In an era dominated by social media, no one could have imagined that the calendar of a young Jewish teenager in New York in 1945 would cause such a sensation in the TikTok.
Helaina Ferraioli discovered Charlotte Buchsbaum’s childhood diary in 2019 and shared excerpts of it on TikTok. Public interest was impressive, leading to Buchsbaum’s son discovering the diary his mother had once kept, of which he had no idea existed.
The diary, which dates from 1945, reveals the personal life of a young Jewish teenager in New York during World War II.
Buchsbaum’s narrative combines everyday concerns with important historical events, such as the death of President Roosevelt and the end of the war, things that still evoke great emotion and interest today.
Social media, particularly TikTok, has brought this personal story to light, making it known to millions of people who read and connect with the experience of a teenager in a turbulent time.
“I studied all day. I’m going to the club now” and then: “I wore my pink pencil skirt and new lace top. Pearls and pearl earrings. My hair was loose curls.”
These are some of the diary entries that Helaina Ferraioli shared on her TikTok last week. But these are not her personal stories. They are thoughts and texts written by Charlotte Buchsbaum as a teenager in 1945.
Despite the fact that 79 years have passed and much has changed, the TikTok audience finds common ground with the then-teenager Buchsbaum: She too washed her hair before bed, wrote that her work tired her, and recorded her worries about a world who was at war.
“I love the fact that even though it’s different eras, people are essentially always the same,” was writing a comment.
Somehow, Eric Kaplan got in touch with Ferraioli. He confessed that he was deeply moved by the discovery of his mother’s diary, ten years after her death. He is particularly moved by the way young women connect with his mother’s writings.
“All these women who say they love her,” said Kaplan, 53, a television writer who has worked on “The Big Bang Theory,” “Malcolm in the Middle” and other series. “It moves me so much it brings tears to my eyes and breaks my heart in a beautiful way.”
Ferraioli, 25, is the social media manager for Yesterday’s News, her family’s thrift store in Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens neighborhood.
She told the Washington Post that she bought the diary at an auction in 2019.
She flipped through it, noted a few pages that made an impression on her, and put it in her library. This year he remembered it and decided to share it.
Buchsbaum wrote in her diary about how she passed her algebra test, the death of President Franklin Roosevelt and the day World War II ended – the only entry that lasted more than a page.
Ferraioli realized that “the diary was written during a very important historical period” and decided to share some of its pages on social media.
Both she and her family were surprised that the first TikTok had pover 3 million views.
“As a family that owns a vintage store, of course we deeply appreciate such items,” he said. “But sometimes we forget that the average person doesn’t have access to historical artifacts like these.”
“Personal narrative, even when it’s trivial and trivial, is very interesting,” he said.
“The handwriting and the smudges bring it to life and allow you to become a historian,” commented Lisa Keller, professor of history at Purchase College in New York.
The diary also gives readers a glimpse into Buchsbaum’s daily life, something like the perfect #dayinthelifeanother popular TikTok trend that allows viewers to discover the life of a stranger.
Karissa Haugeberg, professor of history at Tulane University, said the excitement about Buchsbaum’s diary stems from the fact that it is a tangible object that is a testament to her experiences.
He also said that the most important aspect of any diary is that the writer believes their story is powerful, even if no one else reads it.
“Sitting down and writing a journal is like believing you have a story to tell,” she said. “And that’s so essential.”
Ferraioli herself found the diary special because it brought to life in her eyes a world she had only heard about before.
As the diary gained more and more popularity, Ferraioli’s email was flooded with messages from her TikTok audience – mostly women aged 18 to 24 – asking for more information about the diary to help identify the author, find the her descendants and inform them about the calendar, she said.
Ferraioli didn’t put much effort into helping amateur Internet sleuths reach their goal. After all, she believed that many times family members are not always interested in objects that once belonged to their ancestors.
But, he was wrong.
Kaplan told the Post that when he learned about his mother’s diary he was very emotional.
Buchsbaum (whom she knew as Charlotte Kaplan, the name she assumed after her marriage) had never talked about her diary.
A post about the night World War II ended was particularly popular with her fans.
In it, Buchsbaum describes being awakened at 2:30 in the morning by a loud party in the neighborhood. The war is officially over, he learns. The next day, she and four other young women head to Times Square to celebrate. There, they meet Morty, whom he describes as a Canadian sailor.
“The crowd was wild and the soldiers and sailors were kissing anyone they could find,” Buchsbaum wrote.