parents, who may not necessarily be history buffs.