Nonfiction Resources T-Z
Tec, N. (1982). Dry tears: The story of a lost childhood. Westport, CT: Wildcat Publishing Co.
“This is the true story of Nechama Tec, whose family found refuge with Polish Christians during the Holocaust. Dry Tears is a dramatic tale of how an eleven-year-old child learned to ‘pass’ in the forbidding Christian world and a quietly moving coming-of-age story. This book is unique celebration of the best human qualities that surface under the worst conditions.”
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dry-tears-nechama-tec/1101400447?ean=9780195035001
Age Range: 10-14 years
Reading Level: 960L
Teacher’s Guide:
Thomson, R. (2011). Terezín: Voices from the Holocaust. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.
“Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany turned the small town of Terezín, Czechoslovakia, into a ghetto, and then into a transit camp for thousands of Jewish people. It was a ‘show’ camp, where inmates were forced to use their artistic talents to fool the world about the truth of gas chambers and horrific living conditions for imprisoned Jews. Here is their story, told through the firsthand accounts of those who were there. In this accessible, meticulously researched book, Ruth Thomson allows the inmates to speak for themselves through secret diary entries, artwork, and excerpts from memoirs and recordings narrated after the war. Terezín: Voices from the Holocaust is a moving portrait that shows the strength of the human will to endure, to create, and to survive.”
summary from www.barnesandnoble.com/w/terezin-ruth-thomson/1112252196?ean=9780763664664
Nominee, YALSA “Nonfiction Award”, 2012
ALSC “Notable Children’s Books”, 2012
ALSC “Tween Award” Booklist, 2012
Age Range:
Reading Level: AR Level – 7.0; 980L
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Tito, E. T. (1999). Liberation: Teens in the concentration camps and the teen soldiers who liberated them. New York: Rosen.
“Tells the story, in their own words, of two survivors of World War II concentration camps, and two American soldiers who helped liberate the camps.”
summary from http://catalog2.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchArg=tito+e.+tina&searchCode=GKEY^*&searchType=
0&recCount=25&sk=en_US
Age Range: 12-17 years
Reading Level: AR Level – 6.0; 870L
Teacher’s Guide:
Toll, N. (1993). Behind the secret window: A memoir of a hidden childhood during World War Two. New York: Dial Books.
“The Nazis come to Poland when Nelly is six. By the time she turns eight, the events of World War II have taken almost everyone she loves. Scared, lonely, and running from the Nazis, Nelly hides in the bedroom of a Gentile couple in Poland. For over a year, she lives in fear of discovery, writing in her diary and painting pictures of a fantasy world filled with open skies and happy families.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/behind-the-secret-window-nelly-s-toll/1111392187?ean=9780142302415
Winner, IRA Children’s and Young Adult’s Book Award – Older Reader Category, 1994
Age Range: 10-13 years
Reading Level: AR Level – 6.0; 910L
Teacher’s Guide:
Valent, P. (2002). Child Survivors of the Holocaust. New York: Brunner-Rutledge.
“At the end of the Second World War approximately 1.5 million Jewish children had been killed by the Nazis. In this book, ten child survivors tell their stories. Paul Valent, himself a child survivor and psychiatrist, explores with profound analytical insight the deepest memories of those survivors he interviewed. Their experiences range from living in hiding to physical and sexual abuse. Child Survivors of the Holocaust preserves and integrates the personal narratives and the therapist's perspective in an amazing chronicle. The stories in this book contribute to questions concerning the roots of morality, memory, resilience, and specific scientific queries of the origins of psychosomatic symptoms, psychiatric illness, and trans-generational transmission of trauma. Child Survivors of the Holocaust speaks to the trauma facing contemporary child victims of abuse worldwide through past narratives of the Holocaust.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/child-survivors-of-the-holocaust-paul-valent/1100750050?ean=9781135330590
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Van Maarsen, J. (2004). A friend called Anne. (Retold by C. A. Lee). London: Puffin Books.
