Rohrbach Library Home: Holocaust: Memoirs + Real Stories

Memoirs + Real Stories

The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes
Call Number: LR PS3612.A279 L 53 2023

ISBN: 0063297124

Publication Date: 2023-02-21

William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
390 Pages
Ages 13+

A captivating WWII-era novel about the intertwined fates of three women who believe in the power of books to triumph over the very darkest moments of war. Berlin 1933. Following the success of her debut novel, American writer Althea James receives an invitation from Joseph Goebbels himself to participate in a culture exchange program in Germany. For a girl from a small town in Maine, 1933 Berlin seems to be sparklingly cosmopolitan, blossoming in the midst of a great change with the charismatic new chancellor at the helm. Then Althea meets a beautiful woman who promises to show her Berlin, and soon she's drawn into a group of resisters who make her question everything she knows about her hosts--and herself. Paris 1936. She may have escaped Berlin for Paris, but Hannah Brecht discovers the City of Light is no refuge from the anti-Semitism and Nazi sympathizers she thought she left behind. Heartbroken and tormented by the role she played in the betrayal that destroyed her family, Hannah throws herself into her work at the German Library of Burned Books. Through the quiet power of books, she believes she can help counter the tide of fascism she sees rising across Europe and atone for her mistakes. But when a dear friend decides actions will speak louder than words, Hannah must decide what stories she is willing to live--or die--for. New York 1944. Since her husband Edward was killed fighting the Nazis, Vivian Childs has been waging her own war: preventing a powerful senator's attempts to censor the Armed Service Editions, portable paperbacks that are shipped by the millions to soldiers overseas. Viv knows just how much they mean to the men through the letters she receives--including the last one she got from Edward. She also knows the only way to win this battle is to counter the senator's propaganda with a story of her own--at the heart of which lies the reclusive and mysterious woman tending the American Library of Nazi-Banned Books in Brooklyn. As Viv unknowingly brings her censorship fight crashing into the secrets of the recent past, the fates of these three women will converge, changing all of them forever. Inspired by the true story of the Council of Books in Wartime--the WWII organization founded by booksellers, publishers, librarians, and authors to use books as "weapons in the war of ideas."

Sears Subject Headings:

Librarians--Fiction
Women authors--Fiction.
Widows--Fiction.
Censorship--Fiction.
Books and reading--Fiction.
World War, 1939-1945--Censorship--Fiction.
World War, 1939-1945--Women--Fiction.
FICTION/ women.
FICTION/ War & Military.
FICTION/ Romance--LGBTQ+.
FICTION/ Friendship.
FICTION/ Historical--20th Century--World War II.
Books and reading
Censorship
Librarians
Widows
Women
Women authors
Librarians--Fiction.
Censorship--Fiction.
World War, 1939-1945--Censorship--Fiction.
Germany--History--1933-1945--Fiction.
Paris (France)--History--Fiction.
United States--History--1933-1945--Fiction.
France--Paris.
Germany.
United States.
Historical fiction.
Romance fiction.
Novels.
History.

The Seamstress by Sara Tuval Bernstein
Call Number: B Bernstein Ber

ISBN: 0425166309

Publication Date: 1999-05-01

Putnam
353 Pages
Ages X-X

"From its opening pages, in which she recounts her own premature birth, triggered by terrifying rumors of an incipient pogrom, Bernstein' s tale is clearly not a typical memoir of the Holocaust. She was born into a large family in rural Romania...and grew up feisty and willing to fight back physically against anti-Semitism from other schoolchildren. She defied her father's orders to turn down a scholarship that took her to Bucharest, and got herself expelled from that school when she responded to a priest/teacher's vicious diatribe against the Jews by hurling a bottle of ink at him...After a series of incidents that ranged from dramatic escapes to a year in a forced labor detachment, Sara ended up in Ravensbruck, a women' s concentration camp, and managed to survive...she tells this story with style and power." --Kirkus Reviews

Penguin Random House Website

Sears Subject Headings:

Bernstein, Sara Tuvel--1918-.
Auschwitz (Concentration camp).
Jews--Romania--Biography.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Romania--Personal narratives.

