The Girl Who Survived The Nazis by HUDSYN SCHEINER

Helga's Diary

hudsynscheiner — 2025-05-11 21:26:21 UTC

During the holocaust, Helga Weiss wrote a diary of all of her experiences at concentration camps and helping other people escape the Nazis. Her father had said to her, “Draw what you see”, so she drew pictures of things she saw at concentration camps and everywhere she was sent. She said she published her diary "to keep record of life during the holocaust and to add to the memories of other child diarists, including Anne Frank."

Impact

hudsynscheiner — 2025-05-12 02:54:33 UTC

The impact that Helga had was she saved her and her family's life because she lied about her age and was able to work. She was also one of 150 to 1500 children out of 15,000 to survive at Terezin.

Helga Weiss

hudsynscheiner — 2025-05-12 15:15:34 UTC

Helga's Background

hudsynscheiner — 2025-05-13 14:15:45 UTC

Helga Hoskova-Weissova was born in Prague in 1929 to her mother, Irena Fuchsova, and her father, Otto Weiss. She grew up as an only child and lived with her parents. Not long into her teens, she lied about her age so she could work for her keep. Her mother persuaded the Nazis that she was older than she actually was so she was sent to the forced labor barracks instead of the gas chamber. When she was only 12 years old, her father gave her a diary to take note of all of her experiences and everything she saw. Shortly after, Helga and her mother were separated from her dad and were sent to four concentration camps. She never saw her dad again, but she and her mom tricked the Nazis in order to escape and survive.

hudsynscheiner — 2025-05-13 14:57:30 UTC

Video of Helga Weiss talking about the diary she wrote during the Holocaust.

Summary

hudsynscheiner — 2025-05-13 15:20:56 UTC

"Helga Weiss and her mother fooled one of the most reviled men in modern history, Josef Mengele, and managed to save their lives." As a teenager, Weiss lied about her age to trick the Nazis, so instead of sending her to a gas chamber, they sent her to forced labor barracks. She was separated from her father when she was sent to a new concentration camp with her mother. She was given a diary from her father to write about her experiences. Weiss never saw her father again, but she and her mother survived the Holocaust.

How She Felt

hudsynscheiner — 2025-05-13 21:10:54 UTC

Helga, along with other Jewish children, was sent to multiple concentration camps and experienced a range of emotions. Sometimes she was confused and questioned what was going on and other times she was angry at her parents for hiding information. As her experiences of the Holocaust worsened, she expressed loss and fear that she wouldn't survive or she would be alone. She had many mixed emotions, so she wrote a diary to process her thoughts.

Tricking the Nazi General

hudsynscheiner — 2025-05-14 01:19:48 UTC

Helga Weiss tricked Nazi general, Josef Mengele, in order for her and her mom to survive. She persuaded him that she was old enough to be sent to forced labor barracks and not the gas chamber. Josef Mengele was a member of the team of doctors who were responsible for killing victims in gas chambers and performing experiments on them, so Weiss knew it would be difficult to trick him.

hudsynscheiner — 2025-05-14 01:21:41 UTC

The song Pretty Hurts by Beyonce is about a girl who has to change the way she looks and everything about her in order to be considered "acceptable" to others. This song is like Helga Weiss because Weiss had to lie about her age and keep secrets about her in order to survive at concentration camps.

What was going on at this time

hudsynscheiner — 2025-05-14 01:45:27 UTC

In Prague in 1942, the Holocaust was significantly impacting many Jews and their families. Many families in Prague were sent to either ghettos or straight to concentration camps at this time and Prague was turned into one giant ghetto, which is where Weiss and her family were first sent to.

Quotes

hudsynscheiner — 2025-05-14 14:25:50 UTC

"So this is what a concentration camp looks like; I could never imagine it. People have been living this way for several years. And we complained about Terezin. That was an absolute paradise compared to this.”

This quote shows how bad the conditions were at the concentration camps and how people didn't even realize how bad they were and how people were treated.