Ruth Maier's Diary: A Young Girl's Life Under Nazism

It's a strong book about a life in under the Nazi rule. You get to follow Ruth's life from a young girl into a intelligent, young woman. How she comes to a new country all by herself, and her growth into a young adult and all the questions, wishes and thoughts every human has. Her fears about the war and her thoughts about being a Jew. ( )

This diary is actually closer to Anne Frank's than any of the other Holocaust diaries I've read. Both of these young women were, in my mind, quite ordinary girls. Quite bright, with perhaps a bit more than the usual literary/artistic talent, but not geniuses, and not the stuff of which history is made. They became history through the way they died, and the people they associated with. Otto Frank promoted Anne's diary aggressively. Ruth's best friend towards the end of her life, Gunvor Hofmo, became a famous poet and kept her diaries safe; it's highly doubtful whether they'd have been published without Ruth's association with Gunvor.

If you're looking for tortures and beatings and gas chambers, you don't find it in Ruth Maier's diary. Instead you see the growth and maturity of a young Austrian girl as the dark forces of Nazism close around her and her family. She is able to escape to Norway, but Hitler follows her even there -- and you get a not-often-seen glimpse of the Nazi Occupation and the Holocaust there. I think the diary was edited very well. The editor was able to trim nine years of entries and letters, something like 1100 pages, down to reasonable size without being overly repetitive or losing focus on Ruth's life.

This is a solid edition to the canon of Holocaust diaries. ( )