Holocaust Literature for Teachers

Holocaust Literature for Teachers

This annotated bibliography will be updated each year in the Fall. If you are interested in subsequent editions, please send a request to Molly Maffei, at cmaffei@brrsd.k12.nj.us

Holocaust Literature for Teachers -- 1999

Gerda Weissmann Klein: All But My Life
Hill and Wang, NY, 1995; ISBN: 0-8090-1580-3
The memoir of a Polish Jew who married the U.S. Army lieutenant who liberated her in 1945. The author describes the family’s life during occupation, three years in labor camps, a forced winter march from Germany to Czechoslovakia, and the healing time after liberation.
Excellent

Eva Fogelman: Conscience and Courage, Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., NY, 1994; ISBN: 0-385-42028-5
The author, a psychotherapist and social psychologist, tells the stories of rescuers during the Holocaust and attempts to explain their motivation, in the hopes that their moral courage and compassion will never be forgotten and continue to be repeated.
Excellent

Solomon Perel: Europa, Europa
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., NY, 1997; ISBN: 0-471-17218-9
At fourteen, Solomon escapes Nazi-occupied Poland, hoping to find safety across the Soviet frontier. Ironically, he found refuge as a student in an elite Hitler Youth school. He convinced his captors he was an ethnic German and struggled daily to maintain that illusion.
Excellent

Binjamin Wilkomirski: Fragments
Schocken Books Inc., NY, 1996; ISBN: 0-8052-4139-6
Wilkomirski was a small child when the round-ups of Jews in Latvia began. Separated from his family at three or four years old, he found himself in Majdanek death camp. The author gives us traumatic “fragments” of his recollections. (There is some controversy over the authenticity of the author’s story).
Excellent

Jane Marks: The Hidden Children, The Secret Survivors of The Holocaust
Fawcett Columbine, NY, 1993; ISBN: 0-449-90686-8
A collection of stories from children hidden from the Nazis during WWII, showing what it was like in hiding, at liberation, and during the struggle afterwards when the children had to come to grips with this ordeal. A brief historical perspective and psychological study of being a hidden child add to the reading.
Excellent

Hana Volavkova. Ed.: …I never saw another butterfly…
Schocken Books, NY, 1993; ISBN: 0-8052-1015-6
A collection of some of the children’s drawing and poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, in Czechoslovakia, from 1942-1945, that reflects their surroundings. Information is included about this “family camp” and the poets and artists who contributed.
Excellent

Isabella Leitner: Isabella, From Auschwitz to Freedom
Anchor Books, NY, 1994; ISBN: 0-385-47318-4
Isabella describes the deportation of her family from Hungary to Auschwitz. Her mother and young sister are sent to their death upon their arrival. The four sisters struggle fiercely to buoy each other’s spirits and strength. (Story also told in children’s book).
Excellent

Sonia Schreiber Weitz: I Promised I Would Tell
Facing History and Ourselves, MA, 1993; ISBN: 0-9615841-3-0
Sonia was eleven when her family and other Polish Jews were herded into ghettoes. A Holocaust educator and survivor of five concentration camps, she shares memories of Nazi racism, dehumanization and mass murder in prose and poetry.
Excellent

Otto Friedrich: The Kingdom of Auschwitz
Harper Perennial, NY, 1994; ISBN: 0-06-097640-3
Auschwitz is explored – the origin and rational of the camp; the part it played in overall Nazi plans; the way it was built, expanded and run; the daily life of guards and inmates; and the terrifying logic and disciplining which kept it operating for the greater part of the war.
Excellent

Barbara Rogasky: Smoke and Ashes
Holiday House, NY, 1988; ISBN: 0-8234-0878-7
This story of the Holocaust examines the causes, events, and legacies, which resulted in the extermination of six million Jews. The roots of anti-Semitism, the role of the U.S. and British governments, and resistance are among topics discussed. Readable history – well written.

Liana Millu: Smoke over Birkenau Northwestern University Press, IL, 1991; ISBN: 0-8101-1569
The author is an Italian Jewish journalist and schoolteacher who joined the partisans in 1943, was arrested in 1944 and deported to Birkenau. She tells the stories of women who lived and suffered, and some who endured alongside her.
Excellent

Nick Del Calzo: The Triumphant Spirit
Triumphant Spirit Publishing, CO, 1997; ISBN: 0-9655260-1-1
Ninety-two Holocaust survivors from across the U.S. and from all fields of life tell their story – a story of luck, determination, devotion and triumphant of the human spirit. Accompanying photos and capsule quotes add to the poignancy of the book.
Excellent