War Diaries (April 24) (nonfiction)
War Diary quotations for April 24
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Quotations
Reina Spiegel: April 24, 1940
Renia Spiegel began her diary in January 1939 at the age of 15.
Terrible things have been happening. There were unexpected nighttime raids that lasted three days. People were rounded up and sent somewhere deep inside Russia. So many acquaintances of ours were taken away. There was terrible screaming at school. Girls were crying. They say 50 people were packed into one cargo train car. You could only stand or lie on bunks. Everybody was singing “Poland has not yet perished.”
About that Holender boy I mentioned: I fell in love, I chased him like a madwoman, but he was interested in some girl named Basia. Despite that, I still like him, probably more than any other boy I know. Sometimes I feel this powerful, overwhelming need...maybe it’s just my temperament. I should get married early so I can withstand it.
—Excerpts from the Diaries of Renia Spiegel @ Smithsonian Magazine
James S. Browning: April 24, 1943
James Smith Browning was a British Flight Sergeant / Radio Specialist. Browning kept a personal diary, which his son later shared with the BBC. Browning served in the Middle East. He was a keen observer, and his diary is rich with interesting observations and anecdotes. Here is an early entry:
Two years ago tonight, just as it was growing dark, our troopship slipped down the dirty brown estuary, dotted here and there with the masts and funnels of sunken ships, and we put to sea. Speculation ran high as to our possible destination. Was it Canada, Rhodesia, Middle East, Iceland, even the United States, in front? Was it any of the countries in the world to which there was the slightest possible chance of our going? This was our sole topic of conversation as we slipped out but it was a topic which soon exhausted itself and bowing it ship's discipline we retired to our hammocks in the hold. There were three hundred and fifty of us in this small hold originally constructed to take the light luggage of pleasure cruisers and we found to our dismay that this was to be our dining hall as well as our sleeping and living quarters.
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External links
- Excerpts from the Diaries of Renia Spiegel @ Smithsonian Magazine
- WW2 People's War @ BBC
- WW2 People's War @ BBC