Holocaust Books

Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust

Allan Zullo, Mara Bovsun

Amazon Price: $4.99 List Price: $4.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Scholastic Paperbacks Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $1.83

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Jewish
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Good Pick for Sixth Grade 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I purchased a class set for my 6th grade class. I feel this book was very appropriately written for this age. Of course there are parts to the stories that are "unbelievable" and sad to read, especially for me as an adult. However, children these days are exposed to much more by media and often with less censorship and thought. These are wonderful stories that teach history, empathy, and human strength.

suvivors 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

an excellent collection of true stories of children of the holocaust. each story captivates your heart and keeps you reading to end. It will inspire you to do more to keep horrific things like the Holocaust from ever happening again.

Editorial Review:

These are the true-life accounts of nine Jewish boys and girls whose lives spiraled into danger and fear as the Holocaust overtook Europe. In a time of great horror, these children each found a way to make it through the nightmare of war. Some made daring escapes into the unknown, others disguised their true identities, and many witnessed unimaginable horrors. But what they all shared was the unshakable belief in-- and hope for-- survival. Their legacy of courage in the face of hatred will move you, captivate you, and, ultimately, inspire you.

I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust

Livia Bitton-Jackson

Amazon Price: $5.99 List Price: $5.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon Pulse Amazon Marketplace: 61 new & used starting at $2.24

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Jewish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 165 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Shocking 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is so powerful. I have read many stories of Holocaust survivors, but few if any have presented such a vivid view of the horrors the Jews faced. Some parts were disturbing, but they describe true history, so they are definitely important to read. If you're interested in the Holocaust, this is a great read.

I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust Review 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The book shows plenty of emotions of their loved ones being lost. Livia wrote her memory into a book, like most Holocaust survivors did. Most people are unaware of the presence of the Holocaust or just were uninterested. Like most Holocaust books they show the nightmare they experienced. Elli gives the reader an idea that they have hope to survive.
Some people read certain Holocaust books that fits their writing style and her Livia gives the reader the first person point of view.
We chose this book for our English class and we presented how they were killed like if one person in the barrack did not cooperate with the SS officers, the entire barrack was sent to gas chambers.
I recommend readers read this book.

Editorial Review:

The author, who was imprisoned in Auschwitz as a teenager, describes her terrible experiences as one of the camp's few adolescent inmates and the miraculous twists of fates that enabled her to survive.

In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

Irene Opdyke

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Laurel Leaf Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $2.19

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Jewish
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Holocaust
Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Biographies -> Historical

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 81 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

When World War II began, Irene Gutowna was a 17-year-old Polish nursing student. Six years later, she writes in this inspiring memoir, "I felt a million years old." In the intervening time she was separated from her family, raped by Russian soldiers, and forced to work in a hotel serving German officers. Sickened by the suffering inflicted on the local Jews, Irene began leaving food under the walls of the ghetto. Soon she was scheming to protect the Jewish workers she supervised at the hotel, and then hiding them in the lavish villa where she served as housekeeper to a German major. When he discovered them in the house, Gutowna became his mistress to protect her friends--later escaping him to join the Polish partisans during the Germans' retreat. The author presents her extraordinary heroism as the inevitable result of small steps taken over time, but her readers will not agree as they consume this thrilling adventure story, which also happens to be a drama of moral choice and courage. Although adults will find Irene's tale moving, it is appropriately published as a young adult book. Her experiences while still in her teens remind adolescents everywhere that their actions count, that the power to make a difference is in their hands. --Wendy Smith

The Good Fight : How World War II Was Won

Stephen E. Ambrose

Amazon Price: $14.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Atheneum Amazon Marketplace: 72 new & used starting at $3.27

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 4-8 -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 4-8 -> General AAS
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Fiction -> Military & Wars

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Packed with photos (color and black-and-white), maps, personal stories, and concise, readable descriptions of the major events of World War II, bestselling author Stephen E. Ambrose's The Good Fight is a stunning resource for students of history. Though this horrific war has been written about innumerable times over the last half-century, this chronicle for young readers (14 and older) is one of the most vivid, insightful, and straightforward perspectives around. Ambrose pulls no punches. In the first paragraph of his introduction, he reminds us that "more people were killed, more houses, apartment buildings, factories, bridges, and other works of man were destroyed than ever before or since." From Hitler's rise to power to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor to the air war over Europe to the War Crimes Trials, the major events of the war are thoughtfully examined and depicted.

