The Museum “Jews in Latvia” of the Riga Jewish Community published the book “I would like to become someone …”
It contains the diaries of three Latvian Jewish girls which they wrote from 1934 to 1941.
Anni Hazkelson was born in 1923, lived in Riga, wrote her diary in German. Hanna Bloch was born in 1922, lived in Strenci and Valmiera, wrote her diary in Latvian. Sheina Gram was born in 1926, lived in Preili and wrote a diary in Yiddish. The girls grew up in a very different environment, families spoke different languages, they described different life events, but they are all united by a tragic fate — the death in the Holocaust in 1941.
The girls’ diaries reveal not only the observations, thoughts, feelings and emotions of the authors, but also reflect the events and public sentiments of that time.
The title of the book is a fragment from the diary entry of Anni Hazkelson: “I would like to become someone. Most of all, I would like not to be forgotten after death”.
The publication of the diaries gives us the opportunity not to forget these girls and look at the world and history of Latvia through their eyes.
The illustrations for the book and detailed comments allow readers to feel the atmosphere in which the girls lived.
The history of saving the diaries themselves is also unique. Readers can familiarize with it in the preface to each of them.
This is the first publication of the diaries in Latvian.
The book is available free of charge at the Museum “Jews in Latvia”. You can apply for it by writing to [email protected] or by calling +371 67283484.
The publication of the diaries of three Latvian Jewish girls was made possible with the financial support of the “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” Foundation (Stiftung “Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft” EVZ). It is part of a joint project of the Museum “Jews in Latvia”, the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia and the Zanis Lipke Memorial. Within the project, teachers, students, schoolchildren and other interested persons participated in seminars, conferences, master classes, tours and other events dedicated to Jewish history, Holocaust in Latvia and expressions of intolerance and xenophobia today.
04.11.2021