She was just fifteen when Hitler entered Poland. She survived four years of Nazi terror. This is her story.

When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, Mary Berg had just turned fifteen. From that time until her arrival in the United States in March 1944, Mary kept a detailed personal diary, recording her years in the Warsaw Ghetto, detention in Pawiak prison, internment in Occupied France, and finally, her journey to freedom aboard a mercy ship hired by the American government. Carefully hidden among her meager possessions were her twelve small notebooks, smuggled out of Europe under the noses of the Nazis. Less than a year later, its war-time publication played a key role in bringing the plight of the remaining European Jews to the world’s attention.

The diary immediately won the highest acclaim from America’s press in the first days of 1945, including a major piece in the New York Times which concluded, “Without qualification, this reviewer recommends Mary Berg’s Diary to everybody”.

After a gap of 60 years, this amazing diary is about to be published once more, this time for a worldwide audience. These extracts give a flavour of that world long ago, a world of both light and dark.