The Story Goes...

title-2398505

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:55:35 +0200

JERUSALEM - The diary of a 14-year-old Jewish girl dubbed the "Polish Anne Frank" was unveiled on Monday, chronicling the horrors she witnessed in a Jewish ghetto — at one point watching a Nazi soldier tear a Jewish baby away from his mother and kill him with his bare hands.

The diary, written by Rutka Laskier in 1943 shortly before she was deported to Auschwitz, was released by Israel's Holocaust museum more than 60 years after she recorded what is both a daily account of the horrors of the Holocaust in Bedzin, Poland and a memoir of the life of a teenager in extraordinary circumstances.

"The rope around us is getting tighter and tighter," the teenager wrote in 1943, shortly before she was deported to Auschwitz. "I'm turning into an animal waiting to die."

Within a few months Rutka was dead and, it seemed, her diary lost. But last year, a Polish friend who had saved the notebook finally came forth, exposing a riveting historical document.

"Rutka's Notebook" . The 60-page memoir includes innocent adolescent banter, concerns and first loves — combined with a cold analysis of the fate of European Jewry.

Some 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War II, after European Jews were herded into ghettos, banned from most jobs and forced to wear yellow stars to identify them.

"I simply can't believe that one day I will be allowed to leave this house without the yellow star. Or even that this war will end one day. If this happens I will probably lose my mind from joy," she wrote on Feb. 5, 1943.

"The little faith I used to have has been completely shattered. If God existed, He would have certainly not permitted that human beings be thrown alive into furnaces, and the heads of little toddlers be smashed with gun butts or shoved into sacks and gassed to death."

Reports of the gassing of Jews, which were not common knowledge in the West by then, apparently had filtered into the Bedzin ghetto, which was near Auschwitz, Yad Vashem experts said.

The following day she opened her entry with a heated desñriðtion of her hatred toward her Nazi tormentors. But then, in an effortless transition, she described her crush on a boy named Janek and the anticipation of a first kiss.

"I think my womanhood has awoken in me. That means, yesterday when I was taking a bath and the water stroked my body, I longed for someone's hands to stroke me," she wrote. "I didn't know what it was, I have never had such sensations until now."

Later that day, she shifted back to her harsh reality, describing how she watched as a Nazi soldier tore a Jewish baby away from his mother and killed him with his bare hands.

The diary chronicles Rutka's life from January to April 1943. She shared it with her friend Stanislawa Sapinska, who she met after Rutka's family moved into a home owned by Sapinska's family, which had been confiscated by the Nazis to be included in the Bedzin ghetto. Sapinska came to inspect the house and the girls — one Jewish, one Christian — formed a deep bond.

When Rutka feared she would not survive, she told her friend about the diary. Sapinska offered to hide it in the basement under the floorboards. After the war, she returned to reclaim it.

"She wanted me to save the diary," Sapinska, now in her 80s, recalled Monday. "She said 'I don't know if I will survive, but I want the diary to live on, so that everyone will know what happened to the Jews.'"

Sapinska stashed the diary in her home library for more than 60 years. She said it was a precious memento and thought it to be too private to share with others. Only at the behest of her young nephew did she agree to hand it over last year.

"He convinced me that it was an important historical artifact," she said in Polish.

In 1943, Rutka was the same age as Anne Frank, the Dutch teenager whose Holocaust diary has become one of the most widely read books in the world. Yad Vashem said Rutka's newly discovered diary was authenticated by experts and Holocaust survivors.

Rutka's father, Yaakov, was the family's only survivor. He died in 1986. But unlike Anne Frank's father, he kept his painful past inside. After the war, he moved to Israel, where he started a new family. His Israeli daughter, Zahava Sherz, said her father never spoke of his other children, and the diary introduced her to the long-lost family she never knew.

"I was struck by this deep connection to Rutka," said Sherz, 57. "I was an only child, and now I suddenly have an older sister. This black hole was suddenly filled, and I immediately fell in love with her."

"I have a feeling that I am writing for the last time," Rutka wrote on Feb. 20, 1943, as Nazi soldiers began gathering Jews outside her home for deportation.

"I wish it would end already! This torment; this is hell. I try to escape from these thoughts of the next day, but they keep haunting me like nagging flies. If only I could say, it's over, you only die once ... but I can't, because despite all these atrocities, I want to live, and wait for the following day."

However, Rutka would write again. Her last entry was dated April 24, 1943, and her last written words were: "I'm very bored. The entire day I'm walking around the room. I have nothing to do."

In August, she and her family were sent to Auschwitz, where she is believed to have been killed upon arrival.

Comments

title-2228304

Mon, 07 May 2007 19:39:52 +0200

Life is wonderful, ain't ya'll think so? I have just one month before my exams. Just ine single month but I'm not prepared for them, I don't know anything! But I think I can make it and I will. This weekend I re-read lyrics of Ahmatova, Tsetaeva, Blok, Pushkin. So you see I'm not idle, I'm preparing. I must do this very hard now. My last meeting with Nancy, James and Billy(they are african and living in Moscow city for roughfully three years but they don't speak russian at all) made me becoming thoughtful that I ought to make my english better... laterzzzzzzzz

Comments

title-2216460

Sat, 05 May 2007 19:10:07 +0200

i hate guys like him!!!! such a borin n stupid! brrrrrr

Comments

title-2185716

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 15:24:06 +0200

Psst…want the inside scoop on how to suss out if someone has a crush on you, breed some feel-good vibes on a date, or even figure out whether that cute person sitting across from you is dying for a kiss? Believe it or not, the answers to all these questions and more can be found in the mysterious science of body language. Allan Pease, author of The Definitive Book of Body Language, has been studying the messages people send with their eyes, hands, posture, and more for years. Below, we’ve asked him to answer some of the most common questions that trip people up in the dating and mating game. Trust us, this info will come in handy.

