The Holocaust in Literature

A

A Bag of Marbles. Joseph Joffo. Chicago. The University of Chicago Press. 1974. 318 pages. ISBN 0-226-40069-7

Life for Joseph and his brother Maurice is as it should be; enjoying being young. With the Nazi Occupation of France, their journey begins. Learning to survive in a world that is trying to kill them, Joseph and Maurice travel the breadth of France trying to stay ahead of the Germans and deportation.

• allows the reader to participate in the "adventure"
• provides a view of life under Occupation without being brutal
• some chapters are too long (one is 40 pages long)
• contains an afterward written 30 years after the book's original publication

A Child Alone. Martha Blend. Portland, Oregon. Vallentine Mitchell. 1995. 168 pages. ISBN 0-85303-297-1

Blend's story starts with the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. Through her eyes we learn of life for Jews under Nazi occupation. Blend is selected for a Kindertransport. Upon her arrival in England she is placed with a foster family who attempt to provide her with a home away from home. The story continues with life after the war and Blend's realization that she must come to terms with her past.

• suitable for high school
• contains sophisticated language
• much of the focus is on schooling
• contains black and white photos

A Child of Hitler; Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika. Alfons Heck. Frederick, CO. Renaissance House. 1985. 207 pages. ISBN 0-939650-44-4

Joining the Jungvolk at ten, by seventeen Alfons Heck was a Lieutenant in the Wehrmacht. His life was the Fuhrer's. Without excuses, Heck examines his life as a youth in Nazi Germany.

• not for the novice reader
• a comprehensive view of one man's world in Nazi Germany
• story found in excerpts in Parallel Journeys
• Tyler, age 13; I would recommend this book because it gives you an idea of the German point of view.

A Place to Hide: True Stories of Holocaust Rescues. Jayne Pettit. New York. Scholastic, Inc. 1993. 114 pages. ISBN 0-590-45353-X

Rescuers stories included are Mieps Gies, Oskar and Emily Schindler, the country of Denmark, the town of Le Chambon, France, and Padre Niccacci and the Assisi Underground. A brief historical background is provided for each rescuer. The final chapter includes brief summaries of 6 other rescuers.

• very readible for less proficient readers
• contains an index, bibliography, foreward, epilogue
• brief introduction provides historical framework
• contains black and white photos

A Special Fate, Chuine Sugihara: Hero of the Holocaust. Alison Leslie Gold. New York. Scholastic Press. 2000. 176 pages. ISBN 0-590-39525-4

Chuine Sugihara, Japanese Consul to Lithuania, knew he had to do something for the hundreds of Jews who arrive at his gate asking for visas to Shanghai. Despite his government's orders not to do so, he wrote by hand over 300 visas. Interspersed with the Sugihara story are the stories of two children who received visas.

• contains author's note, black and white photographs, and an epilogue
• written for less sophisticated readers although very interesting for more proficient readers
• excellent companion to picture book, Passage to Freedom, The Suighara Story, by Ken Mochizuki
• inserted chapters for two children can be confusing if reader unaware
• maps and background knowledge would be helpful

**After the Darkness: Reflections on the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel. New York. Schocken Books. 2002. 48 pages. ISBN 0-8052-4182-5

In this oversized volume Wiesel provides a brief history of significant events of the Holocaust illustrated with photographs from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection. Included are testimonies of watershed events.

• suitable for middle school
• despite brevity provides a summary from prewar life to life in the DP camps and after
• contains large fold out pages with photos

An Uncommon Friendship. Bernat Rosner and Frederic C. Turback with Sally Patterson Turback. Berkeley, CA. University of California Press. 2000. 271 pages. ISBN 0-520-22531-7.

Bernat and Fred are from two different worlds; Bernat, a Jew deported to Auschwitz and Fred, a member of the Jundenvolk whose father is a member of the SS. Yet, they become friends and try to understand each other's past worlds. This is a telling of their individual stories before, during, and after the war.

• Bernat's story is told in the 3rd person by Fred while he tells his own. This format prevents confusion between whose story is being told.
• most moving and significant part of book is the telling of the events in Bernat's life during the Holocaust
• contains forward by the authors explaining where "they are coming from", chapter notes, and captioned photographs
• suitable for high school

And the Sun Kept Shining. Bertha Ferderber-Salz. New York. Holocaust Publications, Inc. 1980. 234 pages. ISBN 0-89604-15-1

Until the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Bertha Ferderber lived quietly in Cracow with her husband and their two daughters. With the invasion her life, as those of millions of others in Nazi-occupied Europe, was torn apart. We learn of her attempts to hide her daughters from the daily resettlements, life in the Cracow ghetto and the Plaszow Labor Camp, survival in hiding in the small villages around Cracow,, her deportation to Auschwitz and, finally, her arrival at Bergen-Belsen. As this journey ends, she leads us on another in her attempts after liberation to find her daughters and what remains of her family.

• suitable for high school and above
• provides insight into people, rescuers, perpetrators, and victims, during the war and after
• contains black/ white photos

**Anne Frank: A Hidden Life. Mirjam Pressler. New York. Dutton Children's Books. 2000. 178 pages. ISBN 0-525-4633330-5

Pressler, editor of the definitive edition of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl,explores the life and world of this young girl. Using excerpts from the diary she provides insights into the people and events in Anne's world. Starting with Otto Frank's return to Amsterdam and his decision to publish Anne's diary, Pressler describes the Frank family decision to go into hiding, the inhabitants of the Secret Annex and Anne's views of each, the helpers, and finally, Anne herself, providing details of daily life and relationships in the Secret Annex.

• suitable for high school and above
• contains chronology, bibliography of resources used, postscript by author
• compares original version,, critical edition and definitive version
• good reading companion to diary

Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary. Ruud van der Rol and Rian Verhoeven. New York. Scholastic, Inc. 1992. 113 pages. ISBN 0-590-47447-2.

Written for the Anne Frank House this photographic remembrance is an excellent addition to the reading of The Diary of Anne Frank whether it be by a class or an individual. Through extensive use of photos Anne and her family's life before and during hiding is revealed.

• provides a broader understanding of Anne and her world
• incorporates excerpts from Anne's diary into text
• contains a chronology of the Frank family and the families in the Secret Annex, notes on the different versions of Anne Frank, sources of quotations and photographs, and an index to the people and places found in the book
• suitable for 5 grade up

Anne Frank: Life in Hiding. Johanna Hurwitz. New York. The Jewish Publication Society. 1988. 62 pages. ISBN 0-8276-0311-8

This readable biography tells about Anne's family and their life before World War II, Anne's years in hiding, her arrest, and how her diary came to be published. Very suitable for younger readers.

• contains a chronology of important dates, index, and author's note
• Notable 1988 Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies
• nominated for the Texas Blue Bonnet Award

Anne Frank: The Biography. Melissa Muller. New York. Henry Holt and Company, LLC. 1998. 330 pages. ISBN 0-8050-5997-0

This meticulous biography offers a full accounting of the lives of Anne and her family and establishes a historical framework in which to understand the Frank family and the choices made. It offers a picture of what life in the secret annex was like, relates the events after the betrayal and arrest as they might have happened, and tells what did happen to the annex inhabitants and others mentioned in the text.

• suitable for high school (initial chapters are overloaded with details about the family and relatives)
• chapter on secret annex very useful in showing life in the annex
• "humanizes" the inhabitants of the secret annex
• chapter notes provide sources of information
• contains note by Miep Gies and an index

**Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Hide the Frank Family. Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold. New York. Simon & Schuster. 1987. 253 pages. ISBN 0-671-54771-2

The second part of the title best describes this book. It is not just the story of Miep and the others involved in hiding the Frank family, but also the story of life in Holland and Amsterdam, in particular, prior to the war, during occupation, and after liberation. Simply written, it contains three parts: Refugees, In Hiding, and The Darkest Days. Through Miep's description the reader learns of the day to day difficulties and anxieties faced both for herself and the others supporting those in the annex and by those in hiding.

• suitable for middle school and above
• explains how diary came to be published
• contains prologue, epilogue, maps of Netherlands and Amsterdam, floor plan of annex
• contains black/ white photos of Miep, Franks, and others involved in hiding Franks

**Anne Frank's Story: Her Life Retold for Children. Carol Ann Lee. Canada. Troll Communications L.L.C. 2002. 105 pages. ISBN 0-8167-7427-7

Lee offers a brief story of Anne Frank's life for the younger or less proficient reader. Chapters cover the family's life in Germany and the reasons for the move to Amsterdam, Anne's life in Amsterdam including school, her best friends, and her father's business at 263 Priensengracht, life in hiding and the family's arrest, Anne and her family's treatment at Birkenau and at Bergen-Belsen, and her father's return and the publication of Anne's diary. Lee uses the real names of those individual's in Anne's life, not the pseudonyms from Anne's diary.

• suitable for younger readers
• contains map Europe 1939 and black/white photographs
• contains glossary, however, vocabulary is defined in parenthesis after the first usage
• uses excerpts from the diary and quotes from family members (i.e. Buddy Elias)

All But My Life; A Memoir. Gerda Weissman Klein. New York. Hill and Wang. 1995. 261 pages. ISBN 0-8090-1580-3

Klein's memoir is a story of a wall closing in around her family as they move from a world of the everyday to the horrors of being Jewish in Nazi occupied Poland. We experience life under occupation, separation from family, life in numerous labor camps, the love of youth, and, finally, liberation and a return to living. Amid the horrors and hard work, we experience Klein's dreams of a homecoming that would never happen.

