Shackleton, Kath, editor. Survivors of the Holocaust: True Stories of Six Extraordinary Children. 2019. 96p. ISBN 9781492688921. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.
The Holocaust was the most tragic event of the 20th century. As individuals who survived the Holocaust become older and pass on, the memories of what happened are dimming, becoming only a fact of history for most people. Such a tragedy must never occur again however, and it is important to listen to the voices of those who lived through it. In this short illustrated graphic novel, six people talk about their experiences during the Holocaust. Five of them were able to get on the Kindertrains that ran from Germany to England just before the war, and they therefore survived. One of them was sent to concentration camps to die, but lived to tell his experiences.
The illustrations are haunting, and represent a child's point of view on the events that happened during the 1930s and 1940s. For most of them, they didn't understand what was happening around them, or why Germans were so opposed to Jews. They suffered the applications of genocidal policies designed to eliminate an entire group of humans. A summary at the end of the book discusses the lives that these six children had after the war, but all of them remained haunted by what they saw.
Gruener, Ruth. Out of Hiding: A Holocaust Survivor's Journey to America. 2020. 194p. ISBN 978-1-338-62745-9. Available at FIC GRU on the library shelves.
Luncia was an only child born in Poland to a Jewish family, and when the Nazis invaded the country, she and her family found themselves the target of violent antisemitic attacks. Soon forced into a ghetto, Luncia escaped and was housed by a family friend of her father, before being reunited with her family. With her mother and father hiding from the Germans, they managed to avoid capture and emerged in 1945 with a defeated Germany.
With the world around them in rubble, and with people still hostile to Jews, Luncia and her family soon became part of the largest movement of displaced persons in history. After applying for American visas and being granted access, the family left on a ship in 1948 and crossed the Atlantic, where they were reunited with her father's siblings, who had left Poland before the war.
Settling in New York, Luncia, who changed her name to Ruth, was also reunited in New York with Jack Gruener, a fellow Polish Jew who had also survived the war and whom she had met in Europe. Jack had come to the United States only to go to Korea to fight in the Korean War, and when he returned the two of them were soon married. They never forgot the Holocaust, however, and even today Ruth continues to talk with people who believe it didn't happen.
Though the first part of the book is focused on surviving the Holocaust, the rest of the book powerfully describes the impacts the Holocaust had on Ruth's life and that of her family. Pictures at the end of the book help provide context to some of the situations described.
Lowry, Lois. Number the Stars, 1998. 137p. ISBN 9780440227533.
In 1940, Denmark is invaded by Germany, and German soldiers stand at every street corner. For children, it represented the end of parties, cakes, and fireworks in the sky. Following the German invasion, Annemarie's older sister, who was due to get married, died in a car accident, and the family rarely talks about her. In the two years since the occupation, the lives of Annemarie Johansen and her family have become harder with food restrictions and curfews, but not exceedingly so. That is, until the Germans began hunting Danish jews. Annemarie's best friend, Ellen Rosen, is Jewish, and she and her family are now in danger.
With the help of Danish rebels and saboteurs, of whom Lisa was once a member, Annemarie finds herself in the middle of a family plan to help the Rosens escape Denmark for the relative safety of Sweden. At ten years old, Annemarie will need to summon courage to outfox the Germans and help her best friend escape.
Hesse, Monica. They Went Left. 2020. 364p. ISBN 9780316490573.
The Second World War has concluded, and Germany was defeated. During the drive of armies to Berlin, soldiers encountered concentration camps, and freed the prisoners. These were often too sick or ill to be able to leave, so troops remained behind to guard them as they healed. Zofia Lederman and her family lived in a Polish town until it was conquered by the Germans in 1939. As Jews, their lives immediately changed for the worse. In 1942, they were required to come to the sports stadium for new identity papers. Instead, Zofia and her entire family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the worst of the concentration camps. Her father, mother, and aunt were sent to the left side when they arrived, while Zofia and her 9 year old brother, Abek, who was tall for his age, were sent to the right. Only later did she learn that the left side was directly to the gas chamber.