A Friend Called Anne: One Girl's Story of War, Peace, and a Unique Friendship with Anne Frank by Carol Ann Lee (Retold by); Jacqueline Van Maarsen (Author)
Call Number: B Frank Lee

ISBN: 9780670059584

Publication Date: 2005-04-07

Viking Penguin
163 Pages
Ages 10-16

The story of Jacqueline van Maarsen ("Jopie"), who was Anne Frank's best friend before Anne went into hiding. She remembers her friendship with Anne, her own experiences of the Holocaust, and accepting the fame of Anne's diary.

Sears Subject Headings:

Frank, Anne--1929-1945--Juvenile literature.
Maarsen, Jacqueline van--Juvenile literature.
Jews--Netherlands--Amsterdam--Biography--Juvenile literature.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Netherlands--Amsterdam--Biography--Juvenile literature.
Amsterdam (Netherlands)--Biography--Juvenile literature.
Literature.
Biographies.

The Daughter of Auschwitz: the Girl Who Lived to Tell Her Story by Tova Friedman
Call Number: B Friedman Friedman

ISBN: 9780063381544

Publication Date: 2025-04-08

Quill Tree Books, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
193 Pages
Ages 12+

In this powerful middle grade adaptation of the bestselling adult memoir of the same name, New York Times bestselling author Tova Friedman recounts her experiences as one of the youngest survivors of the Holocaust. At the tender age of five years old, Tola Grossman was sent to a Nazi labor camp. As World War II was breaking out around them, the only thing Tola and her parents were left with was the instinct to survive at all costs. Tola's life became a series of miraculous close calls, from being saved from a gas chamber to successfully hiding from the Nazis as they were rounding people up. In this evocative account of one young girl's survival, Tova Friedman chronicles the atrocities she witnessed while at Auschwitz and, ultimately, the sources of hope and courage she and her family found to persist against all odds.

Sears Subject Headings:

Friedman, Tova,--1938---Juvenile literature.
Friedman, Tova,--1938-.
Auschwitz (Concentration camp)--Juvenile literature.
Birkenau (Concentration camp)--Juvenile literature.
Holocaust survivors--Poland--Gdynia--Biography--Juvenile literature.
Holocaust survivors--Poland--Biography--Juvenile literature.
Jewish children in the Holocaust--Poland--Gdynia--Biography--Juvenile literature.
Nazi concentration camp inmates--Poland--Biography--Juvenile literature.
Nazi concentration camp inmates--Poland--Biography--Juvenile literature.
Nazi concentration camps--Poland--Juvenile literature.
Nazi concentration camps--Germany--Juvenile literature.
World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation--Juvenile literature.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives, Jewish--Juvenile literature.
Holocaust survivors.
Jews--Poland--Gdynia--Biography.
Nazi concentration camps--Poland.
Nazi concentration camps.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).
World War, 1939-1945.
Holocaust survivors--Biography--Juvenile literature.
Holocaust, 1933-1945--Biography--Juvenile literature.
World War, 1939-1945--Juvenile literature.
Holocaust, 1933-1945.
Holocaust, 1933-1945--Juvenile literature.
Autobiographies.
Personal narratives.

Harboring Hope: the True Story of How Henny Sinding Helped Denmark's Jews Escape the Nazis by Susan Hood
Call Number: B Sinding Hood

ISBN: 9780063214484

Publication Date: 2023-03-21

Harper, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
xiii, 352 Pages
Ages 10+

The inspirational true story of how twenty-two-year-old Henny Sinding courageously helped smuggle hundreds of Jewish families in occupied Denmark to safety in Sweden during the Holocaust. A middle grade nonfiction novel-in-verse by award-winning author Susan Hood. It wouldn't be easy, but they had to try. It was their only chance to survive. In 1943, Henny Sinding, only twenty-two years old and the crew of Gerda lll, a lighthouse supply boat, risked everything to smuggle their Jewish compatriots across the Øresund strait to safety in Sweden during World War ll. In Henny's words, "It was the right thing to do so we did it. Simple as that." But what happened when their operation's cover was blown and it was Henny's turn to escape This incredible true story in-verse about courage, community, humanity, and hope is perfect for fans of Lifeboat 12, Alias Anna, and Alan Gratz. Includes extensive back matter with primary sources, additional information, further reading, and photographs.