• moving story that takes the reader on a emotional ride
• basis of an HBO Academy Award winning best documentary for short subject, One Survivor Remembers

As the Waltz Was Ending. Emma Macalik Butterworth. New York. Scholastic, Inc. 1982. 262 pages. ISBN 0-590-4440-9

Emmy's whole world was ballet. This is the story of her life in Vienna prior to and after Nazi occupation. It is the story of survival under occupation and how lives were changed.

• although a large part of the first section of the book is devoted to Emmy's discovery of and learning of ballet, it provides a picture of life in Vienna prior to the war
• excellent for showing how life changed under occupation and treatment by Russians after liberation

Assignment: Rescue, An Autobiography. Varian Fry. New York. Scholastic, Inc. 1968. 183 pages. ISBN 0-590-46970-3

Initially recruited to help work for one month in Marseilles, France helping writers, artists, and musicians wanted by the Gestapo escape, American Varian Fry's stay becomes a year. As the book progresses it becomes an intrigue as if Fry were in a maze trying to find the way out; one moment making progress only to have a road block placed in his path that he needs to find a way around.

• provides insight into a different aspect of the Holocaust
• shows us the "behind the scene" efforts made to save people from the Gestapo
• gives a glimpse of the United States' attitude toward Germany prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor

Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land. Sara Nomberg-Przytyk. Chapel Hill, North Carolina. University of North Carolina. 1985. 185 pages. ISBN 0-8078-4160-9.

After 2 years in a ghetto, Sara Nomberg-Przytyk is transported to Auschwitz. She shares her feelings of the loss of dignity, the loss of identity, and the humiliation. She shares stories of small kindness', as well as, cruelty. She shares the absurdity and the cruelty of it all. As she tell us about her time at Auschwitz her stories of the people put faces on the millions,

• suitable for high school
• allows the reader to "meet" the inhabitants of Auschwitz, both the good and the bad
• shares the emotional needs of camp inmates

B

top

The Beautiful Days of My Youth: My Six Months at Auschwitz and Plaszow. Ana Novac. New York. Henry Holt and Company, Inc. 1992. 314 pages. ISBN 0-8050-5018-3

Ana Novac survived. Through her 14 year old eyes we learn about her life at Birkenau and the Plaszow Labor Camp. Her observations of the individuals and the world around her are mature beyond her years. Although her story is at times brutal, it is not overly graphic.

• prior knowledge of Hungarian Jews/ Auschwitz and Goeth/ Plaszow Labor Camp helpful
• mature reader needed due to journal breaks and unidentified shifts in time and place
• contains a glossary of terms, index, and notes to clarify historical aspects of the text
• winner Elle (France) Reader's Choice Award

**Behind the Bedroom Window: Memoir of a Hidden Childhood During World War Two. Nelly S. Toll. New York. Dial Books. 1993. 161 pages. ISBN 0-8037-1362-2

With her mother the author is hidden for 13 months from the Nazis by a Gentile family in Lwow, Poland. Contains reproductions of beautiful watercolor painting completed by the author while she was in hiding. Based on the notes started by the Toll when the Nazis invaded Lwow in 1941 and the journal/diary she kept while in hiding.

• suitable for middle school
• contains preface, historical note, and epilogue
• provides a picture of life as restrictions increase, her first attempts to escape the persecution and, finally, the long ordeal of life in hiding

The Big Lie: A True Story. Isabella Leitner. New York. Scholastic, Inc. 1992. 79 pages. ISBN 0-590-45570-2

The limited length of this book belies the depth of content found. Starting with the invasion of Budapest in 1944, the reader experiences the roundup of Isabella, her family and the other Jews of Kisvarda, Hungry into a ghetto and their deportation to Auschwitz.

• written in short chapters with limited text
• suitable for less proficient readers
• describes selection , process in the gas chambers, and day to day life in Auschwitz

**The Bonfire of Berlin: A Lost Childhood in Wartime Germany. Helga Schneider. London. William Heinemann. 2005. 220 pages. ISBN 0-434-01050-2

Abandoned in 1941 when her mother joins the SS and becomes a warder at Birkenau, Helga is left with her stepmother. Their poor relationship results in Helga's placement in an institution for unwanted children and then a school for children with personality disorders. In the fall of 1944 she returns to her family in Berlin. She describes life in Berlin during the winter of '45 and her amazing visit to the Chancellery Bunker and meeting Hitler.

• suitable for middle school
• provides a young German's perspective of war

C

top

The Cage. Ruth Minsky Sender. New York. Aladdin Books. 1986. 264 pages. ISBN 0-689-81321-X

This emotional story of a young girl who becomes an adult before her time tells of the author's life in the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz, and two work camps. The choices made are bitter and heartbreaking showing strength of character.

• "luck" and its role in survival are here
• provides a real picture of ghetto life
• Christina, age 13; I would recommend this book because some people think after bad things happen or they lose a close friend or relative, their life isn't worth living, but this book might give them a different perspective.

Children in the Holocaust and World War II: Their Secret Diaries. Laurel Holliday. New York. Washington Square Press. 1995. 409 pages. ISBN 0-671-52055-5

Excerpts of the diaries of 23 children, Jew and Gentile, ranging in age from 10 to 18 provide the reader with vivid perspective of a world in disarray. Each entry contains a brief description with the circumstances under which the diary was written. Through the eyes of these children the reader learns of the horrors of life in hiding and surviving the bombing of London. We learn of life in the Vilna and Lodz ghettos. We learn of the courage to resist and the need to leave a record of life.

• provides a representative telling of what war was like for children
• excellent to supplement historical information, i.e. study of ghettos
• contains photos of some children, an introduction and a map showing locations represented in book
• School Library Journal Best Adult Book for Young Adults in 1995
• New York Public Library Best book for the Teen Age, 1996

**Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz. Lucille Matalon Lugnado & Sheila Cohn Dekel. New York. William Morrow & Co., Inc. 1991. 320 pages. ISBN 0-688-09695-6.

Between 1943-1944 an estimated 3000 twins passed through Mengele's laboratories. As of 1984 only about 100 were known to survive. Written as parallel stories of Mengele's life and that of the twins, chapters look at their early lives and childhoods, experiences at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and their postwar lives.

• suitable for high school and above
• looks at the emotional and physical effects of the twins' experiences
• extensive focus on Mengele's postwar life
• contains index, preface, chapter notes, bibliography, afterward, and black/white captioned photographs

**Children of the Swastika: The Hitler Youth. Eileen Heyes. Brookfield. CT. The Millbrook Press. 1993. 96 pages. ISBN 1-56294-237-9

Heyes provides a well-researched account of the origins of the Hitler Youth. In addition to describing the indoctrination and training regiment, the author explains how it was converted into a vital part of Germany's war machine.

• suitable for middle school
• brief description of the economic/ political climate in post WW I Germany and Hitler's rise to power
• contains captioned black/white photographs, annotated bibliography, chronology and index

The Children of Willesden Lane-Behind the Kindertransport: A Memoir of Music, Love, and Survival. Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen. New York. Warner Books, Inc. 2002. 272 pages. ISBN 0-446-52781-5

For Lisa Jura, who lives in Vienna with her parents and two sisters, her focus is on her piano lessons. After Kristallnacht, she is sent on a Kindertransport to England. There she must adjust to life without her family as she lives with 30 other Kinder who don't have sponsors. Mona Golabek, Lisa's daughter, tells the story of her mother's life during the Blitz of London and her attempts to continue her music education as she and the other Kinder wait for word of their families' fates.

• suitable for middle school
• provides picture of life as a Kinder
• tells not just Lisa's life but that of several other Kinder
• epilogue tells what happens after end of the book and the fate of Lisa's parents

**Clara's Story. Clara Isaacman as told to Joan Adess Grossman. Phildelphia. The Jewish Publication Society of America. 1984. 120 pages. ISBN 0-8276-0243-X

Convinced it "Won't happen here.", Clara's family decides to stay in Belgium. When it becomes obvious that they are in danger, it is too late to escape. Life is then spent moving from place to place as Clara and her family hide from the Nazis.

• short chapters written in chronlogical order and dated
• excellent for less proficient readers
• contains a prologue, epilogue and some photos

**The Cigarette Sellers of Three Crosses Square. Joseph Ziemian. Minneapolis. Lerner Publications. 1975. 166 pages. ISBN 0-8225-0757-9

The amazing story of Jewish children hiding under the noses of the Germans outside the Warsaw Ghetto. Through their own ingenuity and luck they manage to outsmart those who would imprison them. The author, a member of the Jewish Resistance in Warsaw, tells the this astonishing story.

