Girl with Two Landscapes: The Wartime Diary of Lena Jedwab, 1941-1945

This is billed as a Holocaust diary, and I suppose it could be classified as that. Lena Jedwab grew up in an impoverished Jewish family in Bialystok, Poland, which was claimed by the Russians after the division of Poland in 1939. In the summer of 1941, Lena, then fifteen, went to Lithuania to be a camp counselor. While she was gone, the Germans launched a surprise attack on Russian-occupied Poland. Unable to get home, Lena and the other summer camp children were evacuated deep into Russia. Her entire family perished in the Holocaust.

However, I think this book has more in common with the diaries of non-Jewish Russian youths during this period -- such as Nina Kosterina. Lena rarely mentions the Nazis, and she didn't experience firsthand show more any of their atrocities (though she has no illusions about the fate of her loved ones back in Poland). She doesn't even talk about the war very much. Instead she writes about her studies, her budding sexuality, and her activities in Communist youth organizations. In other words -- you won't see the stuff about ghettos and yellow stars and going into hiding like you will read in the diaries of Anne Frank, Rutka Laskier, etc.

Lena was a very intelligent and likeable girl with a genuine literary talent. I enjoyed watching her grow and mature in her diary, and I think the diary is well worth reading. But don't expect it to be like other "Holocaust diaries" out there. show less