Sears Subject Headings:

Sinding, Henny--1921---Juvenile literature.
Sinding, Henny--1921-.
German Occupation of Denmark--(Denmark: 1940-1945).
Jewish Holocaust.
World War--(1939-1945)
1939-1945
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Denmark--Juvenile literature.
World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue--Denmark--Juvenile literature.
World War, 1939-1935--Participation, Female--Juvenile literature.
World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Denmark--Juvenile literature.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Denmark.
World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Denmark.
Rescue works, Denmark.
World War, 1939-1945--participation, Female.
World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Denmark.
Women--Biography.
Military participation--Female.
Wars--Underground movements.
Holocaust, 1939-1945--Denmark.
World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Denmark.
Rescue work--Denmark.
World War, 1939-1945.
World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Denmark.
Women--Biography.
Denmark--History--German occupation, 1940-1945--Juvenile literature.
Denmark--History--German occupation, 1940-1945.
Denmark.
Denmark--History.
History.
Juvenile works.
Stories in rhyme.
Free verse.
Literature.
Biographies.

The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron
Call Number: F CAMERO

ISBN: 9781338355932

Publication Date: 2020-03-03

Scholastic Press
377 Pages
Ages 12+

The extraordinary story of Stefania Podgórska, a Polish teenager who chose bravery and humanity by hiding thirteen Jews in her attic during WWII -- from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sharon Cameron. One knock at the door, and Stefania has a choice to make... It is 1943, and for four years, sixteen-year-old Stefania has been working for the Diamant family in their grocery store in Przemysl, Poland, singing her way into their lives and hearts. She has even made a promise to one of their sons, Izio -- a betrothal they must keep secret since she is Catholic and the Diamants are Jewish. But everything changes when the German army invades Przemysl. The Diamants are forced into the ghetto, and Stefania is alone in an occupied city, the only one left to care for Helena, her six-year-old sister. And then comes the knock at the door. Izio's brother Max has jumped from the train headed to a death camp. Stefania and Helena make the extraordinary decision to hide Max, and eventually twelve more Jews. Then they must wait, every day, for the next knock at the door, the one that will mean death. When the knock finally comes, it is two Nazi officers, requisitioning Stefania's house for the German army. With two Nazis below, thirteen hidden Jews above, and a little sister by her side, Stefania has one more excruciating choice to make.

Cameron's Website

Is It Night or Day? by Fern Schumer Chapman
Call Number: F CHAPMA

ISBN: 9780374177447

Publication Date: 2010-03-16

Farrar Straus Giroux
205 Pages
Ages 10+

In 1938, Edith Westerfeld, a young German Jew, is sent by her parents to Chicago, Illinois, where she lives with an aunt and uncle and tries to assimilate into American culture, while worrying about her parents and mourning the loss of everything she has ever known. Based on the author's mother's experience. Includes an afterword about a little-known program that brought twelve hundred Jewish children to safety during World War II.
War Games: A Novel Based on a True Story by Audrey Couloumbis; Akila Couloumbis
Call Number: F COULOU

ISBN: 9780375856280

Publication Date: 2009-10-27

Random House
232 Pages
Ages 9-12

Based on a true story of World War II. For 12-year-old Petros, World War II feels unreal and far away. What's real is working in his papa's garden. Playing marbles with his friends. Fighting with his older brother, Zola. Zola, who must always be first. Who must always be best. But when the Germans invade Greece, the war suddenly comes impossibly close. Overnight, neighbors become enemies. People begin to keep secrets (Petros' family most of all). And for the first time, Petros has the chance to show Zola that he's not just a little brother but that he can truly be counted on. Soon what were once just boys games become matters of life and death as Petros and Zola each wonder if, like their resistance fighter cousin, they too can make a difference.
One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss by Barry Denenberg
Call Number: F DENENB