• suitable for middle school
• contains a forward which briefly describes the circumstances in the Warsaw Ghetto and an introduction by the author explaining the circumstances behind the book
• contains black and white photos of children during timeframe of story and after the war
• book available through interlibrary loan

Commitment to the Dead; One Woman's Journey Toward Understanding. Helen H. Waterford. Frederick, CO. Renaissance House. 1987. 168 pages. ISBN 0-939650-62-2

Helen Waterford tells her story; a story about growing up under Nazi control, marriage and the birth of a child, separation from her child and husband, deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau, life as a displaced person, and reunion with her child.

• reads as a conversation with Mrs. Waterford
• interspersed with questions by individuals she speaks to and her responses
• story found in excerpts in Parallel Journeys
• contains bibliography

The Courage to Care: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust. Carol Rittner, RSM & Sondra Meyers, Editors. New York. New York University Press. 157 pages. ISBN 0-8147-7406-7

These are stories of rescue told by those rescued and those who had the courage to care. These are stories of Jews and non-Jews, of individuals and whole communities. The stories come from France, Denmark, Poland, the Netherlands. Italy, and Norway. Four of the stories can be viewed on the video, Courage to Care.

• includes Le Chambon, France
• excellent supplement to video, Courage to Care
• foreword and Reflections essay by Elie Wiesel
• brief background of Holocaust by Irving Greenberg
• contains essays: Examples of Heroism, Ten Questions, They Could Do No Other, and The Courage to Care

D

top

Darkness Over Denmark: The Danish Resistance and the Rescue of the Jews. Ellen Levine. New York. Holiday House. 2000. 164 pages. ISBN 0-8234-1447-7.

Using personal testimonies of individuals involved in Danish resistance, Levine relates the evolution of Danish resistance from small acts of defiance to sabotage. In addition to a brief history of Jews in Denmark, the movement of the Jews to Sweden by boat and the deportation of those who did not escape to Terezin is described.

• extensive use of captioned archival photos
• contains an index, a who's who of individuals involved with a brief bio of each, source notes, a selelcted chronology, a bibliography, and maps of Europe and Denmark during World War II
• excellent read, as well as, resource
• invaluable to anyone interested in Denmark and the Nazis

The Death Brigade (The Janowska Road). Leon W. Wells. New York. Holocaust Library, Inc. 1963. 307 pages. ISBN 0-89604-000-3

The Wells' family lived an orthodox life in Lvov, Poland until the arrival the Germans. This is the story of Wells, a young Jew, who is interned in the Janowska concentration camp from which he escapes and is recaptured and assigned to the Death Brigade which worked to wipe out any traces of the mass executions of inmates. He escapes a second time and goes into hiding until liberation.

• suitable for high school and above
• tells the little known story of the Janowska concentration camp
• provokes very intense graphic pictures
• Doctor Wells testified at the Nuremberg Trials and the Eichmann trial

The Dentist of Auschwitz: A Memoir. Benjamin Jacobs. Lexington, Kentucky. The University Press of Kentucky. 1995. 231 pages. ISBN 0-8131-9012-6

Born and raised in Dobra, a small shtetl in Poland, little did Berek Jakubowicz realize how his training as a dental student would help him survive the horrors of life in the Nazi labor camps. Deported with his father, Jacobs tells of loss of family, what life was like as a prisoner, and eventual freedom and the journey to create a new life.

• suitable for high school and above
• reads well, taking reader through journey from ghetto to labor camps to Auschwitz and finally death marches through Germany
• role luck and being in the right place at the right time played
• not overly graphic
• contains maps, black/white photos
• contains appendixes and index

**Doctor to the Resistance: The Heroic True Story of an American Surgeon and his Family in Occupied Paris. Hal Vaughn. Washington, D.C. Brassey's Inc. 2004. 205 pages. ISBN 1-57488-773-4

Dr. Sumner Jackson, a Maine native and a surgeon at the American Hospital of Paris, with his wife Torquette and son Phillip treat French resistance fighters and contribute to their cause. They are eventually arrested and interned. This is not only their story, but also the story of French resistance during the occupation.

• suitable for high school and above
• contains prologue, epilogue, appendix, chapter notes, and black/ white captioned photographs
• at times, gets "hung up" in unrelated details

The Drowned and the Saved. Primo Levi. New York. Simon and Schuster, Inc. 1988. 203 pages. ISBN 0-671-63280-9

Forty years after liberation, Levi revisits the Lager and discusses the "unbelieveablity" of the events there and the characteristics of remembering. He examines "power" over others and its uses, the guilt felt during and after imprisonment by those who survived, "incommunicability" in the Lagers, and violence as an end in itself.

• suitable for high school and above
• Levi questions whether those who survived are the true witnesses
• excellent for discussions on how man is changed when confronted with a world of inhumanity

Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood. Nechama Tec. New York. Oxford University Press. 1984. 242 pages. ISBN 0-19-503500-3

The compelling story of Nechama Bawik Tec and her family's survival in Nazi occupied Poland. From Lublin to Kielce, as her family is hidden by Poles, Tec passes as a Gentile and provides the family with an economic link to the outside world.

• not for the novice reader
• allows the reader to experience the life of a young girl trying to understand the world created by the Nazis

 

E

top

'80629' A Mengele Experiment. Gene Church. Richardson, Texas. Sharon Kimberly Damon Publishing Company. 1986. 291 pages. ISBN 0-937875-00-7

The powerful story of Jack Oran who survived human experimentation at Auschwitz/ Birkenau. The reader is immediately immersed in the brutality and horror of deportation and arrival at Birkenau, the day to day attempts to survive, and the terror inherent in the world of Auschwitz.

• suitable for mature high school students
• portriat of the day to day terror of Auschwitz and the "choiceless choices" the inmates had to make
• epilogue tells of Oran's life after war
• caution about accuracy some info, i.e. use of fat from those cremated to make soap
• republished in 1996 by Route 66 Publishers, Aburquerque, New Mexico

Eleanor's Story: An American Girl in Hitler's Germany. Eleanor Ramrath Garner. Atlanta, Georgia. Peachtree Publishers, Ltd. 1999. 268 pages. ISBN 1-56145-193-2.

Eleanor's father, a German immigrant living in the United States, accepts a job in Berlin. While the family is sailing to Germany, war breaks out and the family is unable to return to America. Thus begins Eleanor's experiences on the "inside" of the war providing us with a point of view of someone who is not Jewish and not German living in Berlin.

• contains captioned photographs of Eleanor's family
• prologue provides historical background information
• also the story of the joys, fears, and frustrations of a young girl growing up
• International Reading Association's 1999 Children's Book Award
• An ALA 2000 Best Book for Young Adults
• Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People for 2000
• lesson plan posted at www.Holocaust-trc.org/Eleanor_story_lp.htm as of 12/18/00

Elli: Coming of Age in the Holocaust. Livia E. Bitton Jackson. New York. Times Books. 1980. 248 pages. ISBN 0-8129-6327-X.

Thirteen year old Elli lives in a small Hungarian village at the edge of the Carpathian Mountains and dreams of life away from the village, of boys, and of going to Budapest to enter the gymnasium. Each day new restrictions are placed upon the Jews of her village until finally they are moved, first into a ghetto, and then to Auschwitz. Using rich, moving description, Elli shares with us her dreams, her nightmares, and finally, her loss of identity as she and her mother struggle to survive in the hell called Auschwitz.

• suitable for sophisticated middle school readers
• contains excellent descriptions of arrival at Auschwitz and the quickness with which individual identities are lost
• causes the reader to wonder how she was able to survive
• adapted for younger readers as I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust
• winner 1981 Christopher Award for book which affirms the highest values of the human spirit

**The End of Days: A Memoir of the Holocaust. Helen Sendyk. New York. St. Martin's Press. 1992. 233 pages. ISBN 0-312-06962-6

For Helen, her parents and seven brothers and sisters life would never be the same with the Nazi invasion of Poland. Sendyk describes the increased restrictions, ghettoization and finally, deportation of the family. Miraculously, Helen and her sister remain together as they are moved from labor camp to labor camp. As the war ends, they discover that together with one brother, they are all that remains of the twelve members of the Stapler family.

• suitable for high school and above
• contains index, preface by author and black & white photographs
• describes, although she did not witness, what happens to family members

Escape or Die: True Stories of Young People Who Survived the Holocaust. Ina R. Friedman. Boston. Yellow Moon Press. 1991. 146 pages. ISBN 0-938756-6

This is a collection of twelve stories of children and teenagers, ages 6-19, who survived the Holocaust. These are stories of life under Nazi occupation. Some escaped while others joined the resistance. Some were hidden while others were captured and tortured. Each tells the rare story of survival when 1.5 million children perished. The stories represent the following countries: Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Belgium, Ukraine, France, Hungary and Poland.

• provides an historical synopsis of what was happening in the countries focused on in the book
• contains glossary and index
• stories suitable to use individually

**Eva's Story. Eva Schloss with Evelyn Julia Kent. New York. St. Martin's Press. 1989. 224 pages ISBN 0-312-02913-6

This could be the untold story of Anne Frank and her family after their arrest and deportation to Birkenau. Like Anne Frank ,Eva and her family went into hiding in Amsterdam, were arrested and deported to Birkenau. However, Eva and her mother survive their terrible journey and here is their story.

