Holocaust Bibliography
Spotlights Valuable Sources

The I*EARN Holocaust/Genocide Project has an evolving bibliography. As participating teachers find books and other materials, they are contributijng to the <iearn.hpg> conference so that material can be shared by new teachers and those already working on the project. Here is a sample of what the entry looks like and a partial listing of material which can really be helpful.

Suggested Bibliographical and Autobiographical Works

• The Cage, by Ruth Minsky Sender. New York: Bantam Books (A Division of Macmillan Publishing Company), 1986. Paperback. 210 pages.

  This autobiographical story starts in the present and then goes back in time to tell of Riva Minska's life with her family during the Holocaust. She describes her normal life in Poland, her family's forced move to the Lodz ghetto, and then her experiences in Auschwitz concentration camp. Recommended reading for junior high students, 12 years and older. Other suggested books by Sender are To Life and The Holocaust Lady.

  

• Night, by Elie Wiesel. New York: Bantam Books, 1982. (First published in French in 1958 by Les Editions de Minuit.) Paperback. 109 pages.

  Wiesel, born in Hungary, writes of his teenage experience in the town of Sighet with his family as they were forced from small-town life, to ghetto, to train transport, to the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. This painful journey, with his father, is one of the most stirring of Holocaust recollections. Recommended for high school students, 15 years and older.

  

• Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary, by Hannah Senesh. New York: Schocken Books, 1973. Hardcover. 268 pages.

  This book tells the brave, but sadly ending, story of a girl who left Hungary to go to Palestine in 1939 and then who volunteered to parachute back into Hungary to help rescue Jews who were trapped there. Her diary tells of her life from 1934-44. Also included are letters from her friends and Hannah's poems. Recommended for students 12 years and older.

  

• Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust, by Gay Block and Malka Drucker. New York and London: Holmes and Meier Publishers, Inc., 1992. Paperback. 255 pages.

  This book is about Christian people who made a moral choice to help Jews during the Holocaust. The book is divided by country: The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, and others. In most cases, those who took a chance were ordinary people, like you and me, who could not be bystanders to murder. The book is filled with their portraits and their stories, where they were, how they helped, how they succeeded in doing the right thing. Recommended for junior high students, 12 years and older.

Suggested Diaries and Memoirs

• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank. New York: Washington Square Press (A Division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.), 1972. (Originally printed in 1947, in Dutch, as Het Achterhuis ["In Back of the House"].)

  This famous work is the moving, personal diary of a young Jewish girl -- containing the events of her life and her thoughts during the two years she and her family and friends hid from the Germans in an Amsterdam attic.

  

• Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi. New York: Collier Books (Macmillan Publishing Company), 1961. (Translated from the Italian, Se questo è un uomo; originally appearing in English as If This Is a Man.) Paperback. 160 pages.

  Italian Jew, Primo Levi, a chemist, was sent to Auschwitz in 1944, at the age of twenty-five. The Nazis needed his knowledge and so he lived. In this narrative of his experience, Levi recounts the horrors of trying to survive the death camp. In the author's introduction, he writes that the fragmentary pace of the memoir is like life itself at that time. For Levi, it was a book about his time in Auschwitz that he had to write. Some parts are gruesome. Recommended for high school students, 16 years and older.

  

• I Am a Star: Child of the Holocaust, by Inge Auerbacher. New York: Puffin Books, 1993. (First published in the United States by Prentice-Hall in 1986.) Paperback. 88 pages.

  The first four chapters of this very good children's book recount, in simple language, the history of the rise of antisemitism through time, the effects in Germany, and the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. Chapter 5 is entitled: "My Story," and that is where Inge tells us what happened to her and her family from their home in Germany to Terezín (Theresienstadt) camp in Czechoslovakia. Interspersed are Inge's poems, drawings by Israel Bernbaum, and archival photos. A short bibliography and time table appear at the back of the book. This book could be read by children as young as 8 years; yet, it is also interesting for the older student and adult.

Children's Memorial
(Jewish Cemetery, Warsaw)

Suggested Fictional Works

• Freidrich, by Hans P. Richter. New York: Puffin Books, 1970. Paperback.

  This book tells the story of two young German boys who are friends. One of them, Friedrich, is Jewish, while his friend, who is not, narrates the story of the change in Germany during WW II. Friendship fails when the Nazis come to power and the strength of the Nazi party leads Friedrich's friend's father to join the party. Recommended for junior high students, 11 years or older.

  

• Gentlehands, by M.E. Kerr. New York: Bantam Books, 1979. Paperback. 135 pages.