“In this beautifully written memoir, Jacqueline van Maarsen tells of her friendship with Anne Frank, depicting Anne as a typical, fun-loving girl. She also recounts her chilling Holocaust experience— escaping deportation by the Nazis; helplessly watching friends, including Anne, and family members disappear; and starting her life again after the war. Through Jacqueline’s memories and black-and-white photos, Anne Frank will come to life and continue to be remembered.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/friend-called-anne-jacqueline-van-maarsen/1103214855?ean=9780142407196
Age Range: 8-14 years
Reading Level: AR Level – 6.7
Teacher’s Guide:
Velmans-Van Hessen, E. (1998). Edith’s story. New York: Soho Press.
“Something was happening, something sinister. Her parents held whispered conversations, comments were made in school, some friends went abroad, everyone worried. But it wasn’t until after the Germans actually invaded Holland, not until classes were closed to her and public transportation forbidden, that the yellow star sewn to her coat took on real meaning for Edith Velmans. Edith went into hiding with a courageous Protestant family the same month as Anne Frank. She, however, was passed off as a relative and hidden in the open. To deflect suspicion, she was given the chore of looking after a German officer billeted with her hosts in the room next to hers. Of those Dutch Jews who were hidden, [one-]third were discovered and murdered. Most of her family perished. Edith lived. This is her remarkable and uplifting story of survival, aided by people of disarming goodness in a sea of annihilating evil.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ediths-story-edith-velmans-van-hessen/1003594188?ean=9781569471784
Winner, Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize – Nonfiction, 1999
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Reading Level: AR Level – 6.4
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Verrall, O. (2007). Missing pieces: My life as a child survivor of the Holocaust. Calgary: University of Calgary Press.
Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy1112/2007298632-d.html
Contributor biographical information http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy1116/2007298632-b.html
“Until age seven, Olga Barsony Verrall lived an idyllic life in Szarvas, a small town in Hungary, surrounded by her doting, observant Jewish family. After the Nazi invasion in 1944, Olga found herself, along with most of her family, interned in the Auspitz (Hustopeče) labor camp. Eventually reunited after the war, the family returned to Szarvas, only to face a different kind of oppression at the hands of the new Communist government. After immigrating to Winnipeg in 1957, Olga met and married Orland Verrall, the cantor at Rosh Pina synagogue. Together they built a new life in Canada and soon welcomed two daughters, Judy and Lesley.
“Yet Olga continued to be haunted by her past. Though she was very young during her time in the camp, Olga had vivid and painful memories of the horrifying things she had seen and experienced there. A nagging sense of emptiness and anger stayed with her all her life. After her beloved husband Orland passed away, her emotional state became increasingly fragile, and she became dependent on prescription drugs to numb her pain. A long journey of physical and mental healing, along with the support of her family, helped Olga piece her life back together. For Olga, writing her memoir was a catharsis. For her readers, it will be an inspiration.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/missing-pieces-olga-verrall/1111911072?ean=9781552382202
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Vice, S. (2004). Children writing the Holocaust. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Contributor biographical information http://www.loc.gov/catdir/bios/hol059/2004043872.html
Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/hol053/2004043872.html
Table of contents http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/hol052/2004043872.html
“This book examines a wide range of works written by and about child survivors and victims of the Holocaust. The writers analyzed range from Anne Frank and Saul Friedlander to Ida Fink and Louis Begley; topics covered include the Kindertransport experience, exile to Siberia, living in hiding, Jewish children masquerading as Christian, and ghetto diaries. Throughout, the argument is made that these texts use such similar techniques and structures that children’s-eye views of the Holocaust constitute a discrete literary genre.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/children-writing-the-holocaust-sue-vice/1102943245?ean=9781403935113
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Volavková, H. (1978). I never saw another butterfly: Children’s drawings and poems from Terezín Concentration Camp, 1942-1944. New York: Schocken Books.
