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As a young Jewish girl, Elizabeth Bellak appeared on stage, on the radio and in Polish films. She was dubbed the 'Polish Shirley Temple' but her career came to an abrupt end at the outbreak of World War Two. She was visiting her grandparents and her older sister, Renia in the city of Przemysl when it was captured by the Soviet Army. Renia began a secret diary about their lives under occupation, but also about falling in love with her boyfriend Zygmund. Renia shared her first kiss with him just hours before the Nazis invaded their city.

The Nazis forced the Jews to live inside ghettos and by 1942, they were facing mass deportation and death. Renia and Elizabeth were smuggled out of the ghetto by Zygmund, but only days afterwards Renia was murdered. Eleven-year-old Elizabeth survived and escaped to Warsaw where she lived with her mother under false papers.

After the war, Elizabeth and her mother started a new life in America but still hid their identity. But in the 1950s, Zygmund turned up at their doorstep – he had survived the death camps and had kept Renia's secret diary safe. Elizabeth and her mother couldn't bear to read it and instead the diary locked in a safe for decades. Elizabeth became a teacher and told everyone, including her husband and children, that she was Catholic, but one day her daughter discovered the truth about her mother's identity and the existence of the hidden diary. She convinced Elizabeth to finally read it and then they published it.

This year Renia's Diary will have been translated into 23 languages, leading to her being described as 'Poland's Anne Frank'.

Across two weeks we’ve curated a collection of love stories from around the world. Love in all its guises; puppy love that falters and finds its feet again, longing through wars and exile, and romance that blooms in the most unexpected places. Messy, beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking. But always human, surprising and unforgettable. You'll find them all on the Outlook website in a box set called Amazing Love Stories.

Presenter: Asya Fouks
Producer: Sarah Kendal
Extracts of Renia's Diary by Renia Spiegel appear, courtesy of Elizabeth Bellak, voiced by Karolina Boka and Radek Boschetty and translated by Anna Blasiak & Marta Dziurosz.

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp 44 330 678 2707

(Photo: Archival photographs of Renia and Zygmund as teenagers. Credit: FAMILY HANDOUT/ARCHIVE ELIZABETH BELLAK/AFP via Getty Images)