ISBN: 9780439095181

Publication Date: 2000-10-01

Scholastic
250 Pages
Ages 12+

For the first time, a Dear America story is being told in two parts -- complete in one volume! Julie Weiss's world is suddenly torn apart by a war that will forever change the face of humanity. Her life as a privileged Jewish girl quickly becomes one of humiliation and terror. In part two, Julie has left Nazi Austria for New York, where she begins a new life with her extended family who she has never met.
Annexed by Sharon Dogar
Call Number: F DOGAR

ISBN: 9780547501956

Publication Date: 2010-10-04

Houghton Mifflin
ix, 341 Pages
Ages 12-15

Everyone knows about Anne Frank and her life hidden in the secret annex - but what about the boy who was also trapped there with her? In this powerful and gripping novel, Sharon Dogar explores what this might have been like from Peter's point of view. What was it like to be forced into hiding with Anne Frank, first to hate her and then to find yourself falling in love with her? Especially with your parents and her parents all watching almost everything you do together. To know you're being written about in Anne's diary, day after day? What's it like to start questioning your religion, wondering why simply being Jewish inspires such hatred and persecution? Or to just sit and wait and watch while others die, and wish you were fighting. As Peter and Anne become closer and closer in their confined quarters, how can they make sense of what they see happening around them? Anne's diary ends on August 4, 1944, but Peter's story takes us on, beyond their betrayal and into the Nazi death camps. He details with accuracy, clarity and compassion the reality of day to day survival in Auschwitz - and ultimately the horrific fates of the Annex's occupants.
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz; Ruth Gruener; Jack Gruener
Call Number: F GRATZ

ISBN: 9780545459013

Publication Date: 2013-03-01

Scholastic Press
309 Pages
Ages 12-14

Based on the inspiring true life story of Jack Gruener. 10 concentration camps. 10 different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It's something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over. Everything he has, and everyone he loves, have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prisoner -- his arm tattooed with the words PRISONER B-3087. He is forced from one nightmarish concentration camp to another, as World War II rages all around him. He encounters evil he could have never imagined, but also sees surprising glimpses of hope amid the horror. He just barely escapes death, only to confront it again seconds later. Can Yanek make it through the terror without losing his hope, his will -- and, most of all, his sense of who he really is inside? Based on an astonishing true story.
Alias Anna: Zhanna Arshanskaya: a Biography in Verse : a True Story of Outwitting the Nazis by Susan Hood; Greg Dawson
Call Number: F HOOD

ISBN: 9780063083899

Publication Date: 2022-03-22

Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
339 Pages
Ages 10+

The moving true story of how young Ukrainian Jewish piano prodigies Zhanna (alias "Anna") and her sister Frina outplayed their pursuers while hiding in plain sight during the Holocaust. A middle grade nonfiction novel-in-verse by award-winning author Susan Hood with Greg Dawson (Zhanna's son). She wouldn't be Zhanna. She'd use an alias. A for Anna. A for alive. When the Germans invade Ukraine, Zhanna, a young Jewish girl, must leave behind her friends, her freedom, and her promising musical future at the world's top conservatory. With no time to say goodbye, Zhanna, her sister Frina, and their entire family are removed from their home by the Nazis and forced on a long, cold, death march. When a guard turns a blind eye, Zhanna flees with nothing more than her musical talent, her beloved sheet music, and her father's final plea: "I don't care what you do. Just live."
The Perfect Horse by Elizabeth Letts
Call Number: F LETTS