“Fifteen thousand children under the age of fifteen passed through the Terezín Concentration Camp. Fewer than 100 survived. In these poems and pictures drawn by the young inmates, we see the daily misery of these uprooted children, as well as their hopes and fears, their courage and optimism. 60 color illustrations.
“A selection of children’s poems and drawings reflecting their surroundings in Terezín Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia from 1942 to 1944.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/i-never-saw-another-butterfly-hana-volavkova/1022904647?ean=9780805210156
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Vromen, S. (2008). Hidden children of the Holocaust: Belgian nuns and their daring rescue of young Jews from the Nazis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
“In the terrifying summer of 1942 in Belgium, when the Nazis began the brutal roundup of Jewish families, parents searched desperately for safe haven for their children. As Suzanne Vromen reveals in Hidden Children of the Holocaust, these children found sanctuary with other families and schools—but especially in Roman Catholic convents and orphanages.
“Vromen has interviewed not only those who were hidden as children, but also the Christian women who rescued them, and the nuns who gave the children shelter, all of whose voices are heard in this powerfully moving book. Indeed, here are numerous first-hand memoirs of life in a wartime convent—the secrecy, the humor, the admiration, the anger, the deprivation, the cruelty, and the kindness—all with the backdrop of the terror of the Nazi occupation. We read the stories . . . told by the children themselves—abruptly separated from distraught parents and given new names, the children were brought to the convents with a sense of urgency, sometimes under the cover of darkness. They were plunged into a new life, different from anything they had ever known, and expected to adapt seamlessly. Vromen shows that some adapted so well that they converted to Catholicism, at times to fit in amid the daily prayers and rituals, but often because the Church appealed to them. Vromen also examines their lives after the war, how they faced the devastating loss of parents to the Holocaust, struggled to regain their identities and sought to memorialize those who saved them.
“This remarkable book offers an inspiring chronicle of the brave individuals who risked everything to protect innocent young strangers, as well as a riveting account of the ‘hidden children’ who lived to tell their stories.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hidden-children-of-the-holocaust-suzanne-vromen/1117033562?ean=9780199739059
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Warren, A. (2001). Surviving Hitler: A boy in the Nazi death camps. New York: HarperCollins.
“Caught up in Hitler’s Final Solution to annihilate Europe’s Jews, 15-year-old Jack Mandelbaum is torn from his family and thrown into the nightmarish world of the concentration camps. Here, simple existence is a constant struggle, and Jack must learn to live hour-to-hour, day-to-day. Despite intolerable conditions, he resolves not to hate his captors and vows to see his family again. But even with his strong will to survive, how long can Jack continue to play this life-and-death game?”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/surviving-hitler-andrea-warren/1102641826?ean=9780060007676
Notable Book, Sydney Taylor Award – Older Readers, 2001
Honor Book, Robert F. Sibert Medal, 2002
Age Range: 8-12 years
Reading Level: AR Level – 6.1; 820L
Teacher’s Guide:
(Author’s Guide) ISBN-13: 9781493583515
Weiner, P. (2012). A boy in Terezín: The private diary of Pavel Weiner, April 1944-April1945. (K. Weiner, Ed.; P. Weiner, trans.). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
“Written by a Czech Jewish boy, A Boy in Terezín covers a year of Pavel Weiner’s life in the Theresienstadt transit camp in the Czech town of Terezín from April 1944 until liberation in April 1945.
“The Germans claimed that Theresienstadt was ‘the town the Führer gave the Jews’, and they temporarily transformed it into a Potemkin village for an International Red Cross visit in June 1944 the only Nazi camp opened to outsiders. But the Germans lied. Theresienstadt was a holding pen for Jews to be shipped east to annihilation camps.