Each chapter features one of the most important campaigns, players, situations, or battles, with a full-page, often chilling photograph covering half the two-page spread and inset photos on the narrative page as well. Quick Facts boxes appear in every chapter to highlight interesting and relevant details. Large campaign and battlefield maps are interspersed throughout. Readers will come away with a painfully real sense of what life was like in the 1930s and '40s for the soldiers, families, women workers (Rosie the Riveter is included, of course), heroes, and victims of this most devastating, cruel war. (Ages 14 and older) --Emilie Coulter

The Cage

Ruth Minsky Sender

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon Pulse Amazon Marketplace: 69 new & used starting at $1.03

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Jewish
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Holocaust
Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Biographies -> Historical

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 100 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Hope, reviewed by Theron 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I read this book for a school assignment and am really glad I did. It is a story of a young girl named Riva Minska and her family in a Jewish Ghetto in Lodz, Poland. This story starts at the beginning of Hitler's dictatorship. Before reading this book I did not know much about the Holocaust and now feel as though I do. Riva and her family were forced to live in a Jewish ghetto where food was very limited and they had to where the yellow Star of David on their clothing. Riva lost her mother when the Nazi's came and took the sick and old away so that others in the ghetto would not get sick. Then her brother died of Tuberculosis. Eventually her remaining brothers and her were rounded up and taken to the labor camps. The things that happened in the labor camps will haunt the survivors forever. It was very hard for me to read about it because it was so sad, but Riva's one message was "Wherever there is life there is hope", and that made me feel better. After reading this book I feel very lucky to have the things that I do and not have to worry about food or shelter. I am also grateful that I have my family.

Editorial Review:

From the German invasion of Poland in 1939 to the liberation of her concentration camp in 1945, the author chronicles an adolescence shaped by the horrors of the Holocaust but strengthened by the force of her own will.

Six Million Paper Clips: The Making Of A Children's Holocaust Memorial

Peter W. Schroeder, Dagmar Schroeder-Hildebrand

Amazon Price: $7.95 List Price: $7.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Kar-Ben Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $3.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General AAS
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Holocaust

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

never to forget "six million paper clips" 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Very proud of these school children and what they accomplished. A must view book.

A Very Moving Holocaust Story 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is a companion to the HBO film of the same name. I use the film, and now the book, during my unit on the Holocaust in my High School World War II class. The students are always moved by the experiences of the Tennessee students and teachers as they develop their Holocaust project. It allows the students to relate to the events of the Holocaust in a more realistic way unlike any other assignment I give. I highly recommend both the film and the book!

Riveting & Sobering 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

One night on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, the director of a new documentary about a small town in Tennessee remembering the Holocause would both show the film and answer questions. As a native Tennessean I both anticipated and dreaded this, assured that again we would be protrayed as NPR so often does - racist, poor, ignorant, fundamentalist or a combination of the above.

Surprise, Surprise. I was blown away, absolutely stunned at the story and the depiction of a rural Southern town as it slowly encounters the outside world. What wonderful teachers are still around! The suggestion that these all-white, all-Protestant, rural students should undertake an endeavor to break out of their shell seemed to come out of the blue and appeared the most incongruous project possible. Yet, it succeeded and admirably so, The documentary traces the parth, from baby to giant steps as the idea evolves into something none of the participants foresaw. It is and always will be a reminder of Dark Days. I only wish the Soviet and Chinese social experiments that murdered over tens of millions were remembered and memorialized in this way!


As the children and the town learn about Jewish life in Europe and the story of the Holocaust, we learn about them, their lives and their lifestyle that seems strangely satisfying in its simplicity and slowlness. Others become involved - survivors, politicians, two Germans who manage to obtain an actual railroad car used for transporting Jews to concentration camps. Businesses pitch in, individuals donate and a living memorial is designed and stands today almost as a shrine. The paperclips (representing a victim) came from all over the world, from rich and famous, young and old, rich and poor.

