You know about Anne Frank's diary, but you may not know about another diary that survived - one by Edith Velman who grew up in a Jewish household in the Netherlands and endured the German occupation during WWII.

Edith's Story (940.5318 in the Biography section) is Velman's autobiography using her diary entries as a starting point for talking about her experiences growing up. At first, after the German occupation, she was like any other typical school girl, she didn't notice that much difference. But as time went on, more and more restrictions were put on her family. New rules would crop up one at a time: public transportation was forbidden; a yellow star had to be sewn on her exterior clothes; the family was only allowed to buy food during a certain time of the day; public school was forbidden. She writes in her diary about each new regulation, saying that it's not so bad - it's just one rule. Her personality, even after several more restrictions, was mostly upbeat, saying that eventually the Germans would leave. She was optimistic that Great Britain or the United States would save them.

Edith was lucky to have a courageous Protestant family take her in the same month as Anne Frank, and was passed off as part of the family.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007