The Journal of Hélène Berr

La lectura del diario de Hélène Berr es una experiencia de las que dejan huella y dejan el corazón encogido. Es imposible no sentirse conmovido y hechizado por esta joven estudiante, por lo que de su vida sabemos en los breves meses durante los que escribió en su diario, pero sobre todo por ese futuro que le fue arrebatado tan atroz e injustamente.

Hélène es una chica francesa, de veintiún años, que vive en París y estudia en la Sorbona. Empieza su diario en abril de 1942, en plena ocupación nazi. La primera parte de su diario transcurre entre excursiones campestres, ensayos de partituras clásicas (toca el violín) con sus amigos, paseos por París, conversaciones con compañeros, invitados que vienen a comer o cenar, show more comprando libros. Parece que Hélène es feliz. Hasta conoce a Jean, un chico que comparte muchas de sus ideas, de su manera de ver el mundo.

La verdad es que Hélène se oculta bajo esta rutina. Es cierto que disfruta de esos momentos, pero también está muy preocupada por el porvenir de su familia, ya que son judíos, y amigos. Les obligan a llevar una estrella amarilla cosida en la ropa, y las restricciones se suceden, van a más y peor. Los arrestos van en aumento. Los deportados también. Muchos de estos horrores son cometidos por los mismos franceses, colaboracionistas de los nazis.

Parece que Hélène ya presentía esta barbarie cuando empezó su diario en 1942. Hélène se propone testimomiar todos estos horrores para futuros lectores para que la gente no los olvide. Se siente sola buena parte del tiempo y da rienda suelta a sus reflexiones en su diario.

Hélène Berr fue una chica muy valiente, alguien extraordinario. Y una chica normal, como tú o como yo. Amante de los libros, de la poesía, de las cosas bellas y sencillas, inteligente, sensible, que sufría por los demás, a los que intentó ayudar. Una persona digna de admiración y respeto. show less

A remarkable diary. It seems that there are so many holocaust books now that there is nothing new to be learned, but of course there is.

You might call this the French Anne Frank, but it isn't really. Helene Berr was French, lived in Paris, from a privileged family. During the German occupation of France she wrote this diary. It may seem astounding that her everyday life was not much different during this time than it had been before. She went with her family to their country estate frequently, to picnic, to relax. She continued to attend classes at the Sorbonne, even though as Jew she was limited in the courses of study she could take officially. She had friends, including some who became more than friends.

But she wasn't ignorant of show more the pain of others. She was aware that bad things were happening to Jews elsewhere and to other "classes" of Jews within France. Her father was a prominent citizen, initially exempt from seizure. As time went on, more and more people are taken, some to a nearby prison and some directly "deported". Helene did not know exactly what went on when people were deported. She seemed to have some idea that they were imprisoned for things that they had done, however slight the offense, and that they simply had to do their time. She heard of many deaths but she was not, it appears, aware of the concentration camps.

She worked as a volunteer at an organization the was formed to help Jews find their relatives or provide help with other problems. This organization was sanctioned by the German occupation as a way, it seems, to make the citizens believe all was not as bad as it seemed. However, secretly the organization found homes for Jewish children in non-Jewish families, many of them in the country and villages outside Paris. Thus a great many Jewish children were spared the fate of their counterparts who did not receive this help.

Over time Helene's family became increasingly aware that the net was drawing closer to them. They had chosen to live their lives as close to normally as possible. To escape to the "free" zone was considered cowardly (it wasn't all that free anyway). Helene in particular was less concerned about her own safety than that of others.

The diary provides a view from a a different perspective than most. It is well written, quick to read, yet of course horrifying because we know what's coming. show less