Zofia was soon separated from her brother, and was transferred to a different concentration camp as the Russians got closer. Now 18 in the summer of 1945, Zofia's body has healed enough, and she leaves the camp hospital where she was staying to accomplish the impossible task of finding Abek. Zofia is convinced he survived the war, but with millions of refugees spread over the continent, the task proves daunting. Nothing will deter Zofia, however, as she made a promise to her mother to always take care of her younger brother. Traveling first back to her home, then inside Germany proper, Zofia searches for clues as to what happened to her brother in the last chaotic years of the war. Despite the heartbreaks that come from looking, Zofia retains the hope that she will find him. But in a world where there was so much tragedy, can her story ends like the fairy tales she used to love?
Providing the often forgotten perspective of those who survived concentration camps and had to rebuild their lives, They Went Left explore issues of survival, mental illness, healing, and forgiveness. Zofia went through a traumatic experience that nothing will ever heal, yet she must begin rebuilding a world for herself amid the ruins of her previous life. The extreme violence she experienced make her an unreliable witness to her own story, yet her hope remains present. Readers who appreciate Holocaust survival stories will easily find Zofia relatable and will support her quest for reunification with the only family member she has left.
Taylor, Jordyn. The Paper Girl of Paris. 2020. 368p. ISBN 978-0-0629-3662-2. Available at FIC TAY on the library shelves.
Alice is sixteen, and her grandmother Chloe recently died, leaving her an apartment in Paris her family didn't know existed. Alice was very close to her grandmother, and spent a lot of time with her, but every time the topic of her youth came up, her grandmother would stir the course of the conversation elsewhere. Now Alice is left to unravel a family history she didn't know existed. Arriving in Paris, Alice and her parents visit the apartment, and realize it is a time piece. No one has been here in nearly 80 years, and the place is filled with memories, including pictures of Alice's grandmother and what can only be her sister, Adalyn. Discovering a journal written by Adalyn during the war, Alice begins to investigate her secretive family and learn more before deciding whether to sell the apartment. The discovery of a 1942 picture of Adalyn with German officers shocks Alice. Her grand-aunt was a collaborator!
In May 1940, Adalyn is sixteen, and she should have the world in front of her. The daughter of a university professor and of a socialite, Adalyn and her younger sister Chloe live a life of privilege in Paris. For years, however, the clamors of war have been growing, and back in September 1939 Adolf Hitler unleashed war on the continent, and now the German war machine is hitting France and the country is in disarray. Soon finding herself in occupied territory, Adalyn vows to resist the German invader but also resolves to keep her hot-tempered younger sister safe by not involving her in her schemes. After she meets a like-minded group of teens, Adalyn joins the Resistance and plans even more daring acts of opposition and sabotage. As a socialite, Adalyn is welcomed in the ranks of German officers, and she plays the part to obtain vital information on troop movements and weapons deliveries. The more she compromises with the Germans to accomplish her objectives, however, the greater the frictions between herself and Chloe and the more in danger she finds herself.
As Alice spends time in Paris dealing with her mother's depression and searching for more information on her family, she meets Paul, a lovely French boy who helps her in her research, and who seems to like her as much as she likes him. Her family's past continues to haunt her, however, and Alice desires answers to what happened to Adalyn and Chloe and why the family broke apart. Her quest may unravel that mystery, but it could also break up her own family and bring to light sordid collaboration. It is, however, a risk Alice needs to take to fully understand her grandmother.
Fans of historical fiction will appreciate this story. Alice is a conflicted teen, and she is driven by realistic emotions and desires. Adalyn is likewise relatable in the decisions she makes. This novel is perfect for a different teen perspective on the Second World War, one not at the front but rather of resistance in occupied territories.
Killeen, Matt. Orphan, Monster, Spy. 2018. 423p. ISBN 978-0-451-47874-0. Available as an ebookfrom Overdrive.