• suitable of high school and above
• contains a table of contents, family tree, black and white captioned photos, map, epilogue and postscript
• Eva's mother marries Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father, in 1953

F

top

**Fiet's Vase and Other Stories of Survival, Europe 1939-1945. Alison Leslie Gold. New York. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penquin. 2003. 244 pages. ISBN 1-58542-258-2

This is a collection personal accounts focusing on themes to illustrate the various strengths people drew on during this dark time in history. The book is divided into two parts. The first, The Archaelolgy of Survival, contains thirteen stories including Vrba's story of escape from Birkenau. The second, Survival, focuses on such themes as love, music and memory and includes the story of Simon Wiesenthal and his wife.

• suitable for high school and above
• contains table of contents, bibliography, and afterword by author
• caution as some section contain multiple untitled stories and confusion may arise when shift takes place

Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terezin. Susan Goldman Rubin. New York. Holiday House. 2000. 48 pages. ISBN 0-8234-1461-2.

We know the poetry and the drawings of the children of Terezin; now we can learn the story of the woman who encouraged the children to express themselves through art. After a brief introduction, Rubin incorporates the drawings and the poetry of the children to tell us about everyday life in Terezin; hunger, disease, fear of "resettlement in the East", and the dreams and how Friedl sought to make life more bearable.

• not just the story of one woman, but rather the story of thousands of others
• contains an index and a reference listing of related publications, videos, unpublished diaries, papers and lectures, sound recordings, CD's, and web sites
• excellent companion to .I Never Saw Another Butterfly ed. by Hana Volavkova

Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz. Olga Lengyel. Chicago. Academy Chicago Publishers. 1995. 231 pages. ISBN 0-89733-376-4

When her husband is arrested and is to be sent to Germany, Lengyel, as many others did, decided to go with him taking along their young son. Their fate is sealed. Five Chimneys takes us on their journey to Auschwitz and her day to day survival in this living hell.

• suitable for high school and above
• describes daily life in Auschwitz; the physical and mental hardships, choices inmates were forced to make, roles of inmates
• contains glossary

Flying Against the Wind. Ina R. Friedman. Brookline, MA. Lodgepole Press. 1995. 202 pages. ISBN 1-886721-00-9

Cato's world allowed her the freedom to imagine and encouraged the acceptance of others. When Germany went to war Cato found she could not stand by and allow those around her to be persecuted. Despite the risks she joins a small group of non-Jewish Germans who worked to help those victimized.

• written chronologically with short chapters
• excellent perspective of life in Germany
• even more powerful since its a true story
• suitable for sophisticated middle school readers
• NCSS/CBC Notable Book

Forging Freedom: A True Story of Heroism During the Holocaust. Hudson Talbott. New York. G. P. Putman's. 2000. 64 pages. ISBN 0-399-23434-9

Forging Freedom tells the true story of Jaap Penraat, a young Dutch man, who by saving the lives of 406 Dutch Jews teaches us the story of man's humanity and the "golden rule".

• suitable for less proficient readers
• illustrations supplement the text
• good portrayal of man's roles: activist, perpetrator, bystander, victim
• lesson plan posted at www.Holocaust-trc.org/ffplan.htm as of 10/30/00

Four Perfect Pebbles:A Holocaust Story. Lil Perl and Marion Blumenthal Lazan. New York. Scholastic, Inc.1996 .130 pages. ISBN 0-590-38196-2

Nine year-old Marion is convinced that finding four perfect pebbles will ensure her family's survival; of Westerbrook under German occupation, of Bergen-Belsen, and of the journey on the "death train" through Germany and their liberation by the Russians. Historical background is incorporated in the text, and captioned photos of Marion's family are included.

• although the point of view of the story shifts without warning this is suitable for less proficient readers
• contains a bibliography of related readings
• provides a comprehensive history of events leading up to and involving WW II
• Kristle, age 13: I would recommend this book because it gives you background information about the Holocaust and how one family struggled to survive.

Fragments of Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz. Isabella Leitner.New York. Thomas Y. Crowell, Publishers. 1978. 112 pages. ISBN 0-690-01779-0

Isabella, her mother, her four sisters, and her brother are deported from a Hungarian ghetto to Auschwitz. Isabella and two sisters survive. Through short chapters, we hear Isabella's pleading cries and feel her pain as the four sisters try to stay alive, to stay together.

• short chapters focus on "fragments" of Isabella's world at Auschwitz and her life after at a camp in Germany, on a death march, and life after the war
• not suitable for less sophisticated readers
• personal and emotional, but written in a detached tone
• epilogue by husband tells of continuing emotional scars after war

**From Ashes to Life: My Memories of the Holocaust. Lucille Eichengreen with Harriet Hyman Chamberlain. San Francisco. Mercury House. 1994. 217 pages. ISBN 1-56279-052-8

With elegance Eichengreen's memoir tells of her journey through the hell of the Lodz ghetto, Birkenau, Neuengamme and Bergen-Belsen, and finally, liberation and the excruciating realization that she is her family's only survivor. After liberation she works as an interpreter for the British and testifies at the Nuremberg war trials. She emigrates to the United States and builds a new life only returning to Germany and Poland in 1991.

• suitable for high school and above
• contains black/ white family photographs
• survival a combination of luck and intelligence and language skills that got her less arduous assignments from the Nazis

G

top

Grace in the Wilderness: After the Liberation, 1945-1985. Aranka Siegal. New York. Puffin Books. 1985. 220 pages. ISBN 0-14-036967-8

Grace in the Wilderness is the sequel to Upon the Head of a Goat: A Childhood in Hungary, 1939-1944. As Piri tells about life after liberation, adjustment to the 'real' world, attending school again, falling in love, and plans to immigrate to America, the reader learns about life in the camps.

• provides an excellent view of life after liberation and the difficulties faced by many
• provides insight into the emotional loss felt by survivors
• NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies

H

top

Hana's Suitcase: A True Story. Karen Levine. Morton Grove, Illinois, Albert Whitman & Co. 2003. 111 pages. ISBN 0-8075-3148-0

Fumiko Ishioka was determined to learn the story behind the suitcase her small Japanese Holocaust Center had received from the Auschwitz. Told in alternating chapters, we learn of Fumiko's search for the story of Hana Brady, the owner of the suitcase, and Hana's story itself, her family, her life growing up, and finally, her deportation.

• suitable for upper elementary school
• intro contains brief historical background and how search into Hana's suitcase came about
• contains black/white captioned photos
• story can be found online at radio.cbc.ca/programs/thismorning/sites/people/hanassuitcase_010119/hana_main.html

Hidden Child of the Holocaust: A True Story. Stacy Cretzmeyer. Troll Communications L.L.C. 1999. 192 pages. ISBN 0-8167-6518-9

Adapted from Your Name is Renee: Ruth Kapp Hartz's Story as a Hidden Child in Nazi-Occupied France. Fleeing the Germans Ruth and her family flee Paris to southern France where they will be safe. Instead, they survive a life in hiding with the help of the inhabitants of a small southern France village.

• suitable for middle school
• preface by author tells circumstances under which author came to know and write Ruth's story
• three parts, escape, in hiding, and liberation, provide timeline
• afterward by Ruth Kapp Hartz tells of her return to the village where she hid
• some historical background information of Nazi-occupied France incorporated in text

**Hidden Children: Forgotten Survivors of the Holocaust. André Stein. Toronto, Canada. Penguin Books. 1994. 273 pages. ISBN 0-14-017051-0

Himself a hidden child, Stein shares the stories of 10 child survivors. Each illustrates a different aspect of the hiding experience and its aftermath with reflections on the emotional, psychological and physical effects of hiding for each child and hidden children in general.

• suitable for high school and above
• interesting reflections on circumstances that allowed one child to survive emotionally better than another and how life in hiding has effected their lives since

** The Hidden Children of the Holocaust: Teens Who Hid from the Nazis. Esther Kustanowitz. New York. The Rosen Publish Group, Inc. 1999. 64 pages. ISBN 0-8239-2562-5

Part of the Teen Witnesses to the Holocaust Series, this edition contains the personal narratives of 5 teenagers who hid from the Nazis. Each narrative contains background information and through the teenager's own words tells of hiding from the Nazis and life after liberation. Black/white captioned photographs are used to supplement the text.

• suitable for grade 5 and up
• contains timeline, glossary, list for further reading and an index

**Hiding in Plain Sight: The Incredible Story of a German-Jewish Teenager's Struggle to Survive in Nazi-Occupied Poland. Betty Lauer. Hanover, NH. Smith & Kraus, Inc. 2004. 563 pages. ISBN 1-5752-348-8

After her father's expulsion from Germany and his departure for America, life for Bertel, her mother and sister changed drastically with increased restrictions and their forced relocation to Poland. So begins her journey from the ghettoes of Poland to a life trying to survive using false papers. Finally, Bertel and her mother, passing as Polish Christians, are rounded up with thousands of others after the Warsaw Uprising and shipped to Germany as slave laborers. Liberation does not bring the expected joy, but rather the frantic attempts to escape Communist-controlled Poland and get to America.