Although I read this book in French, it is available in English translation and I highly recommend it. My reaction is best summarized by the French word bouleversée, which means deeply moved, utterly distressed, shattered. Although I abhor any manipulation of my emotions on the part of a novelist or filmmaker, the experience of reading this young woman's journal was quite different. Perhaps it comes down to the authenticity of witness and her commitment to recording what she was thinking, experiencing and seeing as a young Jewish woman in a Paris subjected not only to the nightmare of occupation but also that of collaboration, as well as complicity in the form of passivity, indifference, & the closing of eyes and shutting of doors to show more the suffering of others. At the same time, there are many who take great risks, who act selflessly and with compassion. The journal begins just as Jews in France are ordered to wear the yellow star in public and as Hélène meets fellow-student Jean Morawiecki for the first time, the young man who will become her fiance: a love story truncated by the war (Jean leaves Paris to join the French forces in North Africa) and matured within the context of increasingly harsh restrictions imposed on Hélène. The pace of arrests and deportations picks up. First, it is the foreign Jews who are taken, then all Jews. Finally, there is no longer any safe zone, no Free France, no protected status anywhere.
Certain passages, certain of Hélène's thoughts regarding her decision to remain in Paris (not entirely her decision, since she was living with her parents throughout) and not try to escape made me think of Simone Weil, particularly certain references Berr makes to her reading of the teachings of Christ. But unlike Weil, Berr isn't obsessed with self-abnegation. And, so, her concern for the suffering of others, her refusal to turn away from that suffering, which is also hers, is both more palatable to me and more heroic. Early on, she writes "Because, even in suffering, liberty is a consolation."
Hélène's arguments with herself over staying or leaving fuel a longtime obsession of mine with this question. She resists abandoning her official life (French intellectual, student at the Sorbonne, accomplished musician) for an unofficial one. She resists accepting the identity being imposed on her by History, that of the victim and of the one apart, an identity assigned by way of an attribute (the word "Jew"). To acknowledge the label Jew, to wear the yellow star, to obey the Nazis' increasingly insane and unjust laws becomes both an act of capitulation and one of solidarity. And, it is from within this fraught and contradictory space that Hélène thinks and acts. The question she wrestles with is whether it is more courageous, more "right," to stay or to leave. In any case, it is clear that she feels she cannot leave as long as her parents and other loved ones stay. For her, compassion, being "with" in suffering, is more important than saving her own life. It remains unclear whether there were realistic opportunities for Hélène and her family to flee--at first, many deportees were apprehended attempting to cross the border into the "free" zone; later, after Germany occupied all of France, escape would have been even more difficult. Hélène doesn't discuss the possibility of hiding in Paris except when toward the end, after repeated warnings of raids, her father decides that they won't spend nights in their own home and instead take refuge in the homes of their housekeeper and other friends. It is after a night when they fail to do so and instead remain at home that they are apprehended, detained and, finally, deported to Auschwitz. After evacuation to Bergen-Belsen in November, 1944 , Hélène, sick with typhus, is murdered by a guard in May, 1945 just 5 days before liberation of the camp.
The utter absurdity of having to make impossible choices brings to mind a nightmare I once had: "I’m waiting in a car for an explosion that is set to go off in a garage in front of the car. This seems to be a group suicide, with a male “leader.” I don’t know how I became involved in this, but my adult son is also in the car, seated in the rear. A toddler with a mop of black hair is cavorting around nearby. We try to shoo him away from the car, but he doesn’t understand and is playful. Suddenly, I jump out of the car, grab the child and run. As I run uphill away from the car, the toddler morphs into a still hairless infant. I reach the limit of my uphill flight and turn to the right, hoping that I’ve gotten far enough away from the car to save the child from the blast. As I contemplate how to get through a neighbor’s hedge, I hear an explosion go off behind me and realize, horrified, that my own son has remained behind me in that car." show less

This is a piece of writing that wasn't meant to be published... and that does make it a bit impenetrable at the beginning, all the personal references and seemingly irrelevant details that come with reading someone's private journal. But in the end it's this that makes this such a remarkable and heartbreaking read -- of *course* we weren't supposed to read this, because she wasn't supposed to die. Hélène's gradual shift in awareness of what was happening is almost impossibly painful to imagine -- and she never was really aware, which is a very powerful message in itself about what happened to European Jews in WW2 -- the consequences of which are still being lived out today. The version of her Journal that I read has an excellent show more afterword, which basically says 'don't go round thinking that if you'd been in her position, you'd have seen it coming and got out. Instead, think about what might be going on in front of your own nose that you're not seeing'. That's the message I shall take away from this book, and I thank Hélène's family for allowing its publication. show less

The Journal of Helene Berr, by Helene Berr, and translated by David Bellos is a compelling look at the events of WWII and the German occupation of Paris, that lead up to the deportation of Helene and her parents. It is the personal diary of Helene Berr, beginning April 7, 1942, and ending with the last entry on February 15, 1944. There is also a letter that Helene wrote to her sister, Denise, dated on the day of her (Helene’s) arrest, March 8, 1944.

