Background
Initially her father lived with his German General Practice wife in Germany, but moved back to the Netherlands as persecution increased.
Initially her father lived with his German General Practice wife in Germany, but moved back to the Netherlands as persecution increased.
Deen was half-Dutch. Her mother worked for a time as a doctor at a concentration camp at Vught. She was given leave to remain but chose to accompany her family to Sobibor, where she died. After her last diary entry, in early July 1943, Helga Deen was deported to Sobibór extermination camp and murdered.
She was 18 years old.
Deen wrote the diary for her boyfriend, Kees van den Berg, who kept it hidden after the war.
A memorial stone to Helga and her family has been placed by a member of the Dutch Sobibor Foundation on the pathway which used to lead to the gas chambers ("Road to Heaven").
