Bela Weichherz Diary Entry

Slovak Jew Bela Weichherz and his wife, Esti, lived in the city of Bratislava where he worked as a traveling salesman for the Philips Company. Bela’s parents and some of his seven siblings remained in Cadca, his hometown, and the family visited them often. After Esti gave birth to a baby girl, Kitty, in December 1929, the proud new father kept a diary of his daughter's life and posted photos in its pages to chart her development (see a page from January 24, 1931)

As the persecution of Jews in their native Slovakia worsened, Bela’s proud inscriptions of his daughter’s accomplishments gave way to the heartbreaking expressions of a father’s fear for his family. Bela last wrote in his diary shortly before they were all deported to a Nazi killing center—the words he left behind are the only direct record of Kitty’s short life.

The two diaries were hidden during the war. A now unknown person recovered them and gave them to Bela's surviving sister, Malvine.