ISBN: 9780525644743

Publication Date: 2019-02-12

Delacorte Press
xvii, 253 Pages
Ages 8-12

When American Colonel Hank Reed and his soldiers captures a German spy, they uncover an unexpected secret: Hitler has kidnapped the world's finest purebred horses and hidden them in a secret Czechoslovakian breeding farm. But, starving Russian troops are drawing closer and the horses face the danger of becoming food instead. With little time to spare, the small American troop cross enemy lines to heroically save some of the world's most treasured animals. Elizabeth Letts details the terrifying truth of Hitler's eugenics program during World War II and shares the story of the courageous American troop dedicated to stopping it. Highlighting bravery in the face of incredible odds, this tale will shed light on a little-known piece of our past and speak to history fans and animal lovers of every age.
It Rained Warm Bread by Gloria Moskowitz-Sweet; Hope Anita Smith; Lea Lyon (Illustrator)
Call Number: F MOSKOW

ISBN: 9781250165725

Publication Date: 2019-08-13

Christy Ottaviano Books/Henry Holt and Company
142 Pages
Ages 9-14

A powerful middle grade novel-in-verse about one boy's experience surviving the Holocaust. Moishe Moskowitz was thirteen when the Nazis invaded Poland and his family learned the language of fear. The wolves loomed at every corner, yet Moishe still held on to the blessings of his mother's blueberry pierogis, of celebrating the Sabbath as a family, of a loyal friend. But each day the darkness weighed more heavily on Moishe as his family was broken, uprooted, and scattered across labor and concentration camps. Just as his last hopes began to dim, a simple act of kindness redeemed his faith that goodness could survive the trials of war: That was the day it rained warm bread. Gloria Moskowitz-Sweet relates her father's triumphant Holocaust story through the words of award-winning poet Hope Anita Smith. Deftly articulated and beautifully illustrated by Lea Lyon, this is an essential addition to the ever-important collection of Holocaust testimonies.
Run, Boy, Run by Uri Orlev; Hillel Halkin (Translator)
Call Number: F ORLEV

ISBN: 9780618164653

Publication Date: 2003-10-27

Houghton Mifflin
186 Pages
Ages 10-14

Run, Boy, Run is the extraordinary account of one boy's survival of the Holocaust. Srulik is only eight years old when he finds himself all alone in the Warsaw ghetto. He escapes into the countryside where he spends the ensuing years hiding in the forest, dependent on the sympathies and generosity of the poor farmers in the surrounding area. Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds, several chases, captures, attempted executions, and even the loss of his arm, Srulik miraculously survives.
Malka by Mirjam Pressler; Brian Murdoch (Translator)
Call Number: F PRESSL

ISBN: 9780399239847

Publication Date: 2003-05-12

Philomel Books
280 Pages
Ages 12+

When the round-ups start in the Polish village, Malka's mother knows she must get her daughters across the Hungarian border to safety-a place where Jews can live in peace. But escape proves harder than they could have ever imagined. Raw and bleeding feet, bad weather, fear and homesickness fill their nights, until little Malka falls very ill, and must be left behind to be brought across when the threat has passed. But the threat doesn't pass. Separated from her family, Malka finds herself in a terrifying world full of strangers, starvation, and constant fear of Nazi round-ups. Completely alone, she struggles to stay hidden in alleyways and old cellars, unaware that miles away, a broken-hearted mother is searching frantically for her lost little girl . . . A shocking and unforgettable story of a child's heroic fight to stay alive during one of the most intense moments in human history.
Touch Wood by Renee Roth-Hano
Call Number: F ROTH

ISBN: 9780140340853

Publication Date: 1989-10-01

Four Winds Press
297 Pages
Ages 10-14

In this autobiographical novel set in Nazi-occupied France, Renee, a young Jewish girl, and her family flee their home in Alsace and live a precarious existence in Paris until Renee and her sister escape to the shelter of a Catholic school in Normandy.
Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
Call Number: F ROY

ISBN: 9780761452775

Publication Date: 2012-01-05

Marshall Cavendish
227 Pages
Ages 10+

"In 1945 the war ended. The Germans surrendered, and the ghetto was liberated. Out of over a quarter of a million people, about 800 walked out of the ghetto. Of those who survived, only twelve were children. I was one of the twelve." For more than fifty years after the war, Syvia, like many Holocaust survivors, did not talk about her experiences in the Lodz ghetto in Poland. She buried her past in order to move forward. But finally she decided it was time to share her story, and so she told it to her niece, who has re-told it here using free verse inspired by her aunt. This is the true story of Syvia Perlmutter--a story of courage, heartbreak, and finally survival despite the terrible circumstances in which she grew up. A timeline, historical notes, and an author's note are included.
My Family for the War by Anne G. Voorhoere; Anne C. Voorhoeve
Call Number: F VOORHO