“While famous and infamous figures and historical events flit across the pages, they form the background for Pavel’s life. Assigned to the now-famous Czech boys’ home, L417, Pavel served as editor of the magazine Ne?ar [sic]. Relationships, sports, the quest for food, and a determination to continue their education dominate the boys’ lives. Pavel’s father and brother were deported in September 1944; he turned thirteen (the age for his bar mitzvah) in November of that year, and he grew in his ability to express his observations and reflect on them. A Boy in Terezín registers the young boy’s insights, hopes, and fears and recounts a passage into maturity during the most horrifying of times.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-boy-in-terezin-pavel-weiner/1112757347?ean=9780810127791
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Weiss, H. (2013). Helga’s diary: A young girl’s account of life in a concentration camp. (N. Bermel, trans.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
“The remarkable diary of a young girl who survived the Holocaust—appearing in English for the first time.
“In 1939, Helga Weiss was a young Jewish schoolgirl in Prague. Along with some 45,000 Jews living in the city, Helga’s family endured the first wave of the Nazi invasion: her father was denied work; she was forbidden from attending regular school. As Helga witnessed the increasing Nazi brutality, she began documenting her experiences in a diary.
“In 1941, Helga and her parents were sent to the concentration camp of Terezín. There, Helga continued to write with astonishing insight about her daily life: the squalid living quarters, the cruel rationing of food, and the executions—as well as the moments of joy and hope that persisted in even the worst conditions. In 1944, Helga and her family were sent to Auschwitz. Before she left, Helga’s uncle, who worked in the Terezín records department, hid her diary and drawings in a brick wall. Miraculously, he was able to reclaim them for her after the war.
“Of the 15,000 children brought to Terezín and later deported to Auschwitz, only 100 survived. Helga was one of them. Reconstructed from her original notebooks, the diary is presented here in its entirety. With an introduction by Francine Prose, a revealing interview between translator Neil Bermel and Helga, and the artwork Helga made during her time at Terezín, Helga’s Diary stands as a vivid and utterly unique historical document.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/helgas-diary-helga-weiss/1111085960?ean=9780393077971
Notable Book, Sydney Taylor Award – Teen Readers, 2014
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Whiteley, S. M. (1999). Appel is forever: A child’s memoir. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.
“The author describes her experiences during the Holocaust between the ages of five and nine, in Amsterdam, as a prisoner in the Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, and eventually in the United States.”
summary from http://catalog2.loc.gov/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=286377&recCount=25&recPointer=0&bibId=4982995
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Whiteman, D. B. (1993). The uprooted: A Hitler legacy: Voices of those who escaped before The Final Solution. New York: Insight Books.
Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0830/92048291-d.html
“Whiteman, who escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria with her family, is now a clinical psychologist in New York. Her impassioned, riveting study of the Jews who managed to leave Germany and Austria before Hitler implemented mass executions and death camps is based partly on interviews with 190 escapees. She tells the incredible story of the Kindertransport operation, which took 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied countries to England by train and ferry. Adolf Eichmann, then an emigration official, disdainfully approved this mass exodus. We learn of the formidable barriers escapees faced in getting out, of horrid or supportive foster homes, of the trauma and pain of being forcibly uprooted. Many escapees endured years of poverty before re-establishing themselves. Whiteman rejects Hannah Arendt’s thesis that German Jews' cultural assimilation led to their political blindness in a ‘fool’s paradise’. This is a distinctive contribution to Holocaust literature.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-uprooted-dorit-bader-whiteman/1111868425?ean=9780738205793
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Reading Level: 1010L
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_____. (1993). Escape via Siberia: A Jewish child’s odyssey of survival. New York: Holmes & Meier.
“An incredible way out of the Holocaust leads a boy to a Siberian labor camp, abandonment in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and then being smuggled out of Teheran to Palestine. Clinical psychologist, survivor, and author of The Uprooted: A Hitler Legacy (not reviewed), Whiteman turned down several book opportunities with survivors, but was intrigued by the unreal record of boyhood flight from Jaroslav, Poland, by Elliott ‘Lonek’ Yaron. After research confirmed his torturous tale, and his name was found among the 900 little-known children of a clandestine Kindertransport from Iran, Whiteman agreed to work with Yaron. While the author adds historical background to each locale, she retains Yaron's authentic but poor English—with mixed results.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/escape-via-siberia-dorit-bader-whiteman/1111916340?ean=9780841914032
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_____. (2005). Lonek’s journey: The true story of a boy’s escape to freedom. New York: Star Bright Books.