Alas, some never learn. At the end, the director was bombarded with questions and suggestions that townsfolk were "really" against the project or secretly racist or did not understand. He said he wanted to make something very clear: He had been in the town over two years and never heard a racist remark nor a single ill word against the project. The people were as nice and down to Earth as they appeared on screen. I felt deep vindication and overwhelming relief. The director, being from the North, was shocked at the casual hospitality of total strangers offering advice and friendship. In this age of increasing anti-Semitism in Europe once again, it is important to ponder the consequences that such speech for whatever reason may bring.

Who Was Anne Frank? (Who Was...?)

Ann Abramson

Amazon Price: $4.99 List Price: $4.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Grosset & Dunlap Amazon Marketplace: 60 new & used starting at $0.38

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Jewish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( F ) -> Frank, Anne
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

wonderful series 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I highly recommend this series as a wonderful way of introducing your 3rd or 4th grade child to the world of biographies. There are many personal elements shared that go beyond what the person is primarily remembered for. A must for any upper elementary teacher's classroom library!

Great subject for a children book. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great subject for a children book. I got this series of books for my daughter and she really enjoyes reading them. Great read and educational too.

Who Was Anne Frank? 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Anyone who is familiar with the Who Was Series would sincerely appreciate this text. This series provides biographies on dozens of famous people, but it is written for children ages 9-12. The pages include a short amount of text and usually a sketch to accompany it. This is a quick read and provides accurate information; however, it is appropriate for the age group. The author definitely took into account the maturity level of the reader, which is appreciated. The character of Anne Frank is written so that the reader feels as though they would know her and can easily relate to some of her life's struggles. I am anxious for the next addition to this phenomenal series. A must for any classroom teacher!

Editorial Review:

In her amazing diary, Anne Frank revealed the challenges and dreams common for any young girl. But Hitler brought her childhood to an end and forced her and her family into hiding. Who Was Anne Frank? looks closely at Anne’s life before the secret annex, what life was like in hiding, and the legacy of her diary. Black-and-white illustrations including maps and diagrams provide historical and visual reference in an easy-to-read biography written in a way that is appropriate and accessible for younger readers.

I Am a Star: Child of the Holocaust (A Puffin Book)

Inge Auerbacher

Amazon Price: $5.99 List Price: $5.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Puffin Amazon Marketplace: 74 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Jewish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Survival of a little star 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Inge Auerbacher was only three years old,in 1938, when the massive pogrom called Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken Glass took place.

At the age of seven she was sent to Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.

In this incredible little book, Auerbacher tells of her experiences of being a little girl in Terezin concentration camp, one of the few young children who survived the death camps.

As she recounts:

"Of fifteen thousand children imprisoned in the Terezin concentration camps in Czechoslovakia, between 1941 and 1945, about one hundred survived. I am one of them. At least one and a half children were killed in the Nazi Holocaust. The reason most of these children died is that they were Jewish".

Auerbacher takes the horror of these years, and imparts a message of hope. She has created an account for young readers of her experiences, in a book filled with moving poetry and with the aid of haunting illustrations by Israel Bernbaum. There are also several photographs of her home town and of Inge as a child and her family life.

Auerbacher explains that the silent voices of the innocent children who died in the holocaust must be heard, and that is why felt compelled to trace the historical events that made this great evil possible and to tell her own story.

The author talks about her home town, Kippenheim, a village in southern Germany, where she was born in 1934.

She recounts the iddylic existance of her family and community in Kippenheim, until the horrific events of Kristallnacht.

She traces the roots of anti-Semitism for young readers, and summarizes the rise of Hitler, and the holocaust, before talking about her own story.

"We still feel the pain and we weep.

This nightmare will not let us sleep.

A page in history; one must learn.

Yesterday us, and tommorow your turn?"



She talks of her experiences of being forced to wear the yellow star at the age of six years old, the harsh circumstances of deportation, and the horrific conditions for children in Terezin in crowded and filthy cells infested with rats, mice, fleas and bedbugs, and of the other children who she befriended in the camp, such as Ada, a German Jewish child who longed to go to the Land of Israel, as did so many hundreds of thousands of Jews trapped in the Nazi inferno.

