Renia Spiegel (18 June 1924 – 30 July 1942) was a Jewish-Polish diarist who was killed during World War II in the Holocaust.
Spiegel's diary, kept between the ages of 15 and 18, documents her experience as a teenager living in the city of Przemyśl through World War II as conditions for Jews deteriorated.
Spiegel wrote about ordinary topics such as school, friendships, and romance, as well as about her fear of the growing war and about being forced to move into the Przemyśl ghetto.
[2] In 1938, Spiegel's mother sent her to live with her grandparents in the town of Przemyśl, Poland, while she herself moved to Warsaw to promote Ariana's acting career.
As the war continued on, Spiegel attended school and socialized in Przemyśl, and in 1940 began to develop a romantic relationship with Zygmunt Schwarzer, the son of a prominent Jewish physician who was two years older than she.
[4] An unknown informant told Nazi police about the hiding place, who executed the eighteen-year-old Spiegel along with Schwarzer's parents in the street on July 30, 1942.
[5] The diary largely discusses Spiegel's everyday school, social, and family life in Przemyśl, touching in particular on her distress at being separated from her mother, her romantic relationship with Zygmunt Schwarzer, fear around the growing war, and the terror of moving into the ghetto.
[7]At the end of July, Schwarzer took possession of the diary and wrote the final entries about hiding Spiegel outside the ghetto and about her death: "Three shots!
[14][15] Journalists have compared and contrasted Spiegel's diary with that of Anne Frank, with Robin Shulman of Smithsonian noting that "Renia was a little older and more sophisticated ... She was also living out in the world instead of in seclusion.
"[2] Also writing for Smithsonian, Brigit Katz said that both Frank and Spiegel were "lucid writers, articulate and insightful in spite of their young age.
"[16] Writing for The New York Times, Joanna Berendt said, "At a moment when basic agreement over simple truths has become a political battleground and history a weapon, the publication of the book, 'Renia’s Diary,' offers a reminder of the power of bearing witness.