Chinwe speaks with brilliant Holocaust survivor, Elizabeth Bellak, and her phenomenal daughter, Alexandra. Eliz­a­beth Bel­lak (born Ari­ana Spiegel) was born in 1930 into an upper-mid­dle class Jew­ish fam­i­ly in Staw­ki, Poland.

When war broke out, Elizabeth and her older sister Renia were visiting their grandparents in the town of Przemyśl. Renia was killed in Przemyśl in 1942, but Elizabeth survived and made her way back to Warsaw along with a friend’s father who was a member of the resistance, eventually moving to New York with her mother. Years later, Elizabeth was miraculously reunited with her sister Renia’s wartime diary, in which Renia had documented their family’s experiences and shared intimate personal reflections.

For decades, Eliz­a­beth kept Renia’s diary to her­self, locked away in a vault, per­haps nev­er to be dis­cov­ered. At the urg­ing of her daugh­ter Alexan­dra, she decid­ed to bring the sto­ry to light. St. Martin's Press published it in 2019 as Renia's Diary and the diary became an international bestseller.

In this episode, they stress the importance of learning from the past and finding unity in the values that connect us as Americans, in order to improve the world for generations to come.

To contact Chinwe or our guest, please visit www.chinweesimai.com.