Rywka Lipszyc

Rywka Lipszyc (pronounced as Rivka Lipshitz; 15 September 1929 – disappeared 10 September 1945) was a Polish-born Jewish diarist and Holocaust survivor. She was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, followed by a transfer to Gross-Rosen and forced labor at its subcamp in Christianstadt (Krzystkowice). She was then taken on a death march to Bergen-Belsen, where the record of her life ends.^[1]

Her diary, composed of 112 pages, was written in Polish between 3 October 1943 and 12 April 1944. Translated to English by Malgorzata Markoff and annotated by Ewa Wiatr, it was published for the first time in the United States in early 2014, some 70 years after it was written.^[2][3]

Rywka was the eldest of four children of Yan Lipszyc and Maria Zelver.^[3] She was born in September 1929 in Łódź, Poland. Records show that Rywka lived in Łódź by January 1, 1938. The family was imprisoned at the Nazi ghetto there in April 1940, following the German invasion of Poland. In 1940, whilst going out on a walk, Rywka's father, Yan, was suddenly beaten by a German officer. Covered in blood, he was taken to a hospital in the ghetto, where he was released two weeks later and reunited with his family. However, as a result of the beatings, he began having severe headaches which worsened over time. He later died and was buried on 2 June 1941, in the Łódź Ghetto cemetery, one year after the beatings occurred. Maria subsequently died on 8 July 1942 from lung disease and malnutrition.^[3] In September 1942, Rywka's younger brother Abramek and sister Tamarcia were deported to an extermination camp. Rywka and her sister Cipka were then adopted by their paternal aunt Hadassah. In 1943, Hadassah's health declined from starvation, which resulted in her death in July of the same year. After her death, Hadassah's eldest daughter, Estusia (Esther), got custody of Rywka and Cipka, with Minia (Mina) and Hanusia (Hannah) (Hadassah's youngest daughters) helping.

In April 1944, with the Soviet Army ninety miles away from Łódź, the Germans began executing the ghetto's prisoners. Rywka, her sister, and cousins were deported by train to Auschwitz. Cipka was gassed immediately upon arrival.

After a week in Auschwitz, Rywka and her three cousins were deported to Gross-Rosen, a labor camp in Poland. In February 1945, Rywka and her three cousins were sent on a death march to Bergen-Belsen in Germany. They were liberated by the Allies there on April 15. Of Rywka and her three cousins, only Hanusia did not survive the Holocaust, dying shortly before Bergen-Belsen was liberated. Estusia, Minia, and Rywka were temporarily nursed in a hospital before being sent to a transit camp in Lübeck, Germany. In July, Estusia and Minia recovered enough to leave the transit camp. Rywka could not join her cousins and leave with them, because she was seriously ill to the point that she was physically disabled. On 25 July 1945, she was sent to a hospital in Niendorf. She was registered upon arrival. On 10 September 1945, records show that Rywka was still alive and was nursed in the hospital. It is disputed whether Rywka died or is still alive to date.

Rywka's diary was discovered in the ruins of the crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau in June 1945 by a Red Army doctor, Zinaida Berezovskaya, who took it with her back to the Soviet Union; she died in 1983. The diary was kept by her son along with other war memorabilia. He died in 1992. Zinaida's granddaughter, during a visit to Russia, found the manuscript and took it with her. In 2008, she contacted the local Holocaust Center in San Francisco. The diary was stored in relatively good condition before it was offered.^[4]

The last entry in the diary contains the following passages written in literary Polish; they were Rywka's final reflections on the beauty of the natural world in the time of sorrow:

The diary, with the title The Diary of Rywka Lipszyc, was published in English in early 2014 by the Jewish Family and Children's Services of San Francisco Holocaust Center in partnership with Lehrhaus Judaica house of learning in Berkeley. It is edited by Alexandra Zapruder, accompanied by essays written by scholar Fred Rosenbaum, and Rywka's cousin Hadassa Halamish.^[2] Rywka Lipszyc is not to be confused with Rywka Lipszyc, recorded in the Database of Shoah Victims (1888–1940), who died in the Łódź Ghetto, wife of Yekhiel.^[6] The diary was gifted to the family by Berezovskaya's granddaughter in 2015. It is now stored in Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.^[7]

• The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

• Stephanie Butnick, "Another Teenage Holocaust Diary Discovered", Tabletmag.com (March 18, 2014)
• Dan Pine, "The diary of another young girl: Holocaust journal comes to light in San Francisco", Jweekly.com (March 13, 2014)
• Michael Lieberman, "Anne Frank was not alone: Holocaust diary of 14-year-old Rywka Lipszyc finds the light", Book Patrol: A Haven for Book Culture, (March 18, 2014)