  Set on Long Island, New York, this book tells the story of a boy and his grandfather. Buddy wants to know his grandfather better and wants to impress his girlfriend, Penny, so he takes Penny out to the eastern end of the island to meet his grandfather. Grandfather Trenker is German and very cultured, which impresses Penny. What Buddy learns about his grandfather's past is an integral part of the story. Recommended for junior high students, 12 years and older.

  

• Schindler's List, by Thomas Keneally. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982. (New edition for 1993.) Paperback. 398 pages.

  This book starts out slowly with Oskar Schindler's German family history, but once Schindler ties his fate to that of the Jewish accountant, Itzhak Stern, the story becomes a real validiction of the Talmudic phrase that Stern, in 1939, told Schindler when they first met: ". . . he who saves the life of one man saves the world entire." This story of Oskar Schindler, "wheeler-dealer," drinker, manufacturer, ladies' man, and compassionate human being allows us to see the Nazi killing machine in Poland and meet all the grotesque people who used their powers for evil. Why Schindler and a handful of other non-Jews chose to act righteously is fascinating and poignant reading. The Schindlerjuden, those Jews Schindler saved from death in Auschwitz, Belzec, and other camps, have told author Keneally, and the world, the true meaning of the Talmudic phrase that Stern uttered. Recommended for high school students and their teachers.

  

• The Wave, by Ted Strasser. Based on a teleplay by Johnny Dawkins and a short story by Ron Jones. New York: Dell Publishing Company, Inc., 1981. Paperback. 143 pages.

  This novelization of the teleplay is based on a true story of what happened in a California high school classroom when the history teacher conducted an experiment to see how group dynamics work as they relate to leaders and followers. The experiment took place after the teacher's history lessons about the Holocaust. This book is quite a shocking story and one that will lead to good class discussion about peer pressure and making moral choices in life. Recommended for junior and senior high students.

Suggested Art Books

• I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezín Concentration Camp, 1942-1944, edited by Hana Volavková. Paperback from Schocken Books, NY; C. 1978, Paperback. 80 pages.

  I Never Saw Another Butterfly is captivating and lovely children's' poems and drawings, carefully selected from the archives of the State Jewish Museum in Prague, combining images of hope with the reality of their surroundings in Terezín concentration camp in Czechoslovakia from 1942-1943. Recommended for all ages.

  

• Last Traces: The Lost Art of Auschwitz, photographs and text by Joseph Czarnecki. New York: Atheneum Books, 1989. Hardcover. 175 pages.

  This book is a compilation of photographs of drawings, paintings and scratching on the walls and other surfaces of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Czarnecki asks several questions: Why was this art work made? What moved the prisoners to leave their marks? What is the subject matter? Why is it important that the art be preserved? This book is a good resource fine arts students -- or students who are curious -- who want to see how inmates of Auschwitz tried to resist by "expressing themselves in some way." Recommended for senior high school students, 15 years and older.

  

• Polish Jews: A Pictorial Record, black and white photographs by Roman Vishniac. New York: Schocken Books, 1965. 32 pages.

  Famous photographer Vishniac took these unposed pictures of Polish Jews in 1938 so that what remains is a view of Jewish life before the Polish Jewish community was destroyed in the Holocaust. Many of the pictures show religious study and village poverty. The faces are haunting. Recommended for students, ages 12 and older.

  

• The Children We Remember, by Chana Byers Abells. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1983. Hardcover and paperback. 46 pages.

  Chana Byers Abells, former archivist at Yale University, went on to become director of photographs and film of the Yad Vashem Archive in Jerusalem. This book -- in black, gray, and white -- tells, in simple words, the story of the children who died in the Holocaust. Photographs illustrate Abell's subtle words and serve to remind us that childhood is fragile and that children are children no matter who they are. A very good picture book for discussion, this book is recommended for students ages 10 years and older.

Suggested Documentary Films

• Night and Fog, directed by Alain Resnais. 1955. Black and white, and color. 31 minutes.

  This well-known metaphorical French film combines actual footage from concentration camps with colorful scenes filmed ten years later. Very detailed documentary footage requires preparation of the audience for some of the scenes before viewing. The light beginning and music are in contrast to graphic scenes. Recommended for senior high school students, 16 years or older.

  

• Weapons of the Spirit, directed by Pierre Sauvage. Color. 90 minutes. (Videotape version for classroom is 55 minutes.)

  This film tells the story of the occupants of a small French town, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, and how they saved 5,000 Jews -- many of them children -- during the Holocaust. The goodness of the people is reflected in interviews that Sauvage held with the townspeople who believed in resisting the Nazis. Interestingly, Sauvage, a Jew, was born in Le Chambon. Recommended for high school students, 15 years and older.