Hanna's Diary, 1938-1941: Czechoslovakia to Canada

by Hanna Spencer

Book Overview

From the preface: "For forty-five years I had not opened the wooden box with the fancy hand-carved lid. I knew what was in it. Together with miscellaneous keepsakes and photographs, it contained six notebooks written in German. This was the journal I kept from 1938 to 1941, during a crucial period in many people's lives, including mine. The box had remained locked since 1942, when I had pulled down my own "iron curtain," shutting out the memories...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 077352231X
• ISBN13: 9780773522312
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

An amazing journey into the past...

As a child of the seventies, I know not of the turbulent times that so many lived through during the War. To hear in Hanna's own words the pain of discrimination, and being labelled as subhuman, and to hear the sadness, fear and longing for her true love Hans (who she can no longer associate with as he is a Christian, she a Jewish descendant)...to hear these things in her own words from that time, transported me to that time in history. I almost felt as if I was there, sharing in her pain and not knowing the uncertain future...even though I knew what history had brought, and I was indeed using my will and hope for it not to happen (even though I knew War would be there, as well as the persecution of so many innocent people). I wished I could erase history...but from reading this story, I hope many people will learn from it. I learned that strength and faith, can see us through many hard times.This book was an amazing journey and I feel richer for hearing Hanna's words.