Being Jewish in Germany in 1939 is dangerous. Until 1933, Sarah had a normal life in Vienna, with an adoring mother. She participated in gymnastics, and loved sports. Then the Nazis came to power, and life became a struggle. For six years Sarah and her mother managed to avoid most of the violence, but as Hitler relentlessly drive Germany towards war, it is not possible for them to stay here.
Orphan, Monster, Spy begins when Sarah's mother is shot and crashes their car as they forced a German road block on their way to Switzerland. Barely escaping, Sarah hides in an abandoned warehouse. On the roof, she spots a strange man observing zeppelins landing and departing for a nearby airbase. The stranger corners her but soon departs, leaving Sarah alone.
The following morning, she successfully sneaks aboard a ferry heading across the lake to Switzerland, but when she spots the stranger from the night before being harassed by German soldiers, she realizes that he's the man they wanted to arrest when her mother crashed her car. Without thinking, she saves him from arrest, and she soon learns he is a British Captain who has been living in Germany since the end of the First World War.
Taking her back to Berlin, she convinces him to train her for spy work, and soon he informs her he has a very sensitive mission. She must infiltrate a Nazi school for elite students, so she can become friends with the daughter of a highly regarded atomic scientist. Ultimately, her target is the blueprints of a devastating bomb Germany is rumored to be building.
The Nazi school turns out to be a microcosm of German society, where the strong prey on the weak, no one can trust anyone, and any mistake or meekness can be deadly. As a Jew who has missed six years of school, Sarah must device ways to survive mortal dangers long enough to accomplish her mission...
Iturbe, Antonio. The Librarian of Auschwitz. 2017. 424p. ISBN 9781627796187. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.
Dita Kraus' youth ended when she was 9 years old. On that dark day in March 15, 1939, the German army, led by Adolf Hitler, invaded what remained of the Czechoslovakian Republic, sealing the fate of the Czech Jews. First imprisoned in the Terezín ghetto near Prague with her father and her mother, the entire family is sent to Auschwitz to be part of a Nazi experiment. Whereas most arrivals are violently sorted into those strong enough to work to death and those immediately sent to the gas chamber, they, along with other Czech Jews, will live in a family camp. Designed to be a "model" and a propaganda tool to assuage the international community, the B2B camp is still filled with the terror of SS guards, abusive kapos, starvation, and the every present lack of food.
Amid all of the chaos and the pains of war, teachers at the camp have been able to start a school, educating the children. Among their meager possessions are eight books. Books are forbidden, and owning a book in the camp is punishable by death. Books offer knowledge and hope, and the Nazis want neither present in the camps. Dita, who worked at the library in the Terezín ghetto shelving books, is recognized by one of the teachers, and is asked to work at the school. She quickly creates a system to hide, handle, and distribute the books to the various teachers throughout the barrack. She soon becomes known as the librarian of Auschwitz. Almost caught on numerous occasions, Dita nonetheless perseveres and keeps the hope that they will be free of the Nazi terror alive. As the war grinds to its conclusion, can Dita continue to protect the books and survive?
Kacer, Kathy. The Sound of Freedom. 2017. 249p. ISBN 978-1-55451-969-9. Available at FIC KAC on the library shelves.
Ever since Hitler came to power in neighboring Germany, the Jews of Poland have lived uneasily. Over the last three years incidents of antisemitism have been on the rise, and violence against Jews is tolerated and even encouraged by local authorities. In Krakow, Anna’s father works for the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra and teaches students. Anna herself is a talented clarinet player, and she hopes to follow in her father’s footsteps. When Anna witnesses the old butcher’s assault by a gang of thugs while the police observes but does not interfere, she knows it is time to leave the country. Yet Jews are not welcomed anywhere, so obtaining transit papers to live somewhere else is almost impossible. Her father does not want to leave anyway.
An announcement in the local newspaper declares that Bronislaw Huberman, the world-renowned violinist, seeks to create the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra and is hiring Jewish musicians from all over Europe. Anna sees this as her father’s chance at an exit ticket, and encourages him to apply. He demures, saying that things are not as bad. Anna and her grandmother, who lives with them, conspire and write a letter to Herr Huberman anyway, asking him to allow her father to audition. When Anna and her father are attacked by thugs at the Philharmonic Orchestra, he is forced to agree that the situation for Jews is worsening, and that he must find a way out of Poland.
