'I would love so very much to last through this …’

The first entry in Lilly Zielenziger’s diary, dated 29 September 1944, reads: ‘The first book of one year is finished. The war, unfortunately, is not’. By then the author had already been imprisoned at the Bergen-Belsen so-called ‘detention camp’ for a year and suffered several years of harassment, deprivation of rights, displacement, and flight. The diary – a slim, easily legible notebook – tells us about her last few months. It tells of her fears and worries, but also of her hopes of a life after the war and of the friendships she was able to make with other prisoners at Bergen-Belsen.
In addition to the text of the diary this publication also contains an introduction by Thomas Rahe as well as a detailed search for biographical traces by Kathrin Meß.