The Holocaust - a suggested reading list
Inherit The Truth 1939-1945 - The Documented Experiences Of A Survivor Of Auschwitz and Belsen by Anita Lasker Wallfisch
Anita played cello in the Women’s Orchestra at Auschwitz. She wrote this book so that her children would have a record of her history. She is the mother of cellist Raphael Wallfisch.
The Boys by Martin Gilbert
In August 1945, the first of 732 child survivors of the Holocaust reached Britain. First settled in the Lake District, they formed a tightly knit group of friends whose terrible shared experience is almost beyond imagining. This is their story, which begins in the lost communities of pre-World War II
central Europe, moves through ghetto, concentration camp and death march, to liberation, survival, and finally, fifty years later, a deeply moving
reunion.
Into That Darkness by Gitta Sereny
Only four men commanded Nazi extermination (as opposed to concentration) camps. Franz Stangl was one of them; he commanded Treblinka and was found guilty of co-responsibility for the slaughter there of at least 900,000 people. Aiming to discover how human beings were turned into instruments of such overwhelming evil, Gitta Sereny investigates Stangl's mind, and the influences which shaped him. Having talked to him for weeks and conducted months of research, she portrays the man as he saw himself and as he was seen by others, including his wife.
If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi
Finding himself behind German lines in July 1943, Russian Jew Mendel heads west, meets up with other partisans, and eventually joins a Jewish band led by the violin-playing Gedaleh. With their families killed and their home communities destroyed, most of them have nothing left but to fight — for survival and, where they can, against German supply lines and camps. Their journey takes them across Byelorussia and Poland, into conquered Germany, and
eventually to Italy. If Not Now, When? is rooted in historical events and draws on Levi's own experiences in Auschwitz and as a displaced person after the war, on the stories of partisans he met, and on secondary sources.
If this is a Man/The Truce
by Primo Levi
The two part record of Levi's enslavement in Auschwitz and his return to Italy after liberation by the Red Army. This 1995 re-publication is the 10th in nine years, a testimony to Levi's continuing relevance and artistic skill, and to his truthfulness. There is no hoax, no invention of facts, just an
accurate rendering of the reality of the fascist hell on earth. In 1943, 24 year old Levi, a member of a Resistance group in northern Italy, was captured by the fascist militia and sent with 649 other Italian Jews to the Monowitz camp in the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in Poland. Levi was one of only three of these 650 who survived.
Night by Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel’s account of his childhood experiences in a Hungarian ghetto, Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally
The novelised version of the story of real-life Oskar Schindler, who risked his life to protect the beleaguered Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland, who continually defied the SS, and who was transformed by the war into a man with a mission, a compassionate angel of mercy. Basis for film – Schindler’s
List.
Konin: A Quest by Theo Richmond
This is the story of a small Jewish ghetto, a community of three thousand in a small town in Poland which vanished into history in 1939 - and of one man's obsessive quest to discover its fate and that of its survivors.
The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
Superb graphic depiction by artist Spiegelman, based on his own family's experiences of the Holocaust.
Anita played cello in the Women’s Orchestra at Auschwitz. She wrote this book so that her children would have a record of her history. She is the mother of cellist Raphael Wallfisch.
The Boys by Martin Gilbert
In August 1945, the first of 732 child survivors of the Holocaust reached Britain. First settled in the Lake District, they formed a tightly knit group of friends whose terrible shared experience is almost beyond imagining. This is their story, which begins in the lost communities of pre-World War II
central Europe, moves through ghetto, concentration camp and death march, to liberation, survival, and finally, fifty years later, a deeply moving
reunion.
Into That Darkness by Gitta Sereny
Only four men commanded Nazi extermination (as opposed to concentration) camps. Franz Stangl was one of them; he commanded Treblinka and was found guilty of co-responsibility for the slaughter there of at least 900,000 people. Aiming to discover how human beings were turned into instruments of such overwhelming evil, Gitta Sereny investigates Stangl's mind, and the influences which shaped him. Having talked to him for weeks and conducted months of research, she portrays the man as he saw himself and as he was seen by others, including his wife.
If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi
Finding himself behind German lines in July 1943, Russian Jew Mendel heads west, meets up with other partisans, and eventually joins a Jewish band led by the violin-playing Gedaleh. With their families killed and their home communities destroyed, most of them have nothing left but to fight — for survival and, where they can, against German supply lines and camps. Their journey takes them across Byelorussia and Poland, into conquered Germany, and
eventually to Italy. If Not Now, When? is rooted in historical events and draws on Levi's own experiences in Auschwitz and as a displaced person after the war, on the stories of partisans he met, and on secondary sources.
If this is a Man/The Truce
by Primo Levi
The two part record of Levi's enslavement in Auschwitz and his return to Italy after liberation by the Red Army. This 1995 re-publication is the 10th in nine years, a testimony to Levi's continuing relevance and artistic skill, and to his truthfulness. There is no hoax, no invention of facts, just an
accurate rendering of the reality of the fascist hell on earth. In 1943, 24 year old Levi, a member of a Resistance group in northern Italy, was captured by the fascist militia and sent with 649 other Italian Jews to the Monowitz camp in the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in Poland. Levi was one of only three of these 650 who survived.
Night by Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel’s account of his childhood experiences in a Hungarian ghetto, Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally
The novelised version of the story of real-life Oskar Schindler, who risked his life to protect the beleaguered Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland, who continually defied the SS, and who was transformed by the war into a man with a mission, a compassionate angel of mercy. Basis for film – Schindler’s
List.
Konin: A Quest by Theo Richmond
This is the story of a small Jewish ghetto, a community of three thousand in a small town in Poland which vanished into history in 1939 - and of one man's obsessive quest to discover its fate and that of its survivors.
The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
Superb graphic depiction by artist Spiegelman, based on his own family's experiences of the Holocaust.
Kevin Crossley-Holland
As I've got older and find more and more books I want to read, I've always reserved some space on my Book Pile (tottering as it is!) for new children's
literature. In my last job there was a superb library with an exemplary librarian, blessed with a generous budget, so there was always an exciting shelf
on the library counter with New Books displayed on it. That's how I came to discover the joys of Kevin Crossley-Holland's marvellous Arthur trilogy,
starting with The Seeing Stone, later followed by Gatty's Tale. These are the sort of books you treasure, that will never be in the de-cluttering bag, though from time to time I do spot them in the charity shops. When I do I snap them up, ready for giving to young people I come across who
love reading. And, because I want to support the author and help keep him in bread and butter, I also buy new copies from time to time for birthday and
Christmas presents. If you haven't read them yet, I do heartily recommend them, for "children of all ages", as it used to say in the Puffin books! And
for those poets and poetry-lovers among you, he also writes beautiful poetry. http://www.kevincrossley-holland.com
literature. In my last job there was a superb library with an exemplary librarian, blessed with a generous budget, so there was always an exciting shelf
on the library counter with New Books displayed on it. That's how I came to discover the joys of Kevin Crossley-Holland's marvellous Arthur trilogy,
starting with The Seeing Stone, later followed by Gatty's Tale. These are the sort of books you treasure, that will never be in the de-cluttering bag, though from time to time I do spot them in the charity shops. When I do I snap them up, ready for giving to young people I come across who
love reading. And, because I want to support the author and help keep him in bread and butter, I also buy new copies from time to time for birthday and
Christmas presents. If you haven't read them yet, I do heartily recommend them, for "children of all ages", as it used to say in the Puffin books! And
for those poets and poetry-lovers among you, he also writes beautiful poetry. http://www.kevincrossley-holland.com