How can you appear confident on a date even if you’re nervous inside?
People who project confidence stand erect – shoulders up, chest out. Confident people also walk slightly more quickly than average, taking medium to long strides and swinging their arms slightly like they’re in a march. A subtler thing is not to blink very often. The average blinking rate is 8 to 16 blinks per minute. If you slow yours to four, you give the impression you’re cool and in control.

How do you show someone you’re interested in them?
With people we like and admire, we mirror their body behaviour. If the date goes well, mirroring is something you’ll do naturally, but you can also intentionally mirror the other person’s gestures and posture. It may feel weird, but the other person will just think you’re getting along really well.

How can you tell if someone is interested in you?
Look for preening signals. Preening is what animals do to make themselves more attractive. In humans, some basic examples would be arranging your clothes, touching your hair, or stroking your arm. These signs may seem obvious, but people miss them all the time in a dating situation, especially men.

Are there signals that turn people off?
In studies, if a speaker crosses his or her arms, the audience recalls 40 percent less of what the person says and has a more negative attitude toward him or her. They can’t even say why; they’ll just say they had a bad feeling. Also avoid any scratching or touching of the face. When you hide your face, we feel like we don’t know you, and we don’t think you’re telling the truth.

What’s the best way for a woman to catch a man’s attention?
It goes back to the preening signals I talked about earlier. She might twirl her hair or touch her thigh. The thing I tell women is that you can’t be too obvious. Subtlety is lost on men. When a woman wants to pick up a man across a table, often she’ll lift up her eyes and gaze at him, then look away. Women think it’s an obvious sign, but men think she’s not interested because she looks away. On the other hand, if a woman holds a guy’s gaze and gives him a big perky smile, then he gets it.

What’s the best way for a man to catch a woman’s attention?
When it comes to body signals, men don’t have a great range of options because in traditional courtship, women give the green lights and men make the approach. The best thing a guy can do is dress right, look confident in the ways I’ve mentioned and keep an eye out for a woman’s “green light” gestures.

How do you initiate casual physical contact without looking desperate or clumsy?
Men should brush the point of a woman’s elbow while they’re talking. Just give it a light touch, not a grab or a squeeze. Leave it there for no more than three seconds. She’ll be aware of it and her response will tell you how she feels. If she’s not enjoying the date, it will feel like you’re touching an electric wire. Women, on the other hand, should target a man’s hand and lower arm to capture is attention.

Is there anything you can do with your hands so you aren’t fidgeting on a date?
The best resting posture is anything with your palms vertical or facing up. Turning your palms down looks pushy or arrogant. Don’t hold hands with yourself or interlock your fingers; that means you’re reassuring yourself because you’re not confident. When you gesture, keep your hands below your chin and keep your fingers together. People who are nervous spread their fingers really wide.

But do people really have much control over their body language? How can you learn to harness this power?
We actually recommend that people take home videos and role-play situations with friends. A lot of people don’t even know what they’re doing it until I show them on film. Once you see what your habits are, you can make a determined decision to unlearn or improve them.

Comments

title-2185639

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 15:10:18 +0200

Mmmmm mmm yeah
Dou dou do do do do do-do
Ohh Yeah

Gotta change my answering machine
Now that I'm alone
Cuz right now it says that we
Can't come to the phone
And I know it makes no sense
Cuz you walked out the door
But its the only way I hear your voice anymore
(It's ridiculous)
Its been months
And for some reason I just
(Can't get over us)
And I'm stronger than this
(Enough is enough)
No more walkin' round
With my head down
Im so over bein' blue
Cryin' over you

And I'm so sick of love songs
So tired of tears
So done with wishing you were still here
I Said I'm so sick of love songs,
So sad and slow
So why can't I turn off the radio?

Gotta fix that calender I have
Thats marked July 15th
Because since theres no more you
There's no more anniversary
I'm so fed up with my thoughts of you
And your memory
And how every song reminds me
Of what used to be

That's the reason I'm so sick of love songs
So tired of tears
So done with wishing you were still here
Said I'm so sick of love songs,
So sad and slow
So why cant i turn off the radio?

(Leave me alone)
Leave me alone
(Stupid love songs)
Dont make me think about her smile
Or having my first child
Let it go
Turning off the radio

Cuz I'm so sick of love songs
So tired of tears
So done with wishing she was still here
Said I'm so sick of love songs,
So sad and slow
So why can't I turn off the radio?
(why can't I turn off the radio?)

Said I'm so sick of love songs
So tired of tears
So done with wishing she was still here
Said I'm so sick of love songs,
So sad and slow
So why can't I turn off the radio?
(why can't I turn off the radio?)

And im so sick of love songs
Said I'm so sick of love songs
So tired of tears
So done with wishing she was still here
Said I'm so sick of love songs,
So sad and slow
So why can't I turn off the radio?
(Why can't I turn off the radio?)
Why cant i turn off the radio?

N dats how i'm feelin' now...

Comments

heyyyy

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 09:31:12 +0200

Hey, That's my first entry... And my first english blog. Hope ya'll will like me! Have a lovely day every1!

Comments