As Jewish persecution intensifies throughout Europe, and as the seeds of the Holocaust are being sowed, the family’s future rests on the success or failure of this audition. But even if it is successful, they will have to adapt to a new country, where the return of Jews is not welcomed by the local Arab population.
Inspired by true events, The Sound of Freedom discusses a little-known aspect of Jewish immigration in the tense years leading to the Second World War and the Holocaust. Fans of historical fiction will appreciate Anna’s efforts to save her family from a doom she cannot identify but that she can feel is about to strike.
Bornstein, Michael and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat. Survivors club: the true story of a very young prisoner of Auschwitz. 2017. 352p. 452 mins. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.
Born in Zarki, Poland after the German invasion of September 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War, Michael Bornstein has known nothing but war, and the Jewish oppression and extermination is nothing out of the ordinary for him. His father, an accountant before the war, was appointed as president of the Jewish Council by the occupiers. Through skills and luck, he managed to make life bearable for most of the Zarki Jews, and kept his family together. Michael’s father, mother, grandmother, and brother continued to live in their house until the Germans decreed that Zarki was to become Jew-free. Even then, they were able to stay behind with the clean-up crew for a few more months, as rumors of resettlements in the East turned to confirmation of death camps where Jews were being massacred and incinerated.
Eventually, the Bornstein family’s luck ran out. First transferred to a munitions factory, they were soon put on a train to Auschwitz where both Michael, his mother and his grandmother were separated from his father and brother, who perished in the Nazi gas chambers. Though only four years old, Michael’s mother managed to keep Michael hidden and safe for months. Her deportation to Austria to work in another munitions factory left Michael and his grandmother alone in the most notorious death camp. Michael was once again saved from death when he became sick enough that his grandmother, in despair of losing her last family member, smuggled him in the infirmary where he experienced a bed all to himself for the first time in his life. The next morning, the Germans were gone and the Soviets arrived. Wanting to achieve a propaganda victory over the Germans, the Soviets filmed Auschwitz’s surviving children showing their tattoos and gauntness, and Michael’s image was immortalized.
Michael and his grandmother returned to Zarki after the war, and reconnected with their family. His mother survived as well, and eventually they made it to the United States in the early 1950s where Michael became a successful academic and researcher. It wasn’t until decades later that Michael, watching a movie, realized that he was one of the children in actual footage of the war.
Working with his daughter, Michael retells his story from the fragments he remembers. Supported by archival research, Michael’s experience shows that wit, love and looking forward can keep hope alive even when it seems hopeless. Listen to a segment discussing this book and Michael’s experience here, and check out the book on Overdrive.
Opdyke, Irene Gut and Jennifer Armstrong. In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer. 2008. 304p. ISBN 9780553494112. Available as an eBookon Overdrive.
Growing up in Poland, Irene never thought her country would be attacked. But when German tanks roll across the border on September 1, 1939, she decides to fight for her country. A nurse in training, Irene joins the tatters of the Polish Army and hides in the forest until she is captured by the Soviets, who have invaded the eastern side of Poland. Raped by the soldiers, she is sent to a Russian hospital as a prisoner. When her body heals enough, Irene resumes her work as a nurse and helps the wounded. When sexually assaulted by the hospital director, Irene manages to run away with the help of a kind doctor, and finds refuge with one of his colleagues deep in Russia.
When Irene gets wind that Polish prisoners are allowed by German authorities to return to Poland, she makes the dangerous trek back to the border and after another arrest by the Soviets manages to board a train taking her back home. She is soon reunited with her family, and everyone has survived the conflict. Because she looks and speaks German, she gets a job working in a hotel for German officers. She begins to witness atrocities against the Jews, with the local ghetto abutting the hotel. Irene decides she must help the Jews as much as she can, and she provides them with food.
