Feature: "No more war ever": cautionary diary of young Polish girl

Over 70 years ago, a young Polish girl in the prime of her life recorded the fate of herself and other civilians after the breakout of World War II in a diary. Her name was Anna Hinel and she was killed at the age of 19 in the KL Auschwitz concentration camp in southern Poland.

Pawel Sawicki from the Auschwitz Museum Press Office recounted the story of the diary and its owner.

Anna was born in Warsaw on Jan. 31, 1924. She was the only child of Jadwiga and Wawrzyniec Hinel. She had a habit of keeping a diary recording her everyday life.

After World War II broke out, Anna began to record everything she saw and experienced until she was sent to KL Auschwitz concentration camp. Many years later, Anna's father discovered her diary in their house, under the wooden floor in the kitchen.

DEATH AND DESTRUCTION

Anna's diary reflects the destruction and ravage of Warsaw between September 1939 and August 1940. It describes the confusion and pain of its owner and records the real lives of people in wartime Warsaw.

Due to the outbreak of war, Anna's carefree girlhood years abruptly ended. Reading the diary, one can deeply experience Anna's craving for knowledge and her fear of war. During the occupation of Warsaw, the girl together with other students attended a secret school.

However, she was unable to take part in the graduation exams. On the night of April 28, 1942, she was arrested and taken into the infamous Pawiak prison, where she met her classmates and two teachers.

They suffered a brutal interrogation, as a result of which, two female teachers were persecuted to death. Anna herself was sent to KL Auschwitz concentration camp on Nov. 13, 1942. Her camp number was 24447. She was put to death in the camp on March 19, 1943.

In the diary of Anna, there is a poem entitled "I long for freedom," which goes as follows:

"Dark days, flowing like a stream of tears

Dark days of bitter contemplations

Far into the distance my eyes are looking

Shrouded in the gray mist of sadness."

After the war was over, Anna's father found his daughter's diary and read it with a heart full of grief. The death of his only child had left a lingering shadow over the whole family. Her tragedy represented the fate of millions of innocent victims. It was also a reason why Anna's father wanted the world to learn about the fate of Anna, to understand her history.

IMMORTALIZING ANNA MARIA

In 1980, a Polish writer Stanislaw Majewski read Anna's diary and felt deeply touched. Not only did the diary record the writer's life, it also provided a lot of valuable material documenting this part of history. Majewski edited the diary and published it as a book, under the title "Anna Maria."

Majewski hoped that through publishing the diary, he could tell the world how evil war is and what it brings to ordinary people. The war deprived hundred of thousands of youth and children of their dreams, education and, in some cases, cost them their lives. Majewski hoped that the readers of Anna's memoir will reflect over those disastrous times.

Sawicki says the one sentiment people have when visiting the Auschwitz Museum is, "No more war!" Not only does the war cause loss of life, it also destroys people's minds and souls, he added.

The KL Auschwitz concentration camp was built in 1940. It was the largest Nazi German concentration camp during World War II.

More than one million people were killed here, including a large number of Jews. On Jan. 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated the camp.

On Nov. 1, 2005, the first plenary meeting of the 60th session of the UN General Assembly unanimously declared Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Memorial Day. Endit