ISBN: 9780803733602

Publication Date: 2012-02-16

Dial Books
402 Pages
Ages 12+

Escaping Nazi Germany on the kindertransport changes one girl's life forever. At the start of World War II, ten-year-old Franziska Mangold is torn from her family when she boards the kindertransport in Berlin, the train that secretly took nearly 10,000 children out of Nazi territory to safety in England. Taken in by strangers who soon become more like family than her real parents, Frances (as she is now known) courageously pieces together a new life for herself because she doesn't know when or if she'll see her true family again. Against the backdrop of war-torn London, Frances struggles with questions of identity, family, and love, and these experiences shape her into a dauntless, charming young woman.

The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss
Call Number: 940.53 R278u

ISBN: 0690851278

Publication Date: 1972-01-21

Harper Collins
ix, 196 Pages
Ages 10-13

A classic WWII survivor story based on award-winning author Johanna Reiss's own childhood during the Holocaust. When the German army occupied Holland in 1940, Annie was only eight years old. Because she was Jewish, the occupation put her in grave danger. Most people thought the war wouldn't last long, but Annie knew that if she wanted to stay alive, she would have to go into hiding. Fortunately, a Gentile family, the Oostervelds, offered refuge to Annie and her older sister, Sini. For two years they hid in the cramped upstairs room of the Oostervelds's remote farmhouse. There, Annie and Sini would struggle to hold on to hope--separated from their family and confined to one tiny room--as a frightful and seemingly endless war raged on outside their window.
Run and Hide by Don Brown
Call Number: 940.5318 B812r 2023

ISBN: 9780358538165

Publication Date: 2023-10-10

Clarion Books, HarperAlley, Imprints of HarperCollinsPublishers
190 Pages
Ages 13+

In the tightening grip of Hitler's power, towns, cities, and ghettoes were emptied of Jews. Unless they could escape, Jewish children would not be spared their deadly fate in the Holocaust, a tragedy of unfathomable depth. Only 11% of the Jewish children living in Europe before 1939 survived the Second World War. Run and Hide tells the stories of these children, forced to leave their homes and families, as they escaped certain horror. Some children flee to England by train. Others are hidden from Nazis, sometimes in plain sight. Some are secreted away in attics and farmhouses. Still others make miraculous escapes, cresting over the snow-covered Pyrenees mountains to safety.
I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson
Call Number: 940.5318 J135i, 1997

ISBN: 9780689810220

Publication Date: 1997-04-01

Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
224 Pages
Ages 14+

The intimate and haunting memoir of a teenager who survived the Nazi death camps Thirteen-year-old Elli Friedmann's life was changed forever when the Nazis invaded her homeland of Hungary. In excruciating and immediate detail, the author describes her descent into the hell of Auschwitz and recounts what it was like to be one of the few teenaged camp inmates. Through a series of tiny but miraculous twists of fate, Elli managed to come out of the camp alive, together with her mother and her brother. Although her story is heartbreaking, Elli's enduring hope, perseverance, strength, and love throughout her ordeal make it an inspiring one as well. Readers will be moved by the intensity of Elli's spirit and will rejoice in her ability to overcome the nightmare that was her daily reality.
The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible . . . on Schindler's List by Leon Leyson; Marilyn J. Harran; Elisabeth B. Leyson
Call Number: 940.5318 L685b 2013

