by Maria Rolnikaite (Author), (Masha Rolnik) (Author)
This is more than just a diary. It is the stream-of-consciousness of the experiences of Maria Rolnikaite (Masha Rolnik) during the years of 1941-1945. Beginning a month before her 14th birthday and lasting for the next 3 years and 7-1/2 months of German occupation. First the Vilnius, Lithuania ghetto. Then watching her mother and sister and brother being taken to the Ponery extermination camp for execution, as she is herded to the Kaiserwald and Strasdenhof concentration camps near Riga, Latvia. Next is Maria's transfer to the Stutthof extermination camp near Gdansk, Poland. With the advance of the Red Army they evacuate west until finally liberated. This volume is her witness to the atrocities and brutality of the Nazi regime in their effort to exterminate the Jews of Lithuania, and through the eyes of an innocent teenage girl. By divine providence she survived death to provide this book. Daniel H. Shubin has translated this diary from Russian into English along with a biography and other information.