The Diary

A judgmental mother-in-law's dramatic WWII diary leads a writer to reevaluate their relationship, and in a race against her husband’s illness, piece together the Jewish family’s unusual history, including hidden children, detention, and a bold escape from a little-known French internment camp for women.

Liberated from a long-shut suitcase during the Covid lockdown, the German-language diary of Regina Felsen-Torn chronicles her incarceration in Rieucros, a French detention camp for women, where authorities of France’s Third Republic held Jewish immigrants and women suspected of loose morals, dangerous political leanings, or both. Charged with espionage and deprived of due process, Felsen-Torn had been arrested, her ten-month old baby left in the care of family. Felsen-Torn’s vivid eyewitness diary is a unique survivor account of a little-known camp that became part of Vichy France's complex of internment facilities in compliance with Nazi authorities. Uncovering Rieucros, the only camp exclusively for women out of nearly 200 in pre-war France, makes Regina’s account and her daughter-in-law’s framing narrative not only an important contribution to the historical record, but an enthralling read. The author's relationship with her mother-in-law is as particular as it is timeless, with an unexpected bond developing across time from the least likely circumstances.

Complemented by twelve documentary watercolors by Helene Maywald, a German artist interned at the camp.