ISBN: 9781442497818

Publication Date: 2013-08-27

Atheneum Books for Young Readers
225 Pages
Ages 10-13

This, the only memoir published by a former Schindler's list child, perfectly captures the innocence of a small boy who goes through the unthinkable. Leon Leyson (born Leib Lezjon) was only ten years old when the Nazis invaded Poland and his family was forced to relocate to the Krakow ghetto. With incredible luck, perseverance, and grit, Leyson was able to survive the sadism of the Nazis, including that of the demonic Amon Goeth, commandant of Plaszow, the concentration camp outside Krakow. Ultimately, it was the generosity and cunning of one man, Oskar Schindler, who saved Leon Leyson's life, and the lives of his mother, his father, and two of his four siblings, by adding their names to his list of workers in his factory--a list that became world renowned: Schindler's list. Told with an abundance of dignity and a remarkable lack of rancor and venom, The Boy on the Wooden Box is a legacy of hope, a memoir unlike anything you've ever read.
No Pretty Pictures: a Child of War by Anita Lobel
Call Number: 940.5318 L783n, 1998

ISBN: 9780688159351

Publication Date: 1998-09-17

Greenwillow Books
xiii, 193 Pages
Ages 10+

The author, known as an illustrator of children's books, describes her experiences as a Polish Jew during World War II and for years in Sweden afterwards.
Four Perfect Pebbles by Lila Perl; Marion Blumenthal Lazan
Call Number: 940.5318 N124g 2024

ISBN: 9780062489968

Publication Date: 2016-10-18

Greenwillow Books
xi, 130 Pages
Ages 12+

The twentieth-anniversary edition of Marion Blumenthal Lazan's acclaimed Holocaust memoir features new material by the author, a reading group guide, a map, and additional photographs. Marion Blumenthal Lazan's unforgettable and acclaimed memoir recalls the devastating years that shaped her childhood. Following Hitler's rise to power, the Blumenthal family--father, mother, Marion, and her brother, Albert--were trapped in Nazi Germany. They managed eventually to get to Holland, but soon thereafter it was occupied by the Nazis. For the next six and a half years the Blumenthals were forced to live in refugee, transit, and prison camps, including Westerbork in Holland and Bergen-Belsen in Germany, before finally making it to the United States. Their story is one of horror and hardship, but it is also a story of courage, hope, and the will to survive. Four Perfect Pebbles features forty archival photographs, including several new to this edition, an epilogue, a bibliography, a map, a reading group guide, an index, and a new afterword by the author.
Storming the Tulips by Nancy L. Baumann; Hannie J. Voyles (Edited and Translated by); Ronald Sanders (Compiled by)
Call Number: 940.5318 Sa56s 2011

ISBN: 9780983080008

Publication Date: 2011-04-04

Stonebrook Pub.
164 Pages
Ages 10-15

This is companion to Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl is loved by students and teachers as they learn to understand the world beyond the Annex. Not just another Holocaust story, Storming the Tulips is an intimate encounter with history, as told by twenty former students of the 1st Montessori School in Amsterdam. They were children-contemporaries of Anne Frank-and this book is a companion her Diary of a Young Girl. While Anne's story describes her sequestered life in the Annex, Storming the Tulips reveals what children on the outside experienced-in the streets, in hiding, and in the concentration camps. It is a staple in Holocaust education curricula in all parts of the world.
Impossible Escape: a True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Germany by Steve Sheinkin
Call Number: 940.5318 Sh42i 2023

ISBN: 9781250265722

Publication Date: 2023-08-29

Roaring Brook Press
xi, 243 Pages
Ages 12-18

This is the true story of Rudolph (Rudi) Vrba. In 1944, he was just a teenager when he did the impossible and escaped Auschwitz, becoming one of the first survivors to share with the world what was actually going on in the Nazi concentration camps. But before he escaped, before he became one of the most famous whistleblowers in the world, he had to survive the concentration camp.This is also the story of Gerta Sidonová, his highschool friend who fled from Slovakia to Hungary with her family. There, she lived under assumed names and hid her Jewish identity. Every day, she risked being found out as Hungary began to cave under pressure from German Nazis. Rudi and Gerta's parallel storylines bring them together as the clock ticks down for Gerta and her family, and Rudi edges towards escape.
Chance: Escape from the Holocaust by Uri Shulevitz
Call Number: 940.5318 Sh92c 2020