Her life changes again when Germany invades Russia in 1941. At first the front moves forward quickly, and Irene finds herself returning to the site of her first imprisonment. Working for the major in charge of the ammunition plant, Irene manages to move several Jews in comfortable working positions so that they can escape the harshest work. She soon discovers that Hitler’s Final Solution is about to strike, and she saves many of her friends by having them live in the basement of the major’s house. She continues to help local Jews and partisans, but as the Russians begin pushing back and the front moves closer, Irene is forced to withdraw.
When the war ends, she manages to return home, only to be arrested by the Soviets again as being an enemy of the state for her partisan activities. Escaping one more time, she first arrives in Germany, then eventually emigrates to the United States.
Not Jewish herself, and considered not dangerous because she was a simple girl, Irene manages to not only save herself, but also many others. Her legacy of courage and dedication in the face of evil continues to inspire to this day.
Boraks-Nemetz, Lillian. The Old Brown Suitcase. 2008. 202p. ISBN 9781553800576. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.
Slava leads a charmed life. She is loved at her house in Warsaw, Poland. She dances in music recitals. She has a younger sister. Her father is a prominent lawyer. But the Nazis have seized power in Germany, and war is threatening. When it finally breaks out, Slava and her parents soon find themselves in the Jewish ghetto, despite not being practicing Jews. As conditions worsen, her sister is smuggled out of the ghetto to a Christian family for safekeeping. Following Hitler’s decision to liquidate the ghetto, Slava herself is smuggled out of the ghetto and sent to the country to live with her grandmother, who married a Christian and is relatively safe. But Slava must pretend to be a niece, instead of a granddaughter.
Reunited after the war with her parents, Slava discovers that her sister did not survive. The family emigrates to Canada, and discovers that adapting to a new country is as hard, if not harder, than surviving the Nazi war machine. Not speaking the language, Slava becomes Elizabeth and enrolls in 9th grade, despite being the oldest student. She struggles with English, Math, and Science, but excels at Latin and French. Bullied for being different, and encountering anti semitism even in Canada, Slava eventually manages to catch up in her schooling. She meets a nice boy, and she discovers what her new life has to offer.
Slava’s story is told in alternating eras, her life in Canada as a teenager and her life in Poland as a child. Through it all she carries a brown suitcase, given to her by her father as a present. From her escape away from the ghetto to her arrival in Canada, Slava relies on the suitcase to carry her meager possessions until one day, she realizes she has outgrown it and no longer needs the security it provided.
Readers who like Holocaust stories will appreciate Slava’s drive to survive as a child and thrive as a teenager.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. 2006. 120p. ISBN 0-374-50001-0. Available at B WIE on the library shelves.
Elie Wiesel is a teenager in Sighet, a town in Transylvania. Once part of the Austria-Hungary empire, the whole area was transferred to Romania in 1920, but reoccupied by the Hungarians in 1940. At first, the large Jewish population of the town is not worried, despite the rumors they hear from other countries under Nazi occupation. Life goes on in Sighet. Then in 1941, the Hungarians expulse Jews who are not citizens. One of them escape capture in Poland and returns to warn the Jews of Sighet of the Nazis’ plan to kill them all. They ignore him.
Then in 1944 Hungary, which had been an allied of Nazi Germany, seeks peace with the Allies. As a result the Germans invade the country. Suddenly life becomes dangerous for the Jews. Elie’s family is forced to wear the yellow star. Their assets are seized, but his father manages to bury the family fortune. Then they are expelled from Sighet and placed in cattle carts to Auschwitz, the infamous concentration camp.
The Wiesels are separated by gender, and this is the last time Elie sees his mother and younger sister alive. Elie and his father do everything to look after each other, but life in the camp is horrific and filled with pain, suffering, and death. As life devolve and the front moves closer, the Germans are becoming anxious to leave. The entire camp is evacuated and forced to walk for days to another camp deeper in Germany called Buchenwald. Elie did not think life could get any worse, but it does. Despite the beatings and the suffering, however, Elie continues to fight to survive, until he witnesses the death of his father, beaten by other inmates.
As the camp is prepared once again to evacuate, the Americans arrive and free the prisoners. Elie has survived the war, but at a terrible psychological cost.
