Author of "Diary from the Warsaw Ghetto".
She was born Miriam Wattenberg in Łódź. Her father, Szaja, was an antiquarian and art dealer whose collection included paintings by Poussin, Delacroix, and Matejko. Her mother, Lena (née Zol), born in New York and a US citizen, was a clothing designer. At the outbreak of World War II, the Wattenberg family fled to Warsaw, where they finally moved in late December after receiving a letter from the American consul. Mary Berg lived in the Warsaw Ghetto, initially at 41 Sienna Street, then from December 1941 at 10 Chłodna Street in the so-called Little Ghetto . She worked in self-help organizations, attended graphic design and architecture courses, and was a member of a theater group called the "Łódź Artistic Group" (ŁZA).
Mary Berg | Public Domain
Just before the beginning of Grossaktion, the Wattenbergs—like other Jews who were citizens of the United States or Great Britain—were interned in Pawiak prison. On January 18, 1943, they were transferred to the camp in Vittel in western France. In March 1944, they were included among those exchanged for German prisoners of war interned by the Allies. The family was deported to neutral Lisbon, from where they reached New York on June 14, 1944, aboard the Swedish liner MS Gripsholm. Mary Berg married William Pentin and settled in York, Pennsylvania, where she died in April 2013.
From October 10, 1939, to March 5, 1944, Mary Berg kept a diary describing life in occupied Warsaw. It was published in April 1945 by LB Fischer in New York. It was the first English-language publication to chronicle her time in the Warsaw Ghetto. It remains a unique source of knowledge about the history of the ghetto and the fate of its inhabitants, as seen through the eyes of a teenage girl.