ISBN: 9780374313715

Publication Date: 2020-10-13

Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
329 Pages
Ages 10-14

In September 1939, as German bombs started falling on Warsaw, four-year-old Uri Shulevitz sat still while his mother tied new boots on his feet and told him, "We'll need to walk a lot." So begins Uri's arduous eight-year journey with his family, fleeing Poland and the Nazi onslaught for a precarious existence in the Soviet Union. From the freezing wilderness confines of a labor camp all the way north near the White Sea to hunger-filled years of displacement all the way south in the city of Turkestan, Uri recounts the lucky breaks and setbacks that happened to him and his parents along the way. Powerfully illustrated by the author and with a few surviving personal photographs and mementos, Chance: Escape from the Holocaust also depicts young Uri's awakening as an artist, whose love of making pictures helped sustain him. Altogether, this is a unique, enthralling memoir of a displaced childhood from the beloved Caldecott medalist, the capstone to a remarkable career.
Night by Elie Wiesel; Marion Wiesel (Translator)
Call Number: 940.5318 W637n 2006

ISBN: 9780374500016

Publication Date: 2006-01-16

Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Ages 14+
xxi, 120 Pages

A new translation from the French by Marion Wiesel. Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man's capacity for inhumanity to man. Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.

Maus: a Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman
Call Number: D810.J4 S643 2011

ISBN: 0394747232

Publication Date: 2011

Pantheon Books
295 Pages
Ages X-X

In this graphic novel, Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek's harrowing story of survival is woven into the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits.
Freiheit!: the White Rose Graphic Novel by Andrea Grosso Ciponte
Call Number: DD256.3 .G7635 2021

ISBN: 9780874863444

Publication Date: 2021-02-16

Plough Publishing House
111 Pages
Ages 12-14

The dramatic true story of a handful of students who resisted the Nazis and paid with their lives, now in a stunning graphic novel. With an entire nation blindly following an evil leader, where did a handful of students find the courage to resist? The university students who formed the White Rose, an undercover resistance movement in Nazi Germany, knew that doing so could cost them their lives. But some things are worth dying for. The White Rose printed and distributed leaflets to expose Nazi atrocities and wake up their fellow citizens. The Gestapo caught and executed them. Sophie Scholl was twenty-one; her brother Hans, twenty-four; Christoph Probst, twenty-three; Alexander Schmorell and Willi Graf, twenty-five. But the White Rose was not silenced. Their heroism continues to inspire new generations of resisters. Now, for the first time, this story that has been celebrated in print and film can be experienced as a graphic novel. Italian artist Andrea Grosso Ciponte's haunting imagery will resonate with today's students and activists. The challenges they face may vary, but the need for young people to stand up against evil, whatever the cost, will remain.
The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
Call Number: DS135.N6 F73313

ISBN: 9781556750007

Publication Date: 1988-01-01

Doubleday
308 Pages
Ages 12+

The journal of a Jewish girl in her early teens describes both the joys and torments of daily life, as well as typical adolescent thoughts, throughout two years spent in hiding with her family during the Nazi occupation of Holland.
Bitter Eden: A Novel by Tatamkhulu Afrika
Call Number: PR9369.3.A37 B58 2014

ISBN: 9781250043665

Publication Date: 2014-02-25

Picador
vii, 232 Pages
Ages 18+

A modern classic being introduced to the United States for the first time, Tatamkhulu Afrika's autobiographical novel illuminating the profound and incomparable bonds forged between prisoners of war. Bitter Eden is based on Tatamkhulu Afrika's own capture in North Africa and his experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II in Italy and Germany. This frank and beautifully wrought novel deals with three men who must negotiate the emotions that are brought to the surface by the physical closeness of survival in the male-only camps. The complex rituals of camp life and the strange loyalties and deep bonds among the men are heartbreakingly depicted. Bitter Eden is a tender, bitter, deeply felt book of lives inexorably changed, and of a war whose ending does not bring peace.