Ada taught her a song about the Holy Land, and promised Inge that they would soon go to there, "Just hold on a little longer" she used to say.

Ada's dream never came true-she died at the age of nine in Auschwitz.

Another friend was Ruth, a beautiful blond little girl of mixed Jewish and Gentile blood, who was brought up as a Christian, and who loved to draw. Ruth died in Terezin because her Jewish heritage, even though she never considered herself Jewish.

The final two chapters are about Inge's liberation from Auschwitz, and her hopes and afterthoughts:

She closes with a wonderful poem about the horrors and deaths and the hopes and dreams of those who survived and their descendants entitled NEVER AGAIN:

"Minds were dulled by bombs of hate,

Only the hero cared about our fate,

We saw the truth, it began to unfold,

You may kill the body but never the soul.



Here we are with honour and pride,

a new generation at our side,

the silent voices join us today,

Never, never again we hope and pray".

Editorial Review:

Inga Auerbacher's childhood was as happy and peaceful as any other German child's--until 1942. By then, the Nazis were in power, and she and her parents were rounded up and sent to a concentration camp. The Auerbachers defied death for three years until they were freed. This story allows even the youngest middle reader to understand the Holocaust.

Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary - A Photographic Remembrance

Rian Verhoeven, Ruud Van der Rol

Amazon Price: $8.79 List Price: $10.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Puffin Amazon Marketplace: 109 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Jewish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( F ) -> Frank, Anne
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Holocaust

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Anne Frank the Diary of a Young Girl 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I rated this book a five because while you read it makes you relize that you are so lucky you weren't born in those very tragic times.It made me think about how easy I, and others have it.I love this book because it teaches me about other peoples lives and how hard it was for them.I also think that it was well written and easy to understand.I'm not positive that you will like this book because of how sad and frightning the tale is, but if you are anything like me you will have your face stuck in a book 'till your done.

Anne Frank 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is one of the most tragic stories i have ever heard, ever!
I first read the story when i was in the second grade.Now i'm in the fifth grade and i still love the story!I think that this book is for everyone.And i hope you want to read this book, wether it is for a report or fun i am sure you will love this book almost as much as i did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
P.S.

So not possible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Editorial Review:

More than one hundred photographs, many never before published, make up a poignant memoir of Anne Frank's struggle to survive during a time that must never be forgotten. Reprint. SLJ. PW. AB.

The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia

Esther Hautzig

Amazon Price: $5.99 List Price: $5.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperTrophy Amazon Marketplace: 61 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Fiction -> Holocaust
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Holocaust
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Action & Adventure

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 70 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

HORROR HAS MANY FACES 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

An amazing and brave book, worthy of greater publicity. For many years during and just after WWII it was politically incorrect (to say the least) to indicate that Hitler was not the only monster in the 20th century. At the time when the USSR was still more or less our ally it was indeed a brave act for Ms. Hautzig to point out that the dealings of the Soviets were just as dark as those of the Nazis. By recent estimates at least 60 million people died during the Stalinist dictatorial rule, but it is seldom that one sees a memorial dedicated to these victims. Many Americans cannot believe even today, that these horrors actually happened.
While I was teaching in a US Department of Defense School in Germany, my class read the Diary of Anne Frank. We even traveled to Amsterdam, and visited the home, where she and her family were hiding. It was a never to be forgotten, poignant experience; my students were deeply touched.
During this time I happened to come across Esther Hautzig's The Endless Steppe, and made it a point that my class read that too, in order to see the parallel. Stalin's monstrosities do not diminish those of Hitler, or Mao, but a cultured person has a need to perceive all events in balance, without the distortions or exclusions dictated by a current political posture.

Editorial Review:

Exiled to Siberia

In June 1942, the Rudomin family is arrested by the Russians. They are "capitalists -- enemies of the people." Forced from their home and friends in Vilna, Poland, they are herded into crowded cattle cars. Their destination: the endless steppe of Siberia.
For five years, Ester and her family live in exile, weeding potato fields and working in the mines, struggling for enough food and clothing to stay alive. Only the strength of family sustains them and gives them hope for the future.