DAVID KOKER (1921-1945) was transported to the Vught Concentration Camp in 1943. During his time in Vught, David recorded on an almost daily basis his observations, thoughts and feelings. Unlike Anne Frank, who had a purposefully made diary book available in her hiding place, David did not have such a luxury in the camp. He wrote his entries on whatever scraps of paper he was able to find. Most of the paper was the rolling paper for cigarettes-available as the result of a lack of cigarette tobacco. Until early February 1944, David was able to smuggle some 73,000 words from the camp to his best friend Karel van het Reeve, a non-Jew. The part of the diary that David kept between 8 February 1944 and June 1944, when he was deported to Poland, did not survive the war.
"A single book can earn a writer a permanent place in literature,
but to do that it has to be exceptional . . .I do not think that,
after reading the book, anyone will dispute that Dagboek geschreven
in Vught fulfills that condition."--Ivan Sitniakowsky, Telegraaf,
writing about the Dutch edition
"This powerful diary deserves to take its place among the small
number of such journals, notably that of Anne Frank, that elucidate
the evil of the Nazi war against the Jews."--Jewish Book World
"Dutch Jew David Koker's extraordinary diary, a clear-eyed and
sensitive account of life inside a concentration camp, is finally
available in English" --Tablet
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