• suitable for high school
• contains maps, black/ white captioned photographs, index
• excellent perspective of constant strain of hiding
• written chronologically

The Hiding Place. Corrie Ten Boom with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. New York. Bantam Books. 1971. 241 pages. ISBN 0-553-25669-6

The Ten Boom family of Haarlem, Holland led a quiet life as devout Christians working in the family watch repair shop until the Nazi occupation and the persecution of the Jews began. The family became part of the underground hiding Jews in their home. This is the story of their decision to defy the Nazis and their courage and strength of religious spirit when arrested and sent to prison and then to concentration camps.

• recommended for high school and above
• important perspective of persecution and incarceration of Christians
• story of courage and a faith that sustained Corrie and her sister through the horrors of prison and Ravensbruck
• story of forgiveness

**Hiding to Survive: Stories of Jewish Children Rescued from the Holocaust. Maxine B. Rosenberg. New York. Clarion Books. 1994. 166 pages. ISBN 0-395-65014-3

Hiding to Survive contains 14 personal accounts of former hidden children. Through their adult eyes we learn their stories of life under assumed identities in convents, orphanages, and with Gentile families, and of life hidden and silent to avoid detection. Written simply, each story provides historical background, and tells what happened to the survivor's parents and what happened after liberation. This is also the story of those few with the courage to provide shelter for someone in need.

• suitable for middle school
• simply written
• contains black/white photos of survivors, then and now, glossary, and list for further reading
• contains stories from Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Belgium, France, Holland, and Hungary

**Hitler's Inferno: Eight Personal Histories from the Holocaust. Vera Schiff. Michael Schiff Enterprises Inc. 2002. 357 pages. ISBN 0-974-92701-5

This is an unusual anthology of personal histories of 8 individuals from Czechoslovakia who were either related to or friends of the author. These are the stories of individuals and the choices they made in an attempt to stay alive. There are the women who became mistresses, a man who became an informer and one who became a Kapo, a Zionist and a partisan. Each was deported to Theresienstadt and then to Birkenau. From Birkenau some were sent back to Theresienstadt, while others were sent to Sachsenhausen, Dachau or Maly Trostenec Concentration Camp.

• suitable for high school
• each history contains the individual's prewar life with information about family and other central relationships, how life changed with the arrival of war, attempts to escape and the journey to and trials of life in the concentration camps
• contains introduction, foreword by author, prologue by author's son, and an epilogue

The Holocaust Kingdom. Alexander Donat. New York. Holocaust Library. 1978. 362 pages. ISBN 0-89604-001-1

For the Jews of Warsaw their world became living hell with the German invasion of Poland. Donat tells of life in the Warsaw Ghetto including the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, in the death camp Majdanek, and in various labor camps where survival was a daily challenge.

• suitable for high school and above
• excellent description of life/ survival in Warsaw Ghetto and of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
• would work well as a companion to video the video, The Uprising, about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
• conatins afterword by son

Hostage to War: A True Story. Tatjana Wassiljewa. Translation by Anna Trenter. New York. Scholastic, Inc. 1997. 188 pages. ISBN 0-590-29886-0

Set in the Soviet Union in 1941 during the German invasion, this memoir is based on Tatjana's diary entries. It tells the struggle of the Russian civilians during World War II. Tatjana becomes one of seven million captive laborers, forced to work for in Germans farms and factories.

• suitable middle school and above
• story of determination and survival
• contains historical note
• Mildred L. Batchelder Honor Book
• a Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies

I

top

I Am a Star; Child of the Holocaust. Inge Auerbacher. New York. Puffin Books. 1986. 87 pages. ISBN 0-14-036401-3

One of the hundred children from the Theresienstadt Ghetto, who out of 15,000 survived, Inge Auerbacher tells her story. It's a story of day to day existence: how the finding of a potato is equivalent to the finding of a diamond, the loss of friends transported to Auschwitz. Interspersed throughout are original poems by Auerbacher with illustrations which add an emotional context and photos of Terezin and Auerbacher's family.

• contains a brief history of anti-Semitism and Hitler's rise to power with further historical background in interspersed throughout the text
• a good choice for learning about Theresienstadt
• photos are not captioned and the reader is left to determine their context
• historical facts are not referenced and may at times not be accurate
• Merit of Educational Distinction by International Center for Holocaust Studies of the B'nai Brith Anti-Defamation League

I Am Fifteen-and I Don't Want to Die. Christine Arnothy. New York. Scholastic Inc. 1956. 126 pages. ISBN 0-590-44630-4

Christine and her family survive the siege of Budapest hiding in a cellar only to be confronted with the victorious Russians. Physical and mental survival continue to be the family's focus even after the war's end.

• requires a sophisticated reader as at times the story is disjointed
• provides a view of the turmoil of people forced to live together
• winner Prix de Verities, the French Prize for nonfiction

**I Came Alone: Stories of the Kindertransports. Bertha Leverton & Shmuel Lowenshon, editors. Sussex, England. The Book Guild LTD. 1990. 416 pages. ISBN 0-86332-566-1.

This is a collection of stories by individual kinder. The content and length of the stories vary. Many are cursory with some mention of kinder experience and reflections on life since the war. Contains stories by several individuals highlighted in other texts about the kindertransports.

• suitable for high school and above
• many of excerpts contain new information about kinder stories found in other sources
• book out of print, limited availability

I Have Lived A Thousand Years; Growing Up in the Holocaust. Livia Bitton-Jackson. New York. Aladdin Books. 1997. 223 pages. ISBN 0-689-82395-9.

This is the story of a Hungarian girl's journey through life in the ghetto to Auschwitz, the Plaszow Labor Camp, Dachau, and other horrors of the Holocaust. Bitton-Jackson tells her story gently with moving pictures painted. Without being graphic, her emotional and physical pain are evident.

• able to understand without major background information
• presents strength of character, faith, and family
• adapted from Elli: Coming of Age in the Holocaust
• winner of the Christopher Award
• ALA Best Book for Young Adults
• Telicia, age 13; I learned that you should never give up hope because if you work hard you can get through it.

I Shall Live: Surviving Against All Odds, 1939-1945. Henry Orenstein. New York. Beaufort Books. 1987. 272 pages. ISBN 0-8253-0500-4

After the German invasion of Poland when he was 16, Henry with his family struggle to survive both the Russian and German occupations. With the final roundup of the Jews, Henry is sent to Budzyn, the first of 5 concentration camps. After volunteering for a special command which is a ruse established by a group of German scientist, Henry survives Majdanek and Plaszow in Poland and Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausen in Germany. Finally, after surviving the Sachsenhausen Death March to the North Sea, Henry is free although two of his brothers made it through the war, one brother and his sister did not survive.

• suitable for high school and above
• tells of horrors using limited , but effective language
• within context of telling his story, he provides historical framework of time
• contains forward by Claude Lanzmann, producer of Shoah
• contains preface, epilogue, postscript by author
• contains black and white photos of family and maps of of areas described and Third Reich territories, 3/38-9/43
• video based on book available in HHRC collection (www.hhrc.org) Saved by a Sting: How One Jew Survived Five Concentration Camps

I Was A Doctor in Auschwitz. Dr. Gisella Perl. New York. Arno Press. 1979. 189 pages. ISBN 0-405-12300-0

First published in 1948, this is the excruciating story of Dr. Perl's survival at Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. The reader experiences her pain as, without the basic medicines, she attempts to provide comfort to her patients and protect them from the chimneys.

• suitable for high school and above
• short chapters which could be used as separate readings
• provides a picture of life in the death camps
• out of print, but worth the search: I found my copy through inter-library loan

In Kindling Flame: The Story of Hannah Senesh, 1921-1944. Linda Atkinson. New York. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books. 1985. 214 pages. ISBN 0-688-02714-8.

She dreamed of a life as a writer, but the war would not allow that to happen. Instead, Hannah, decides she must help her family and her country in the fight against the Nazis. This is the biography of a young woman who decides to parachute into occupied Europe to help Hungarian Jews, where she arrested and tortured, and ultimately killed.

• suitable for high school
• a compelling story of heroism
• excerpts from Hannah's diary and her poems interspersed throughout text
• contains index and suggested readings, black & white photographs

In My Hands; Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer. Irene Gut Opdyke with Jennifer Armstrong. New York. Alfred A. Knopf. 1999. 276 pages. ISBN 0-679-89181-1

A delicate tale of terror, kindness, and the best and worse of mankind. Gut tells of her experiences as a young Catholic during the Holocaust; her capture by the Russians and Germans, and her decision to hide Jews under the nose of a Nazi Major.

• well-written compelling tale
• adds to information found in Into the Flames: The Life Story of a Righteous Gentile
• reader is left with amazement at the human ability to love and trust
• "luck" and its role
• Hillary, age 13; I would recommend this book to middle school students because it fills in all the blanks, and I liked how the author explained everything.

In the Eye of the Storm: A Memoir of Survival Through the Holocaust. Uri Litcher. New York. Schocken Books. 1987. 256 pages. ISBN 0-89604-088-7

Uri and his family are Hasidic Jews living in Lvov, Poland. Upon the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the formation of the ghettos, family life is disrupted as the youngest daughter is placed in hiding with Christians and the father and his three sons head "in the eye of the storm" to work in a city near the Russian/ German front line.

