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Past Special Exhibition

The Girl in the Diary

Searching for Rywka from the Łódz Ghetto

ON VIEW JULY 14 - DECEMBER 31, 2022

In I945, a diary was found in the ashes of a destroyed crematorium in the liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp. It was written by a 14-year-old Jewish girl named Rywka Lipszyc and documented her life in the Łódz Ghetto between October 1943 and April 1944.

Rywka’s diary told stories of a young girl who lost her siblings and parents, but never lost hope or her faith. More than 60 years after its discovery, the diary traveled to the United States, where it was translated to English, supplemented with commentaries, and published.

Rywka Lipszyc’s diary, a moving memoir of life and adolescence in the Łódz Ghetto, is the focal point of this exhibition. Selected excerpts of the diary are supplemented by expert commentary from historians, doctors, psychologists, and rabbis. Blended with original artifacts and fleeting candid photographs of others’ lives in the ghetto, these commentaries help us understand the experiences Rywka describes in her diary.

Through historical artifacts and documents, interactive touch screens, documentary videos, and exceptionally rare photographs, The Girl in the Diary explores the story of a young girl’s fight for survival in the Łódz Ghetto and reconstructs what might have happened to Rywka after her deportation to Auschwitz and beyond.

There are no known photographs of Rywka. We do not know the color of her hair or eyes, the way she smiled or laughed. She exists for us only through the words in her diary. The Girl in the Diary is a tribute to the life of a child who will not be forgotten.

An exhibition at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum in cooperation with the Galicia Jewish Museum, Kraków, Poland.

Special Exhibition Programs

Wednesday, September 7 - Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust

Supported by

Betty Jo and David Bell

Exhibition Sponsors

Larry Ginsburg

Shula and Aharon Netzer

Celia and Larry Schoenbrun

Community Partners
Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star
Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas’ Jewish Community Relations Council
Legacy Senior Communities
Southwest Jewish Congress
Temple Shalom

EXPERIENCE THE SPECIAL EXHIBITION VIRTUALLY!

Click below to view The Girl in the Diary.

An Immersive, Interactive Journey Unlike Any Other

Please join us for a visit. Unforgettable doesn't begin to describe the experience.