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Diary of ‘Polish Anne Frank’, kept hidden for over 70 years, to be published next week

Renia Spiegel’s clarity of writing has drawn comparisons to the Dutch teenager's famous diary

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The diary of a teenager dubbed the “Polish Anne Frank”, which has been sealed away in a bank vault in New York for decades, will finally be published by her family.

Renia Spiegel’s journal has drawn comparisons to the Diary of Anne Frank for its clarity and skilful writing.

Renia's Diary: A Young Girl's Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust has been described by publisher Penguin Books as "an extraordinary testament to both the horrors of war, and to the life that can exist even in the darkest times”, CNN reported.

Spiegel, who lived in Przemysl, in south East Poland, was shot by the Nazis in 1942, aged 18.

The diary begins in January 1939 and chronicles her escape from bombing raids in her hometown, the disappearance of other Jewish families and the creation of the ghetto.

Spiegel and her sister, Elizabeth (nee Ariana), got separated from their mother, who was on the German side during the war.

Almost every entry of the diary ends with “God and Bulus will save me”, using the girl's pet name for her mother.

The book also features dozens of poems, and an account of falling in love for the first time with a boy names Zygmunt Schwarzer.

In July 1942, the year after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, she was discovered hiding in an attic and murdered.

Her sister, unable to bring herself to read the diary, deposited it in a bank vault in the United States, where it remained until 2012.

The journal, which runs to almost 700 pages, will be released on September 19.

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