• suitable high school and above
• provides story of area of war not frequently written about
• story of survival and taking chances
• tells status of family at time of book publication
• contains documents used by the father and sons, black and white captioned photos, and maps
• contains a brief timeline of war in Europe

In the Mouth of the Wolf. Rose Zar. Philadelphia. The Jewish Publication Society of America. 1983. 225 pages. ISBN 0-8276-0382-7.

Rose took her father's advice; "...the best place (to hide) is right in the mouth of the wolf...". As she tries to pass as an Aryan after leaving the ghetto, she is constantly one step ahead of capture until she takes a job as a maid for the SS commandant of Krakow and his family.

• suitable for high school and older
• a story of survival and ingenuity
• epilogue tells what happened to major participants of the story
• winner The Association of Jewish Libraries Book Award

Inherit the Truth: A Memoir of Survival and the Holocaust. Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. New York. St. Martin's Press. 1996. 168 pages. ISBN 0-312-20897-9.

Reading like a novel of intrigue with stories of forged papers and imprisonment as criminals, Anita's story, as that of her sister Renate, becomes one of life in hell as they survive Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen. A young teenage cellist, Anita is part of the women's orchestra at Birkenau. She and her sister watch out for and support each other, and together survive. Sections of the memoir use the letters written by family members to a sister who emigrated to England before the outbreak of war. These letters provide an intense look at the hopes, needs, and worries of those left to Nazi persecution, and the hopes and dreams of a new life after liberation.

• suitable for high school and above
• contains an index, table of contents, preface by Martin Gilbert, foreword, introduction and a list of the names of individuals mentioned
• contains primary documents referenced throughout and in appendix
• writing is sparse but provides a vivid picture of life before, during and after war

Into the Flames: The Life Story of a Righteous Gentile. Irene Gut Opdyke with Jeffrey M. Elliot. San Bernardino, CA. The Borgo Press. 1992. 172 pages. ISBN 0-89370-475-X

Another telling of Irene Gut Opdyke's experiences in occupied Poland. Although some of the material covered is the same as In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer , the book covers other aspects of her experience.

• not as personal as In My Hands; Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer
• best for advanced reader
• interesting to read in conjunction with the other autobiography to get a more complete picture of Mrs. Opdyke's life.

K

top

Kinderlager: An Oral History of Young Holocaust Survivors. Milton J. Nieuwsma. New York. Scholastic Inc. 1998. 161 pages. ISBN 0-439-16831-7

Kinderlager tells the stories of three children from the same town who survived Birkenau. Each tells of her life prior to deportation, her life in the camp, and life after liberation.

• provides insight into the different effects of war on the lives of three individuals
• divided into three sections, each telling a story through short chapters
• contains photos of the girls, their families and friends
• contains a map of Poland during World War II and of Birkenau, a short glossary, a bibliography of other personal narratives of Auschwitz survivors

Kindertransport. Olga Levy Drunker. New York. Scholastic Inc. 1992. 146 pages. ISBN 0-590-89745-4

The story of the author's journey to England as part of the Kindertransport, an effort to save Jewish children from Hitler's Nazi Germany. Simply written, it tells of the painful departure from her parents, her time spent with sponsoring families in England, and, six years later, her eventual reunion with her parents in America.

• interwoven with the story is historical background of events taking place
• easy to read
• the author is "having a conversation" with the reader

L

top

The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank. Willy Lindwer. New York. Anchor Books. 1991. 204 pages. ISBN 0-385-42360-8

These are the interviews conducted by the author for his film documentary of the same title. These women either knew Anne prior to her going into hiding or met Anne and her family after they were arrested and sent to Westerbork. These women lived the horrors of the transports and life in Birkenau and other camps at the same time as the Frank family.. Through their experiences we discover what life for Anne might have been like during her last seven months.

• suitable for high school and above
• various observations made about the Anne and her family, but primarily a story of survival by these individuals
• provide a perspective of what life must have been like for Anne

The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. James Cross Giblin. Clarion Books. New York. 2002. 246 pages. ISBN 0-395-90371-8

Giblin provides a clear, chronological look at Hitler early life as a child and life as a struggling artist in Vienna to his rise to power and his death in the bunker under Berlin. The social and economic conditions that allowed his rise to power are explored. The Final Solution to the Jewish Questions is discussed within the framework of Hitler's role as Fuhrer. This is not a book that focuses on the treatment of the Jews and the others persecuted, but rather one about the man who through his charismatic leadership managed to convince rational German citizens that they needed to participate in the horror of the Holocaust.

• suitable for grade 7 and above
• does not sensationalize Hitler or his role in history
• addresses Neo-Nazi movement
• contains captioned black & white photos, maps and primary source documents
• contains glossary of German words and terms, source notes and bibliography, and index

**Life in the Hitler Youth. Jennifer Keeley. San Diego. CA. Lucent Books. 2000. 112 pages. ISBN 1-56006-613-X

This well-researched book traces the beginnings and development of the Hitler Youth through World War II. Chapters focus on the standards for membership, the typical school day with the emphasis on Nazi ideology and physical fitness, the intense military training that prepared the Hitler Youth to become replacements for a depleted army, as well as, youth rebellion and the formation of resistance groups.

• suitable for middle school
• contains sidebars explore brainwashing methods and other subjects
• contains captioned black and white photographs
• contains glossary, index, annotated bibliography

**The Lost Childhood: A Memoir. Yehuda Nir. New York. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1989. 256 pages. ISBN 0-15-158862-7

Nine years old when the Germans occupy Lwow, Poland, the author and his family start on their journey of escape from the Nazi terrors. They journeys take them to the city of Krakow and its ghetto and onto Warsaw and life passing as a Pole. Their lives are full of danger and ongoing concern of being detected. Through the eyes of a boy who becomes an adult too soon we learn of life on the run and in hiding and are provided with his perceptions of the Jews, the Poles and the Germans.

• suitable for high school and above
• insightful
• starts slow but draws reader in

M

top

Maus I, A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History. Art Spiegelman. New York. Scholastic Inc. 1973. 159 pages. ISBN 0-590-46901-0

Through cartoons Spiegelman shares the story of his father's life as a Jew in Poland prior to and during World War II, telling of his life in the ghetto, then in hiding, until 1944 when he was sent to Auschwitz. With the Nazis as cats and the Jews as mice, Spiegelman "interviews" his father.

• appeals to students who don't like to read "regular" books, but is not necessarily an easy read
• can be confusing as it jumps back and forth in time
• pictures tell a great deal of the story and must be viewed carefully

Maus II, A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began. Art Spiegelman. New York. Scholastic Inc. 1986.136 pages. ISBN 0-590-47702-1

Using the same format found in Maus I, Spiegelman continues the story of his father's life in Poland during the Holocaust telling of his time at Auschwitz and after the war as a displaced person.

• as with Maus I, it appeals to the student who doesn't like to read
• also a story of the child of a survivor and how he is effected by the Holocaust

Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend. Alison Leslie Gold. New York. Scholastic, Inc. 1997. 135 pages. ISBN 0-590-90723-9

We know her as Hannili or Lies from Anne Frank's diary. Although this is primarily a telling of Hannah Goslar's experiences as a Dutch Jew living under occupation and her deportation to Bergen-Belsen, the reader learns of the friendship with Anne Frank and their meeting at Bergen-Belsen.

• suitable for less sophisticated readers, short chapters
• contains an author's note telling how story came to be written
• contains note by Hannah Pick-Goslar
• contains black and white photos of Hannah and her family and with Anne Frank

Memories of My Life in a Polish Village, 1930-1949. Toby Knobel Fluek. New York. Alfred A. Knopf. 1990. 110 pages. ISBN 0-394-58617-4

This memoir tells of the events, places, and people in Toby Fluek's life. Divided into sections, such as My Family at Work, each section is subdivided into specific subjects, i.e. Our Farm, Our Kitchen, Red Potatoes. Limited text is accompanied by black and white or color drawing and paintings done by Fluek.

• excellent resource about life prior to Nazi occupation and after liberation
• usable with young children

Mischling, Second Degree; My Childhood in Nazi Germany. Ilse Koehn. New York. Puffin Books. 1977. 240 pages. ISBN. 0-14-034290-7

By law Isle Koehn is a mischling, her paternal grandmother was Jewish. Isle does not know this. This is her story of her life during the war as a member of the Hitler Youth, at evacuation camps to escape the bombing of Berlin, and her return home to hide with her mother from the Russian liberators.

• not for the novice reader
• story of trying to live a reasonably normal life in abnormal times
• winner Boston Globe-Horn Book Award

**My Bridges of Hope: Searching for Life and Love after Auschwitz. Livia Bitton-Jackson. New York. Simon Pulse. 1999. 378 pages. ISBN 0-689-84898-6

After liberation from Auschwitz, fourteen-year-old Elli, her brother, and their mother return to their hometown in Czechoslovakia. The family face emotional and financial hardships as they attempt to return to a "normal" life. Elli returns to school becoming a teacher. Despite her dream of going to Palestine, she agrees to go to America to so "the three of us will never be separated again."