A seminal work of the Holocaust, Wiesel makes life in the concentration camp real and horrific. Several questions raised by him continue to be of actuality even more than 70 years later, and it remains one of the most read story of the Second World War. You can read more about survivors of the Nazis concentration camps in Wiesel, Wisenthal, Klardsfeld: The Holocaust Survivors.
LeZotte, Ann Clare. T4. 2008. 108p. ISBN 978-0-547-34852-0. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.
Jews were the Nazis’ principal targets. But in their plans to establish a master race, the Nazis were also concerned with eliminating what they considered undesirable elements of German society, such as homosexuals, the mentally handicapped, and those who were blind and deaf. In October 1939, with the Second World War now in full swing and Germany’s conquest of Poland, Adolf Hitler signs a decree authorizing physicians to euthanize anyone not meeting the master race standards. Simply known as Aktion T4, over 90,000 people were killed by Nazi doctors.
Paula Becker is thirteen years old. Deaf from birth, she lives a good life with her family in a rural German town. She can communicate with her family, but has been sheltered all her life. As rumors begin to spread of disabled children dying in their placement hospitals or shelters, Paula’s parents decide to entrust her to Father Joseph, the family priest, who promises to educate Paula and keep her safe for the duration of the war.
Paula ends up moving with a widow, who taught deaf students before. She teaches Paula how to use the universal sign language to communicate ideas and desires, but her presence is discovered and Paula has to run. Relocated to a church shelter, Paula has to pretend she can hear so she can stay one step ahead of the Nazis. When the unpopular order is finally rescinded in 1941, Paula is able to return home to a world that has changed beyond recognition.
Told in free verse poetry by a deaf author, this short book is a fast read and provides another view of the Holocaust, with a victim that is neither Jewish nor foreign, but rather a German girl hated by her own government simply for being deaf. Pair this book with What World is Left for a true Holocaust experience.
Polak, Monique. What World is Left. 2008. 215p. ISBN 978-1-55143-847-4. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.
In the First World War the Dutch were neutral, and they fully to retain the same status if Germany went to war against France and England again. Only that wasn’t the case, and Hitler’s armies invaded Holland, Belgium and France. The Dutch bravely resisted for five days but then surrendered in the face of overwhelming force. Suddenly, the Jewish population of the Netherlands was under Nazi subjugation.
For Anneke Van Raalte and her family, life doesn’t change much at first. Sure, there are food shortages, and they now have to wear the yellow star, but her father still works as an artist for the newspaper. Soon, however, strict rules are implemented. Her father loses his job, and the entire family receives orders to report to the train station to be deported to a Nazi model city for Jews, Theresienstadt.
Packed in cattle wagons, Anneke can’t believe that things will get worse. But concentration camp life is hard on her and her little brother. Working hard every day, Anneke soon loses hope of ever seeing freedom again. As more and more people are brought into the camp, trains collect even more people to take them to the East, and an uncertain fate spoken in whispers. As the tide of war turns and Germany is put on the defensive first on the Eastern Front, then in the West with the Allied landing, German leaders attempt to put a better public face on their camps. The Danish Red Cross requests a visit to Theresienstadt, and Anneke’s father is coerced into participating in the sprucing up of the camp with new paints and “public works” that will make life appear better than it is.
While this bold faced lie the Nazis purport to present to the world bothers Anneke, her father’s participation in this propaganda effort bothers her more. What is more important? Keeping one’s family alive at all costs, even if it means helping the enemy conceal the true conditions of the camp, or stand up for what is right, even if it may cost you your life? Anneke has a life or death choice to make if she hopes to survive the war.
Partially based on the life of the author’s mother in Theresienstadt during the Second World War, Anneke’s story is one of survival and its costs. For another story of Dutch citizens caught in the webs of the Second World War, take a look at The Girl with the Blue Coat. Monique Polak also wrote a great contemporary story about a girl who loves boxing, Straight Punch.
Hesse, Monica. Girl in the Blue Coat. 2016. 309p. 583 mins. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.