What makes this a compelling diary is how 21-year old Helene presents the months and years to us, never truly expecting her diary to be published. She begins her diary with entries relating to her friends and their involvements with her, entries regarding her boyfriend Gerard. She also show more describes Paris as spring is approaching. All this is written down during the German occupation, when Helene apparently felt she had the freedom to wander Paris and its surroundings, seemingly unaffected by what was happening around her. Her family was quite well off, and very respected.

Helene was extremely intelligent, talented and gifted, and sensitive. She studied Russian and English Literature at Sorbonne University. She met and fell in love with Jean Morawiecki, and he returned her love. He eventually left to join the “Forces francaises libres, the armed forces of the Free French”. After he left, she stopped writing for almost one year, and began writing diary entries, again. From that point forward, she begins to slowly comprehend the forces that surround her.

Helene’s diary is dramatic in the sense that the first two months or so, deal with her inability to accept the fact that the persecution of Jews was occurring within her very world. She did not want to see the truth before her eyes, even when some of her friends were fleeing or escaping to the unoccupied zones of the south. The harshness and reality began to slowly settle in when she was forced to wear the yellow star.

Her friends and even family members tried to convince Helene and her parents to escape, but to no avail. They wanted to remain behind because they felt it was the courageous and moral thing to do. They were involved with the “Union Generale des Israelites de France (U.G.I.F.)”, and in helping to save Jewish children, and the thought of leaving behind the children that so depended on them was unacceptable in their minds. They had strong ethical beliefs. They were firm in their conviction to remain in Paris.

Helene begins to write about the realities and actualities of events, without sugar-coating them. She wants to document what is happening all around her, and what she has learned.

And, document she does, and then gives the pages of her diary to the family cook, Andre Bardiau, to save for her, in case she survives. In the event she doesn’t, she wanted him to give the diary to Jean Morawiecki. Helene’s wishes were followed, and her diary was given to Jean Morawiecki, after she died in April 1945, in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp five days before its liberation. Jean Morawiecki eventually gave the diary to Mariette Job, Helen’s niece. From there, Mariette Job decided the journal should be printed in book form.

That one young woman was able to pen the unfolding events of the German occupation of Paris, while she was literally within its stronghold is overwhelming to me. In my opinion, it is a story not to be missed. The Journal of Helene Berr belongs in every educational library, and in my opinion, all personal libraries.

I personally own and have read this book.
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Friday June 19, 2009 – 27th of Sivan, 5769 show less

Helene Berr was a young woman, a Jew, who lived in Paris during the German occupation in World War II. She is famous for keeping a journal from 1942 to 1944 and is sometimes referred to as the "French Anne Frank". Her experience is somewhat different from the Franks because her family did not go into hiding. In an interesting twist of fate, Helene was incarcerated in the same camp as Anne, at the same time.

The first fifty pages of the journal are mostly about her educational and social life. Her classes at the Sorbonne, tea with friends, letters from boys and what pieces she played on her violin. The tone of her entries change beginning with the day she is required to wear her yellow star. Her first response is to refuse and then show more remarkably, she changes her mind, proud to show her heritage. She begins to take note of how people treat her, whether they refuse to meet her gaze or if they offer their sympathies.

Her father is taken to the Drancy camp and sends back tales of the horrors he witnesses. Her family and friends begin to debate whether or not to stay in Paris and wonder how long they will be safe as the restrictions on Jews become more and more stringent. Helene falls in love with a fellow student, who then flees to Spain. The Berrs began to stay with friends at night to prevent the Germans from taking them into custody, but this measure eventually failed. Helene died in 1945, just days before her camp was liberated.

Helene's journal was never meant to be public although she did want those close to her to read it should she die. Some entries are just a name, or partial name, a reminder to herself who visited. Some entries are abbreviated stories and without context or reference they don't mean much (there are a few footnotes). Other entries are much longer and very detailed and I found these musings the most interesting. I am glad I took the time to read her thoughts, especially those on humanity and society, though I don't think it's a book I would re-read or purchase to keep on my shelf. show less

intelligente, cultivée, musicienne, brillante, athée, elle a les yeux et le coeur grand ouverts et nous apporte par-delà les années un témoignage essentiel sur la vie d'une jeune parisienne juive et aussi un message d'humanité qui m'accompagnera un bon moment.