“In August of [1939], Lonek is an eleven year-old Polish Jew living in Jaraslaw, Poland with his Mom, Dad, three year-old brother, and sixteen year-old farm girl who is their baby-sitter, helper and Lonek’s playmate. Lonek comes home following an after-school soccer game and finds his father in a soldier's uniform. The German army led by Hitler—thought to be the strongest army in the world—is about to invade Poland. Lonek’s father explains he must fight for his country and that Lonek must promise to stay behind and help his mother. The happy days of Jaraslaw are over. Lonek heads out on a journey that makes him a fugitive, a captive slave, an orphan, and finally, a welcomed Jewish child in Palestine. Children and adults will see the war through Lonek’s eyes in this nonfiction account. This book includes useful maps, photos, glossary and a Q and A section. It also has an afterward that wraps up the loose ends most readers are curious about at the end of the story. It would be a great book to read to any group of children to help them better understand wartime love, hatred, survival, courage, and compassion. Teachers and librarians could use this book for discussion or as a catalyst for future reading and exploration of the historical period.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/loneks-journey-dorit-bader-whiteman/1111467605?ean=9781595720214
Age Range: 10 & up
Reading Level: AR Level – 5.7; 830L
Teacher’s Guide:
Wiener, A. (2007). From a name to a number: A Holocaust survivor’s autobiography. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse.
“Alter Wiener’s father was brutally murdered on September 11, 1939 by the German invaders of Poland. Alter was then a boy of 13. At the age of 15 he was deported to Blechhammer, a forced labor camp for Jews, in Germany. He survived five camps. Upon liberation by the Russian Army on May 9, 1945, Alter weighed 80 lbs., as reflected on the book’s cover. Alter Wiener is one of the very few Holocaust survivors still living in Portland, Oregon. He moved to Oregon in 2000 and since then he has shared his life story with over 800 audiences (as of April, 2013) in universities, colleges, middle and high schools, churches, synagogues, prisons, clubs, etc. He has also been interviewed by radio and TV stations as well as the press. Wiener’s autobiography is a testimony to an unfolding tragedy taking place in WWII. Its message illustrates what prejudice may lead to and how tolerance is imperative. This book is not just Wiener’s life story but it reveals many responses to his story. Hopefully, it will enable many readers to truly understand such levels of horror and a chance to empathize with the unique plight of the Holocaust victims.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/from-a-name-to-a-number-alter-wiener/1100387513?ean=9781425997403
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Wiesel, E. (1960). Night. (S. Rodway, Trans.). New York: Hill and Wang.
“Night is Elie Wiesel’s masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps.
“Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/night-elie-wiesel/1116731697?ean=9780374500016
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Reading Level: AR Level – 4.8; 590L
Teacher’s Guides:
(Approaches to Teaching) ISBN-13: 9780873525909
(Bloom’s Guides) ISBN-13: 9781604131987
(Social Issues in Literature) ISBN-13: 9780737743944
(Cambridge Student Guide Series) ISBN-13: 9780521546546
(Shmoop Learning Guide) BN ID: 2940000701379
(Modern Critical Interpretations) ISBN-13: 9780791059241
(SparkNotes) http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/night/
(Essential Writer’s Guide) ISBN-13: 9781286814055
(CliffsNotes) http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/n/night/
_____. (1964). The town beyond the wall. (S. Becker, Trans.). New York: Atheneum.
“Michael—a young man in his thirties, a concentration camp survivor—makes the difficult trip behind the Iron Curtain to the town of his birth in Hungary. He returns to find and confront ‘the face in the window’—the real and symbolic faces of all those who stood by and never interfered when the Jews of his town were deported. In an ironic turn of events, he is arrested and imprisoned by secret police as a foreign agent. Here he must confront his own links to humanity in a world still resistant to the lessons of the Holocaust.