In the Second World War, no act is too small to help resist the Germans. The year is 1943, and the Nazis have conquered most of Europe. Amsterdam and the rest of the Netherlands have been occupied since 1940. Like many teenagers, Hanneke’s life has been in turmoil, and she had to grow up fast. Her boyfriend was in the Dutch navy and he was among the many who died in the five days the Dutch resisted. Working with an undertaker, Hanneke’s real job is to run contraband operations and hook up rich folks with the products they simply cannot go without even under occupation. This illegal work could lead to her arrest, but as the prototypical Aryan, she may do a stint in jail. Hanneke refuses to get involved in the war, believing that her small act of undermining the rationing system is her way of fighting back against the invaders.
When she delivers goods to Mrs. Janssen, one of her elderly client who recently lost her husband after he was shot in killed hiding Jews in his factory, she discovers that another Jew was being hidden in their house, behind a false cupboard. Asked to find the missing girl with the blue coat, Hanneke at first refuses, but finds the mysterious disappearance strange, and agrees to investigate. Soon, what was a simple way to make money becomes an obsession. How did the girl escape the house without being noticed? Where has she gone? Hanneke is about to be dragged into the war despite her best efforts, and the web of lies and duplicity she discovers will change her life forever. For another take on Dutch Jews taken to concentration camps during the Second World War, take a look at Monique Polak's What World is Left.
McCormick, Patricia. Never Fall Down. 2012. 216p. ISBN 9780061730931. Available at FIC MCC on the library shelves.
Arn Chorn-Pond is a young orphan boy who lives with his aunt and his many siblings in Cambodia. The war in Vietnam has recently wrapped up, and the United States has abandoned the area. Despite hard living conditions and the lack of money, Arn leads a good life in his small village, and hopes to one day meet the Cambodian princess.
When the Khmer Rouge come to his village, however, life changes for the worse. Arn doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to be an unwilling victim in the largest genocide since the Holocaust. The Khmer Rouge hope to rebuild an equal society without class, educational, or cultural distinctions, based on a robust peasant lifestyle. Everyone, from intellectuals and members of the former regime to bystanders who look the wrong way become victims, assassinated by a cold-blooded killing machine. Even the Khmer Rouge feed on each other, with leaders appearing and disappearing as quickly. Their broken and bankrupt ideology eventually causes over two million victims in a country of roughly 8 million people.
Arn and his family are escorted out of the village based on Khmer Rouge rumors that it will be bombed by the Americans. In three days, the Khmer Rouge say, we will be returning. But no one returns. People are forced to work on the land. At night, the enemies of the Khmer are massacred. Arn’s aunt tells him a piece of advice that saves his life: “Bend like the grass.”
Separated from his family, assigned to work in a camp where the conditions are terrible, Arn knows he has to lose himself in order to survive. The Khmer Rouge play tricks. They offer things, but if you accept them you are a negative influence and you are eliminated. But when a soldier asks the children at the camp if anyone plays music, Arn, who has never played music, volunteers. This decision saves his life.
Set in one of the worse time periods in history, Arn’s story of survival and courage under the most withering conditions is a testament that humanity can be beat down, but never killed. Fans of Holocaust fictions will appreciate this book and the positive message it ultimately carries. For a similar story in a different media, take a look at Jacob's story of a child soldier serving in the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group in Uganda, in War Brothers.
Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief. 2005. 552p. ISBN 978-0-375-83100-3. Available on the library shelves at FIC ZUS as well as both an eBookand audiobookon Overdrive.
Entrusted to foster care, Liesel Meminger witnesses her brother die on the train taking both of them to a new family. This death marks her with nightmares about his vacant stare as he laid dead. More horrific, but less personal, is what the Nazis are about to inflict on Germany.
At 10 years old, Liesel cannot read, but her new foster father, Hans Hubermann, begins teaching her that words are powerful. Her foster mother is never hesitant with swears, call Liesel all sorts of name, but she means well. Having already stolen a book to replace her dead brother, Liesel becomes a book thief, stealing one book at a time and savoring all of its letters before moving on to the next one.
