Rutka's Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust

by Rutka Laskier

Book Overview

Rutka Laskier, a 14 year-old Jewish girl died in Auschwitz in 1943. But she left behind a notebook in which she recorded her thoughts, fears and dreams. Now, after 60 years, that notebook hs been recovered, opening a unique, moving window into everyday life of Polish Jews caught in the throes of Adolf Hitler's Final Solution.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1603200193
• ISBN13: 9781603200196
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Time / Yad Vashem
• Length: 90 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.4" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 12 to 15 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 10

Customer Reviews

Heartbreaking but inspiring!

As with THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, RUTKA'S NOTEBOOK told of childhood innocence lost in growing up to the horrors of the time! She lived a lifetime in a short span of years!

Rutke's notebook

Great book, makes you realize how bad things got for the Jewish people during second world war. A sad but poignant reminder that 'bad' people use war as an excuse to commit horrific crimes against humanity.

Nice book

This journal is short, but valuable for history telling of a young Polish girl during World War II. The narrations are important for perspective.

Unadorned

There are some stories that need no adornment. This is one. Rutka Laskier was 14 and she knew she was going to die. Likely, contacts from the underground told her family of the death camps. She wrote in a diary. She sees an old man beaten to death. A soldier bludgeoning a child. She does not believe there is a God. "if only I could say, it's over, you die only once...but I can't, despite all these atrocties I want to live, and wait for the following day. That means, waiting for Auschwitz or labor camp." She tells a friend where she is hiding the diary and asks her to find it when the war is over. Rutka then leaves for a camp and is killed. The friend, two years later, finds the diary, hidden under a house's floorboards. The impulse to live and to be remembered and to bear witness survived. The book is short, has excerpts from the diary(it was kept over a short period of time), commentary and photos. It deserves to be read.