• sequel to I Have Lived a Thousand Years.
• suitable for middle school and above
• provides a good picture of difficulties faced after war: attempts to escape Communism, reaching America or Palestine
• contains glossary of terms, family chronology of events after the Holocaust, and post-Holocaust chronology

My Heart in a Suitcase. Anne L. Fox. Portland, Oregon. Valentine Mitchell. 1996. 170 pages. ISBN 0-85303-311-0

Anne was 11 when her parents sent her to England as part of the Kindertransport. She left Berlin where she lived a normal life until the restrictions against Jews came into effect. Upon arrival in England Anne tells of her life with a family in the countryside, as she attended boarding school, and finally, her marriage and emigration to America.

• suitable for middle school
• contains excerpts of letters to Anne and her brother from their parents and others still in Germany after war starts
• contains black/ white photos
• part of The Library of Holocaust Testimonies Series

N

top

**The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust. Edith Hahn Beer with Susan Dworkin. New York. HarperCollins Pub. Inc. 1998. 305 pages. ISBN 0-688-17276-X

Edith found life in Vienna fulfilling; she was in love and was about to receive her law degree. With the Nazi occupation life makes a dramatic change. First, she finds herself a farm laborer and then is sent to a labor camp. As the deportations increase she takes on the false identity of an Aryan friend and goes underground, fleeing to Germany to work for the Red Cross. There she meets and marries a Nazi Party member. This marriage provides her protection from persecution as a Jew, but she feels she was loosing her own identity. Who is Edith Hahn?

• suitable for high school and above
• contains black/white photographs, letters and other documentation
• titled chapters
• starts show but reader becomes involved
• A&E special presentation

Never Far Away: The Auschwitz Chronicles of Anna Heilman. Anna Heilman, edited by Sheldon Schwartz. Calgary, Alberta Canada. University of Calgary Press. 2001. 159 pages. ISBN 1-55238-0408

Using Anna Heilman's diary entries written during and immediately after the war and her personal memoirs written between 1991 and 1994, Never Far Away provides the story of an assimilated Polish family's life prior to and under Nazi occupation and the survival of Anna and her sister Estusia in Birkenau. She tells of the October 1944 Uprising at Birkenau and their role, and her sister's execution, in the plot to destroy the crematoria at Birkenau.

• suitable for high school
• very readable
• excellent picture of prewar life
• footnotes define terms and provide further explanations
• contains introduction which gives historical background
• contains index and afterword

**Nicholas Winton and the Rescued Generation. Muriel Emanuel & Vera Gissing. Portland, OR. Vallentine Mitchell. 2001. 193 pages. ISBN 0-530-425-7

Nicholas Winton organized kindertransports from Czechoslovakia saving the lives of 669 children. Part 1 by Emanuel deals with Winton's family, his growing up, schooling, religion, his increasing political awareness of the situation in Europe, his career and life after the war. In Part 2 Gissing, one of Winton's "children" , describes in detail the rescue mission of Czechoslovakian children and how the world become aware of the Winton in 1988.

• suitable for high school and above
• good resource for anyone researching kindertransport
• contains list/ dates Czech transports, documentation, black & white photographs

Night. Elie Wiesel. New York. Bantam. 1960. 109 pages. ISBN 0-553-27253-5

The agonizing story of Wiesel's journey as a teenager from his home town of Signet in Transylvania to the hell of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. A journey of pain, both mental and physical, that takes the reader into the depths of despair and exhaustion.

• not for the novice reader
• provokes thoughtful discussion of our roles as humans and as caretakers of our fellow man
• Elie Wiesel; winner Nobel Peace Prize, 1986

**Nightmares: Memoirs of the Years of Horror Under Nazi Rule, 1939-1945. Konrad Charmatz. Syracuse, NY. Syracuse University Press. 2003. 274 pages. ISBN 0-8156-0706-7

A penetrating memoir of the author's Holocaust experiences. Part 1 describes what happens to the community of Sosnowiec, Poland, where Charmatz owned a business, under Nazi occupation. Part 2 deals with the author's personal experiences including imprisonment, deportation to Auschwitz, working in a labor detail in Warsaw prior to the Warsaw uprising, a death march to Dachau and work in one of it's satellite camps, and, finally, liberation and the search for family.

• suitable for high school and above
• short chapters
• contains glossary, introduction by author
• description allows reader to "see" the brutality, pain and faces of those who suffered
• translated from Yiddish

**Nine Suitcases: A Memoir. Béla Zsolt. New York. Schocken Books. 2004. 324 pages. ISBN 0-8052-4204-X

Originally published in weekly installments in in a journal during 1946-47, Nine Suitcases: A Memoir tells of Zsolt's, a Hungarian Jewish novelist and journalist, experiences in a ghetto and as a forced laborer in the Ukraine.

• suitable for high school and above
• one of the first Holocaust memoirs
• translated from Hungarian by Ladislaus Löb
• perceptive insight
• Zsolt is holding a "conversation" with the reader

No Pretty Pictures. Anita Lobel. New York. Avon Books, Inc. 1998. 193 pages. ISBN 0-380-73285-8

Anita wants to be less Jewish. Living with her Polish nanny, she learns the rituals of being Catholic. In spite of this, she and her brother are arrested and sent to the Plaszow Labor Camp and then to Auschwitz.

• story of "mistrust"
• tells about the difficulty of the reunification of a family after the war
• National Book Award Finalist
• ALA Best Books for Young Adults
• Booklist Editor's Choice
• 1999 Judy Lopez Memorial Medal for Children's Literature
• Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Honor Book
• Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction Finalist
• Sydney Taylor Award Honor Book
• River Book Review Children's Books of Distinction Finalist

None of Us Will Return. Charlotte Dello. Boston. Beacon Press. 1968. 128 pages. ISBN 0-8070-6371-1

Dello's memoir provides portraits of daily life for a non-Jew at Birkenau. Through short vignettes and poetry, Dello paints a picture of the madness of Birkenau from her arrival to the daily selections and roll calls, the cold of winter and the mud of spring, the punishment details, the incredible pain and the wish to give in to death.

• suitable for high school and above
• short selections can be used as separate readings
• extremely moving pictures of the horrors of Birkenau, describing the indescribable
• translated from French

O

top

On Both Sides of the Wall: Memoirs from the Warsaw Ghetto. Vlaka Meed (Feigele Peltel-Miedzyrzecki). Israel. Ghetto Fighters' House. 1979. 276 pages. ISBN 0-89604-013-5.

On Both Sides of the Wall is an intriguing story of life inside the Warsaw Ghetto, before and during the uprising, and life surviving as an "Aryan" among the Poles of Warsaw. This book provides a personal view of life in the ghetto not usually found. It is a story of courage, sacrifice, fear, and despair.

• recommended for high school or older
• short chapters which can in many cases be used alone
• involves the reader in the daily life of those caught in the ghetto
• provides an in-depth look at the Warsaw Ghetto and the Uprising, as well as, life for the surviving Jews after the Uprising in Warsaw, as partisans hiding in the woods, or in the surrounding labor camps
• contains indexes listing names and places found in book

P

top

Parallel Journeys. Eleanor Ayer with Helen Waterford and Alfon Heck. Atheneum. New York. 1995. 228 pages. ISBN 0-689-31830-8

A unique view of the Holocaust, Parallel Journeys provides the reader with the historical background of the Holocaust interwoven with excepts from the biographies of Helen Waterford, a Jew, and Alfon Heck, a member of the Hitler Youth. Well written, using footnotes and pictures with captions to further explain, it is easily understood by students, middle school and up.

• not overwhelming with personal details
• provides lessons in forgiveness and understanding
• offers an understanding of the world in which young men and women found themselves during this time.
• contains biographical references for further research and an index
• Michelle, age 13; This book is very interesting. It gives you lots of background with very good details. It is not confusing. It kept your interest, and it wasn't hard to read.
• Jack, age 13; The book explained how hard the choices were that people had to make. It teaches you a lot about the Holocaust.

Pearls of Childhood. Vera Gissing. New York. St. Martin's Press. 1988. 176 pages. ISBN 0-312-02963-2

Vera's normal, happy childhood is disrupted when Hitler invades Czechoslovakia in March 1939. With her sister, 10 year-old Vera is one of the hundreds of children sent to England to safety on the Kindertransports. Pearls of Childhood is the telling of Vera's life as a Kinder.

• suitable sophisticated middle school reader
• uses entries from Vera's diary and letters to and from her parents
• contains introduction telling about reunion of Kinder and why book written
• contains black and white photos
• tells of parents fate and life after war

The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945. Wladyslaw Szpilman. Picador. New York. 1999. 223 pages. ISBN 0-312-31135-4

Now a major motion picture, this is the story of one man's survival of the terrors dealt on the Jews and others living in Warsaw after the German invasion of Poland. Szpilman provides a picture of life inside the ghetto. He relates his escape from the transport that took his family to death, his survival on the Aryan side after the ghetto revolt, and finally, the meeting of the German officer who saved Szpilman's life.

• suitable for high school and above
• written and first published immediately after the war
• provides a picture of brutality without being brutal
• contains excerpts from the diary of CaptainWilm Hosenfeld, the German who saved him
• contains a foreward by Szpilman's son, Andrzej, and an epilogue: A Bridge Between Wladyslaw Szpilman and Wilm Hoenfeld by Wolf Biermann

R

top

Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz. Rena Kornreich Gelissen with Heather Dune Macadam. Boston. Beacon Press. 1995. 275 pages. ISBN 0-8070-7071-8

Rena was on the first transport of Jews to Auschwitz. She becomes prisoner #1716. Along with her sister, #2779, she survives the hell of Auschwitz/ Birkenau and the death march to a labor camp north of Ravensbruck.

