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Chaim Kaplan diary

Document | Accession Number: 2009.212

The Chaim Kaplan diary consists, in its entirety, of a diary that Kaplan maintained in Hebrew, from 1933 to 1942. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum obtained three original volumes of this diary in 2009, consisting of: Book 3, dating from April 4, 1935 to August 4, 1936 (pages 1-390); Book 7, consisting of entries from August 30, 1939 to December 23, 1939 (pages 53-280); and other fragments, dating from May 7, 1942 to July 2, 1942, paginated from 230-309. While earlier entries focus on personal matters and events, Kaplan made a conscious choice to chronicle Jewish life and external events, especially after the invasion and occupation of Poland in 1939, and following his forced relocation to the Warsaw Ghetto.

Date
inclusive:  1935-1942
Language
Hebrew
Genre/Form
Diaries.
Extent
3 volumes.
Credit Line
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection

About This Document

Document Creator
Chaim A. Kaplan
Biography
Chaim Aron Kaplan was born in Horodyszcze (Haradzisca), in what is now Belarus, in 1880. He received a Talmudic education at the Yeshiva of Mir, and then studied at the Government Pedagogical Institute in Vilna (Vilnius). Settling in Warsaw in 1902, he established a Hebrew primary school, which he served as the principal of for the next 40 years. He was an advocate of teaching Hebrew as a spoken language, and published several textbooks based on this method. Kaplan visited Palestine in 1936, hoping to settle there, but returned to Warsaw that same year. Kaplan began keeping a diary in Hebrew in 1933, and with the start of World War II in 1939, made a conscious decision to continue doing so, in order to record the events he was eyewitness to, including after he was interned in the Warsaw Ghetto. His diary ended in early August 1942, at which time he had the diary smuggled out of the ghetto for preservation. It is presumed that he was arrested during the round-ups that were taking place in the ghetto at that time, and deported to Treblinka, where he perished. (Source: adapted from Abraham Katsh, introduction to "Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan")

Keywords and Subjects

Administrative History

Holder of Originals
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Legal Status
Permanent Collection
Provenance
These volumes, along with other volumes of the diary, were smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto in late 1942, and entrusted to Wladyslaw Wojcik. Following the war, Wojcik made some of the volumes available to the Jewish Historical Institute (ZIH) in Warsaw, and others he brought with him when he immigrated to the United States in 1962. All volumes were subsequently translated into English and published by Abraham I. Katsh as "Scroll of Agony," initially in 1965 and in subsequent editions. The extant volumes at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum were acquired from the estate of Wojcik's widow, Irena, in 2009.
Funding Note
The acquisition of this collection was made possible by The Abraham and Ruth Goldfarb Family Acquisition Fund.
The digitization of this collection was made possible by the Crown Family.
The accessibility of this collection was made possible by the generous donors to our crowdfunded Save Their Stories campaign.

Rights and Restrictions

Conditions on Access
There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
Conditions on Use
Material(s) in this collection may be protected by copyright and/or related rights. You do not require further permission from the Museum to use this material. The user is solely responsible for making a determination as to if and how the material may be used.

 
Record last modified: 2023-02-24 13:36:54
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn37911