A Hidden Diary from the Łodz Ghetto, 1942–1944

Heniek (Hersz) Fogel was 16 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland. Like most Jews in Łódź, Yiddish was his first language, however he wrote his diary in the Łódź Ghetto in Polish. The diary covers two years beginning in March 1942, and ending with the last entry in May 1944. During those difficult days, Heniek recorded harsh portions of the ghetto experience – the devastating deportation of his brother and the death of his father, the overwhelming hunger endured and other tribulations of his family and friends, as well as internal ghetto politics and rumors about the political situation outside the ghetto. Before being deported to Auschwitz Concentration Camp along with his mother and sister, Heniek hid the diary under the floorboards of the apartment in which they were living. After surviving several concentration camps, he returned to Łódź where he retrieved the diary from the exact place he had left it.