Spiegel, Renia, 1924-1942

Renia Spiegel (18 June 1924 – 30 July 1942) was a Jewish-Polish diarist who was killed during World War II in the Holocaust. Spiegel's diary, kept between the ages of 15 and 18, documents her experience as a teenager living in the city of Przemyśl through World War II as conditions for Jews deteriorated. Spiegel wrote about ordinary topics such as school, friendships, and romance, as well as about her fear of the growing war and about being forced to move into the Przemyśl ghetto. As a diary about the Holocaust, it is unique in that it chronicles experiences under both Soviet and Nazi rule. Though it was in the possession of Spiegel's family for decades, the diary was not read by others until 2012 and was first published in English in 2019.