Elsa Binder
Elisheva "Elsa" Binder (c. 1920 – 18 June 1942), was a Polish–born Jewish girl who kept a diary in which she documented her life as a Jew during the Holocaust. During the Holocaust, she also courageously helped the other Jews imprisoned in her Stanislawów Ghetto, by smuggling food, money, and other supplies, which may have led to her death at the age of c. 22. She died whilst being shot with guns by the Gestapo. She gained some posthumous fame in her homeland because of her diary, in which she documents her life as a Jew during the Holocaust in 1941 and 1942.
Elsa Binder | |
|---|---|
 A crop of a 1937 black-and-white photograph of Binder (center) with her friends. | |
| Born | Elisheva Binder c. 1920 |
| Died | 18 June 1942 (aged c. 22) Stanislawów Ghetto, Stanislawów, German-occupied Poland (modern-day Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine) |
| Cause of death | Murder by gunshots |
| Resting place | Stanislawów Ghetto, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine |
| Nationality | Polish; later stateless |
| Occupation | Diarist |
| Years active | 1941 – 1942 (as a diarist) |
| Relatives | Dora Binder (sister) Andrea Axt (cousin) |
Binder was born in Stanislawów, Poland, in modern-day Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, c. 1920, where Binder was raised.
In September 1939, the Germans began invading and occupying Poland (with the help of the Soviet Union) and began persecuting Jews in Poland.
In June 1941, the Binder family were trapped in Stanislawów, when the Germans eventually reached their city. Binder lost her citizenship and became stateless. As the persecutions of the Jewish population increased in December 1941, the Binder family were taken into captivity in a ghetto in Stanislawów, where Binder lost her younger sister Dora there in 1942.
From 24 December 1941 until Binder's death on 18 June 1942, she had kept a diary which she wrote in it regularly.
Following her death, Binder was buried in a cemetery in the Stanislawów ghetto.
After World War II ended in 1945, Andrea Axt, Binder's cousin, who had escaped Poland and fled to the United Kingdom, returned to Poland after the war ended, and was given Binder's diary. Axt tried to publish the diary but to no avail.
Early life
Binder was born Elisheva Binder c. 1920 in Stanislawów, Poland (modern-day Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine) to Polish-born Jewish parents. She had an younger sister named Dora. The Binder family practiced Judaism as their reilgion. Binder was nicknamed "Elsa", a short form of Elisheva, for the remainder of her life. In her teenage years, Binder enjoyed hanging out with friends and had a happy life.
In September 1939, Germany invaded and occupied the western part of Poland with the help of the Soviet Union, who attacked the eastern side of Poland, when Binder was c. 19 years old. In June 1941, the Germans eventually reached Stanislawów, the city where the Binder family lived. Twenty-two months later, Germany attempted to invade and occupy the Soviet Union and occupied the remainder of Poland.
Under the Soviet occupation of Poland, conditions were crucial for the Binder family. On October 12, 1941, Germans killed c. ten thousand Jews in Stanislawów (where Binder lived) in a massacre. In December 1941; two months later, the Binder family were taken into captivity in a ghetto (in the same city where Binder lived), where Binder lost her younger sister Dora there in 1942.
Period chronicled in Binder's diary
On 24 December 1941, Binder wrote her first entry in her diary.
Three days later on 27 December 1941, Binder wrote her second entry in her diary. In the entry she wrote that she had about the danger in the ghetto, and that people who live in the ghetto are in constant threat and fear of poverty, violence, starvation, and death. Binder then writes that she had a fight with her mother and were upset at each other for a few days. She then goes on to write that bo matter what moods the two are in, she is Binder's most favorite person and that Binder loves her the most, for she is her "best friend", but that when she sees her mother treats her younger sister Dora, this always makes her "blood boli" and that she becomes "jealous" of her younger sister. She also writes that she does not believes that her mother "loves her younger sister Dora as much as she loves her, but that she demands more from her and is indulgent to Dora". Binder then writes that "she has to express herself more often and more sincerely". She also writes that "she thinks it is very naive and silly, for her to read what she just wrote in her diary". Then she writes that this is her way of thinking. Then she writes "that she apologizes for writing that in her diary without realization", "but that regardless of this discovery, she will continue to write her diary, but that next time she will not read what she just wrote in her diary, right away".
Binder was apparently aware that the atmosphere of continual crisis was distorting her normal attitudes and emotions. She felt the need to discuss her feelings but that she could only confide safely in her diary.
The last entry written in Binder's diary is dated 18 June 1942, the same day she died.
Death
Binder died on 18 June 1942. After World War II ended in Europe, evidence revealed that the last entry of Binder's diary dated 18 June 1942 had stopped abruptly in mid-sentence, and that Binder's diary was found lying in a ditch not far from a "execution cell" used during the Holocaust to exterminate Jews by gunshots in the Stanislawów Ghetto. The Binder family did not survive the Holocaust.
See also
- The Holocaust
- Anne Frank
- Rutka Laskier
- Renia Spiegel
- Ruthka Lieblich
- Věra Kohnová