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Voices on Antisemitism: Alexandra Zapruder (Editor, Salvaged Pages: Young Writers' Diaries of the Holocaust)

Series: Voices on Antisemitism
From: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Length: 00:08:35

In 1992, Alexandra Zapruder began to collect diaries written by children during the Holocaust. These diaries speak eloquently of both hope and despair. Read the full description.

Voa_small In 1992, Alexandra Zapruder began to collect diaries written by children during the Holocaust. The diaries presented in her book, Salvaged Pages: Young Writers' Diaries of the Holocaust, show the wide range of young writers' responses to the horrors they faced. These diaries speak eloquently of both hope and despair.

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Piece Description

In 1992, Alexandra Zapruder began to collect diaries written by children during the Holocaust. The diaries presented in her book, Salvaged Pages: Young Writers' Diaries of the Holocaust, show the wide range of young writers' responses to the horrors they faced. These diaries speak eloquently of both hope and despair.

Transcript

ALEXANDRA ZAPRUDER:
You know Anne Frank's diary was the first diary that was published. And her voice was so powerful that it captured the voices of all the children and all the people who had been killed. That's the way it's framed. And that by reading her diary and sort of taking her into our hearts, we could redeem her life. And it never rung true to me.

And I had these diaries. I had this cache in a way of primary sources, each of which kept saying to me: "That's not we're about. You know, we're not about the triumph of the human spirit. We're about something else, which is as simple as a mark in the world."

If a life is gone and what's left are 20 or 30 or 50 or 100 pages, that is not a life. That is a fragment of a life. And let's call it what it is.

DANIEL GREENE:
In 1992, Alexandra Zapruder began to collect diaries written by children during the Holocaust. The diaries presente...
Read the full transcript

Musical Works

Title Artist Album Label Year Length
Sevani Tsorgnorsner 35th Parallel Crossing Painted Islands. 2006 00:00

Related Website

http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/antisemitism/voices/transcript/?content=20080327