Dawid Sierakowiak diary

Identifier
irn519987
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 1999.93.1
  • RG-10.247
Dates
1 Jan 1939 - 31 Dec 1943
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • Polish
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

oversize box

1

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Dawid Sierakowiak (1924-1943) was born on July 25, 1924 in Łódź, Poland to Majlech Sierakowiak (?-1942?), a cabinetmaker, and Sura Sierakowiak (?-1942?). He had one sister, Nadzia (?-1944). Dawid was a student in a private Jewish Gymnasium in Łódź, where he was on a scholarship. In 1939 they were forced into the Łódź ghetto. In August 1943 Dawid died in the Łódź ghetto of tuberculosis. His mother was deported to Chełmno concentration camp and his sister was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. They both perished. His father died in the ghetto.

Archival History

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Acquisition

Funding Note: The accessibility of this collection was made possible by the generous donors to our crowdfunded Save Their Stories campaign.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum acquired the Dawid Sierakowiak diary (numbers 1, 3, and 5) from Konrad Turowski's family in 1999.

Scope and Content

The collection includes three diaries written in the Łódź ghetto by Dawid Sierakowiak. The diary describes horrific conditions of the Łódź ghetto under the Nazi occupation and Chaim Rumkowski leadership. In his diaries Dawid chronicles political situations, social conditions, family relationships, and his physical and emotional deterioration. He writes in grief about the deportation of his mother; his father's death, disease, exhaustion and starvation; his little sister Nadzia's sufferings; and his own eventual loss of strength and decline towards death. The writing starts on Wednesday, June 28, 1939, and continues through Thursday, April 15, 1943. Dawid died on August 8, 1943, two weeks after his nineteen birthday and four months after the last of his surviving notebooks broke off with the recognition: "There is really no way out of this."

System of Arrangement

The Dawid Sierakowiak diary is arranged as single series.

People

Subjects

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.