DO YOU KNOW? WILL YOU REMEMBER?
Books and Websites about the Holocaust for Young Adults
By Karen L. Simonetti (© 1998 - 2003)
Children in Auschwitz
Polish children imprisoned in Auschwitz look out from behind the barbed wire fence.
Approximately 40,000 Polish children were imprisoned in the camp before being transferred to Germany during the "Heuaktion" (Hay Action). The blond boy at the lower right may be Kalman Cylberszac (b.1934), the son of Rachel and Nachum Cylberszac from Lask, Poland.

Credit: Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives

In the United States, many school systems have a "snow day" closing schools on Yom Kippur, a Jewish High Holy day so families can attend services together. April has been declared "National Holocaust Month" and students study this time in history during that month so as "Never to Forget." Steven Spielberg made an Oscar winning film based upon Thomas Keneally's book, Schindler's List. And what does this mean to us? It means that our everyday lives exist with a certain kind of ease that I am sure none of the Holocaust victims would deny us; it is as this kind of life they had prior to World War II.

But, what they would want is for us to remember the nightmare of the Holocaust, because it can happen again. And each one of us, by knowing and remembering, will be ready so that the next time maniacal prejudicial attacks against Jews or any other people begins, such slaughter cannot happen again. There are many ways and many reasons to study and learn about the Holocaust. Everybody takes something different from the experience. The below listed websites and book summaries are just a few that I hope will not only help you to remember the Holocaust, but give you courage to speak out and stand up if another situation occurs. And it is occurring...


The Holocaust was a nightmare for all of humanity. Worldwide cruelty continues to exist. Perhaps reading these books, one can learn to recognize the evil...and remember that it can be stopped. But, it can only be stopped by individuals. It involves a commitment to ethical thinking and personal moral courage.


Have the strength and tenacity to read these books and then
make a difference when you see hate appearing in your own lives.


Books with Annotations for Study: Links to Websites:
The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank
Night
Wartime Lies
Hide and Seek
On the Other Site of the Gate
The Cage
Katerina
A Scrap of Time and Other Stories
Seed of Sarah: Memoirs of a Survivor
Maus
I Never Saw Another Butterfly
 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Anne Frank Stichting
Anne Frank House
To Save A Life: Stories of Jewish Rescue
Holocaust Learning Links
Four Perfect Pebbles - A Holocaust Story
MAUS Online Exhibit [National Museum of American Jewish History]
Forging Freedom


Further Readings
Bearing Witness: Stories of the Holocaust.
Selected by Hazel Rochman and Darlene Z. McCampbell. 1995. 135p. Orchard Books. (Grades 8-12)
Bernstein, Sara Tuvel. The Seamstress: A Memoir of Survival.
1997. 353p. G.P.Putnam Sons. (Grades 8-12)
Bitton-Jackson, Livia. I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust.
1997. 224p. Simon & Schuster. (Grades 7-12)
Daughters of Absence: Transforming a Legacy of Loss. Editors' Choice 2002*
Edited by Mindy Weisel. Virginia: Capital Books, Inc., 2000.
*Chosen by Booklist's Books for Youth Editors as one of the year's best personal reading for teenagers among the adult books published in 2001.
Duba, Ursula. Tales From A Child of the Enemy.
New York: Penguin Books, 1997. (Grades 9-12)
Isaacs, Anne. Torn Thread.
New York: Scholastic Press. 2000.
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler's List: A Novel.
1982. 397p. Simon & Schuster. (Grades 9-12)
Klein, Gerda Weissman. All But My Life
New York: Hill & Wang Publishers 1995.
Watch and listen (text and photos also available for printing) the author and her husband record parts of their personal histories from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (Requires RealPlayer) at: http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/phistories/phi_individuals_kurt_gerda_klein_uu.htm
Land-Weber, Ellen. To Save A Life: Stories of Holocaust Rescue.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000
An interview with the author! http://www.northcoastjournal.com/100500/cover1005.html
More about the book: http://www.press.uillinois.edu/f00/landweber.html
Lobel, Anita. No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War.
1998. 193p. Greenwillow Books. (Grades 6-12)
Opdyke, Irene Gut with Jennifer Armstrong. In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer.
1999. 280p. Alfred A. Knopf. (Grades 6-12)
See ACHUKA's interview with Irene Gut Opdyke at http://www.achuka.co.uk/special/opdyke.htm
See Publisher's Reader's Guide at: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0385720327&view=rg
Orlev, Uri.
The Man From The Other Side. Translated From the Hebrew by Hillel Halkin.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991. (Grades 7-12)
Pausewang, Gudrun. The Final Journey.
Translated by Patricia Crampton. 1996. 160p. Viking. (Grades 7-12)
Perl, Lilia and Marion Bluementhal Lazan. Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story.
1996. 130p. Greenwillow. (Grades 5-9)
See Author's Website for Excerpt of Chapter One:
http://www.fourperfectpebbles.com/bookhm.html
Rabinovici, Schoschana. Thanks to My Mother.
Translated by James Skofield. 1998. 246p. Dial. (Grades 9-12)
Russ, Irene W. The Rest You Know: A Mother's Story of Survival
Texas: Idea University Press, 2001. (Grades 9-12)
Schieber, Ava Kadishson.
Soundless Roar: Stories, Poems and Drawings.
Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2002. (Grades 9-12)
Talbott, Hudson Forging Freedom: A True Story of Heroism During the Holocaust
2000. New York: The Putnam Publishing Group, Ltd., October 2000
For Author's Notes go to: http://www.hudsontalbott.com/insidebook.htm
Toll, Nelly S. Behind the Secret Window: A Memoir of a Hidden Childhood During WWII.
1993. 161p. Dial Books (Grades 6-10)
Verhoeven, Rian. Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary: A Photographic Remembrance.
1993. 113p. Viking. (Grades 6-10)
Vos, Ida.
The Key is Lost. Translated by Terese Edelstein.
New York: HarperCollins, 2000. (Grades 5-9)

Teaching and Reading Guides Online

GALLERY OF MAPS (from A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust)
[More than three dozen maps, from cities to concentration camps to continents and more; many formatted for printing.]


Further Readings for Educators
Rochman, Hazel. "Beyond Boundaries" Book Links* Magazine:
 "Bearing Witness to the Holocaust" January 1998, p.8-14.
 "Should You Teach Anne Frank: The Diary of A Young Girl?" May 1998, p.45-49.
 "Holocaust Survivors, Rescuers, and Bystanders." January 1999, p.54-57.

*Book Links is an ALA publication; for further information go to: http://www.ala.org/BookLinks/

EmailKaren L. Simonetti Locations of visitors to this page Home