• suitable for high school and above
• brutal at times
• unbelievable story of survival and choices
• contains prologue by Macadam, black & white Picts of Rena and family, epilogue, and bibliography of further reading

Rescued Images: Memories of a Childhood in Hiding. Ruth Jacobsen. New York. Mikaya Press, Inc. 2001. 92 pages. ISBN 1-931414-00-9

The photos had lain untouched for forty years. One day Ruth Jacobsen opens the albums that contained her childhood memories and Rescued Images was born. Illustrated with unique collages made from a mixture of original photographs, letters and other images, and paint she shares her memories of a life in hiding in Holland and how it affected her life and her family's then and there after.

• collages can be as a starting point for discussion of text and the use of illustrations and symbolism
• suitable for less proficient readers although a discussion of the collages and their relation to the text might be needed
• provides a viewpoint of a young child: confusion and lack of understanding, feelings of loss, of anger and of fear

Revisiting the Shadows: Memories from War-torn Poland to the Statue of Liberty. Irene Shapiro. Elk River, MN. DeForest Press. 2004. 316 pages. ISBN 1-930374-06-2

As Irene or Rena, as she was known prior to liberation, travels to visit the places of her past the reader journeys with her. As a Jewish teenager, Rena is involved in the 1941-1943 resistance movement and uprising of the Bialystok Ghetto. She was one of the few survivors of the 60,000 massacred Bialystok Jews. She survived the horrors of three concentration camps: Blizyn, Majdanek, and Auschwitz. She was finally liberated by the Americans and worked as a translator for the Americans and the British.

• suitable for high school and above
• contains foreword, glossary, afterwords, bibliography and black/white photos and maps
• each chapter starts and ends with present day event/ reflection by author connected to the chapter topic
• at times, seems overfilled with details
• chapters on Bialystok ghetto and in camps provide excellent picture of life

S

top

Salvaged Pages: Young Writers' Diaries of the Holocaust. Alexandra Zapruder. New Haven, Conn. Yale University Press. 2002. 481 pages. ISBN 0-300-09243-1

This is collection of 14 diaries written by young adults on the run, in the ghetto, or in hiding. An introduction for each diary contains the focus of the diary, information about the individual and his/her family, and their fate, if known. Zapruder asks the reader to approach these diaries, not as representative of lost children, but rather, as historical fragments reflecting specific circumstances that contribute to an understanding of the history of and of every day life during the Holocaust.

• suitable for high school and above
• excellent source for learning about life in specific locations (Lodz Ghetto) or circumstances (on run)
• editor's note describes process for selection of diaries
• introduction contains a discussion of Anne Frank's diary and offers a new framework for thinking about young people's diaries written during the Holocaust
• Appendix 1 is an extensive listing of diaries written by young adults
• Appendix 2 discusses literary works excluded from this volume and why not selected
• contains notes, sources and translators, and index
• Natonal Jewish Book Award in Holocaust Catagory

**Saving the Fragments: From Auschwitz to New York. Isabella Leitner with Irving A. Leitner. New York. New American Library. 1985. 131 pages. ISBN 0-453-00502-0

This sequel to Fragments of Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz begins with Isabella and her sisters' escape from a death march to Bergen-Belsen and their attempts to find shelter and food. Determined to reach America and their father, the girls leave Russian occupied territory for the American zone. Upon arrival in America, Isabella and her sisters must adjust to life in a new world.

• suitable for middle school
• short chapters with reminices of the past, hopes for the future and the now
• contains snippetts of conversations with the reader asking questions about the existance of man and God

**Searching for Anne Frank. Susan Goldman Rubin. New York. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 2003. 144 pages. ISBN 0-810-4514-2

Miss Bodie, an Iowa school teacher, asks her students to participate in a pen pal project. Juanita Wagner selected the name Anne Frank and her sister, Betty, Margot Frank. The girls wrote one letter to each other. Through alternating chapters we learn about these girls and the worlds in which they lived as war raged. Also provides historical information about life in Holland and the United States during this timeframe.

• suitable for middle school
• short chapters
• extensive use of photos
• contains copies of Juanita and Anne's letters to each other
• contains an index, reference and resources lists

Seed of Sarah. Judith Magyar Isaacson. Chicago. University of Illinois Press. 1990. 179 pages. ISBN 0-8167-4524-2

Life was normal, full of promises, hopes, and the dreams of youth for Judith Magyar until Hitler's ascent to power. With each chapter, we share her joys and her disappointments, and, ultimately, her agony as she experiences life in Auschwitz-Birkenau and Hessisch Lichtenau Labor Camp.

• appropriate for a wide range of reading abilities
• contains pictures of Mrs. Isaacson's family
• indexed
• contains Mrs. Issacson's journey back to Hessisch Lichtenau with her daughter in 1977

Secretaries of Death: Accounts by Former Prisoners Who Worked in the Gestapo of Auschwitz. Lore Shelley, ed. Shengold Publishers, Inc. New York. 1986. 378 pages. ISBN 0-88400-123-7

Shelley has brought together the accounts of Jewish women who worked, as she did, in the Politische Abteilung/ Standesamt in Auschwitz (the Gestapo of the camp/ Civil Registry,) on the records of prisoners who were still alive and those who were deceased. Each account tells of life prior to Auschwitz, of life working for the Germans in Auschwitz and trying to stay alive, and finally, for many, the death marches and liberation. Included are the testimonies of 4 Polish men who also worked in the offices.

• suitable for high school and above
• provides a view of Auschwitz "from the inside", a story not often heard
• contains a foreword, introduction, glossary and bibliography
• contains a list of SS men who worked for the Politische Abteilung/ Standesamt and their personal data

Sky, A True Story of Courage During World War II. Hanneke Ippisch. Troll Communications. 1986. 139 pages. ISBN 0-8167-4524-2

The true story of Hanneke Ippisch's life in German occupied Holland and her involvement in the Dutch resistance, Through short chapters the reader journeys with Hanneke as she makes secret trips across the border leading Jews to safety until she is captured by the Germans.

• written chronologically in short chapters
• full of annotated photos
• a good choice for the novice reader
• Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Award
• CBC/NCSS Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies
• New York Public Library 1997 Books for the Teen Age 

Speak You Also: A Survivor's Reckoning. Paul Steinberg. New York. Picador USA. 2000. 163 pages. ISBN 0-312-42045-5

We know him as Primo Levi's Henri in Survival at Auschwitz. It took him over 50 years to tell his story. Steinberg reconstructs for the reader his carefree life in Paris until his arrest. He is sent to Drancy were his "education" begins and continues after he is transported to Auschwitz III, Monowitz. It is a story of a young man who through luck and quick thinking survives, but at expense to himself

• suitable for high school
• raises questions of moral decisions, self-survival at the expense of others
• discusses psychological effects of remembering

Sobibor: Martyrdom and Revolt. Miriam Novitch. New York. Schocken Books. 1980. 168 pages. ISBN 0-89604-016-X

The testimony of 29 survivors of the October 14, 1943 uprising at the death camp Sobibor tell of life inside the camp prior to the revolt. Survivors tell of life before deportation and after escape.

• contains an introduction which provides some historical background into the camp system and the building of Sobibor
• contains a bibliography, an appendix of German documents related to the camp and captioned photos of survivors and camp personnel
• at times very graphic and brutal

Soundless Roar, Stories, Poems, and Drawings. Ava Kadishson Schieber. Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern University Press. 2002. 145 pages. ISBN 0-810119145

Emotional, yet delicate, these are Schieber's stories of herself, her family, her community before, during, and after World War II. Written after the war, each provides a tidbit of life in hiding, the separation of family, the loss of loved ones. Interspersed throughout the book are poems and drawings by Schieber.

• suitable for high school and above
• each story can be used independently from the others
• raises question of memory
• preface provides background of author and her family

Stolen Years. Sara Zyskind. Minneapolis. Lerner Publications Co. 1981. 284 pages. ISBN 0-8225-0766-8

Until 1939 Sara Plager lived a happy childhood filled with the hopes and dreams of any child of 11. With the German invasion of Poland that changed. Written chronologically starting in 1939 and ending in 1945, Stolen Years, tells of Sara's life and that of her family and friends through the increase in restrictions, the formation of the Lodz ghetto and the horrors of life there, and her ultimate deportation to Auschwitz and then to the Mittelstein Labor Camp.

• suitable for proficient middle school reader
• excellent picture of life in Lodz ghetto, hardships, role of Rumkowski, the head of the Judenrat, workshops, roundups, selections
• provides enough background to place events in context

Surrender on Demand. Varian Fry. Boulder, Colorado. Johnson Printing. 1997. 272 pages. ISBN 1-55566-209-9

First published in 1945 this is Fry's telling of his arrival in Marseilles, France in 1940 as the representative of the Emergency Rescue Committee and his attempts over the next 13 months to get individuals deemed dangerous by the Nazis, artists, political figures, musicians, and writers, to safety outside of occupied Europe.

• <