Her best friend, Rudy Steiner, wants to kiss her, but she stands up to him. She is not interested. The Hubermann family is poor and not very educated. But Hans and Rose love Liesel in their own way. Molching is a small town of no military interest save that it is on the road to Dachau. The beginning of the Second World War does not change life much for the Hubermanns, aside from jobs that slowly disappear as privations begin hitting everyone. But when Max Vanderburg, the Jewish son of the man who saved Hans from certain death during the First World War shows up on their doorstep, seeking refuge, their very lives become endangered. Harboring a Jew could mean their death.
Liesel becomes attached to Max, however, who lives in the basement, and as the tides of defeat encircle Germany, her small world becomes even more difficult. With bombs falling from the skies, Jews being walked through town, and Death hovering nearby and harvesting souls, the book thief will need more than courage to survive this ordeal.
Hopkinson, Deborah. Courage & Defiance: Stories of Spies, Saboteurs, and Survivors in World War II Denmark. 2015. 324p. ISBN 978-0-545-59220-8. Available at 940.53 HOP on the library shelves.
On a sunny morning in April 1940, citizens of Denmark woke up to a German invasion. Knowing full well that the small kingdom stood no chance against the mighty Nazi machine, the King and his government quickly surrendered to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Overnight, Denmark was occupied, and life changed for the worse for most people.
Some, however, refused to accept their government’s position. They decided to fight on through acts of sabotage. At first they worked by themselves, burning German cars and buildings used by the German army. But slowly, the resistance organized itself. Great Britain sent agents, money, and equipment, while on the ground locals found targets and destroyed trains, bridges, and factories.
For each act of rebellion, the Germans increased the pressure on the Danes. When the decision was reached to arrest and deport all Jewish Danes to concentration camps, the population actively participated in hiding and helping the Jews escape. Of a population of more than 7,000 Jews, only a few ended up in concentration camps. More saboteurs and resisters were arrested, however, and exiled in Germany to work in the concentration camps industries. But even here, the Danes were looked after and, thanks to effective organization and cooperation with Sweded, were better treated.
This book details the courage and defiance of those who opposed the Germans from the first hour, and recounts their struggles as they fought against the odds to eventually participate in Germany’s defeat. Fans of the Second World War will enjoy this look on a topic that is not well known.
Sirimarco, Elizabeth. Gypsies. 2000. 32p. ISBN 978-1-8870-6891-8. Available at 305.89 SIR on the library shelves.
One of the most persecuted ethnic group in the world, the Romani people have for centuries endured despite the best efforts of European nations to eliminate them. Originally from the northern part of India, Romanis moved from country to country, eventually traveling into Europe and migrating to North and South America.
Their distinctive culture and language has set them apart from the societies in which they live, causing fear and resentment. The Nazis escalated the harassment of Romanis by imprisoning them in concentration camps. They were the second largest group eliminated in the death camps. Known as Porraimos, their own Holocaust has not been recognized by others.
Despite low levels of education and literacy, Romanis have begun banding together to exercise their rights and protect their communities. Officially recognized by the United Nations as a distinct group, Romanis continue to thrive, even as they remain mysterious to outsiders.
Blohm, Craig E. Holocaust Resistance. Part of the Understanding the Holocaust series. 2016. 80p. ISBN 978-1-60152-846-9. Available at 940.53 BLO on the library shelves.
It has long been common belief that the Jews went to their execution like sheep, refusing to believe until the very end that their lives were in dangers. After all, who could possibly conceive that an entire group of people were slated for destruction? This book puts this belief to rest by presenting the lives of people who resisted the Nazis and fought back, either through passive means or by taking up arms.
Resistance took many forms, from spiritual resistance to Jewish partisans to those non-Jews who saw the madness and decided to fight on the side of truth and justice. Organized fighting in Jewish ghettos, guerrilla warfare from thick forests, and the Kindertransport from Germany to England immediately before the war are also explored.
This is a very informative book that is sure to offer a different view of the Second World War.