“Semi-autobiographical story of a young Jew who has survived the Holocaust and returned to his hometown behind the Iron Curtain.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-town-beyond-the-wall-elie-wiesel/1103441394?ean=9780805210453
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_____. (2002). After the darkness: Reflections on the Holocaust. New York: Schocken Books.
Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/random042/2002023146.html
“In his first book, Night, Elie Wiesel described his concentration camp experience, but he has rarely written directly about the Holocaust since then. Now, as the last generation of survivors is passing and a new generation must be introduced to mankind’s darkest hour, Wiesel sums up the most important aspects of Hitler’s years in power and provides a fitting memorial to those who suffered and perished. He writes about the creation of the Third Reich, Western acquiescence, the gas chambers, and memory. He criticizes Churchill and Roosevelt for what they knew and ignored, and he praises little-known Jewish heroes. Augmenting Wiesel’s text are testimonies from survivors, who recall, among other moments and events: the establishment of the Nurembourg Laws, Kristallnacht, transport to the camps, and liberation.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/after-the-darkness-elie-wiesel/1112142719?ean=9780805241822
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Wilkomirski, B. (1996). Fragments: Memories of a wartime childhood. (C. B. Janeway, Trans.). New York: Schocken Books.
Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/random0410/96010449.html
“An extraordinary memoir of a small boy who spent his childhood in the Nazi death camps. Binjamin Wilkomirski was a child when the round-ups of Jews in Latvia began. His father was killed in front of him, he was separated from his family, and, perhaps three or four years old, he found himself in Majdanek death camp, surrounded by strangers. In piercingly simple scenes Wilkomirski gives us the ‘fragments’ of his recollections, so that we too become small again and see this bewildering, horrifying world at child’s-eye height. No adult interpretations intervene. From inside the mind of a little boy we too experience love and loss, terror and friendship, and the final arduous return to the ‘real’ world.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fragments-binjamin-wilkomirski/1112681083?ean=9780805210897
National Jewish Book Award – Autobiography/Memoir, 1996
YALSA “Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults”, 1997
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Reading Level: AR Level – 5.6
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Wilson, P. R. (Ed.). (1995). We are children just the same: Vedem, the secret magazine by the boys of Terezín. (R. E. Novak, Trans.). Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society.
Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy1203/94012698-d.html
“From 1942 to 1944 Jewish boys imprisoned at the model concentration camp Theresienstad secretly produced a weekly magazine called Vedem (In the Lead). It contained essays, interviews, poems, and artwork written behind the blackout shades of their cellblock. The material was saved by one boy who survived the Holocaust but was suppressed for 50 years in Czechoslovakia. It provides a poignant glimpse at the world of boys whose lives were turned upside down: separated from their families and ultimately, for the majority, killed. Includes black and white photographs, and color and black and white illustrations.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-are-children-just-the-same-paul-r-wilson/1110855338?ean=9780827605343
National Jewish Book Award – Holocaust, 1995
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Winecki, K. (2007). The girl in the check coat: Survival in Nazi-occupied Poland and new life in Australia. (C. Samplawski, trans.). London: Vallentine Mitchell.
“Christine Winecki is a Holocaust child survivor. In her book she presents the story of her life, starting with the fond memories of her early childhood in south-eastern Poland, and then taking the reader through the turbulent years of the Second World War under Soviet and then German occupation. She depicts also the story of her future husband Oton a survivor of a labor camp in Siberia and their post-war life in Warsaw until the infamous events in 1968, which forced them to leave Poland and emigrate to Australia. Apart from its biographical content the book is rich in observations on the historical, political, and ethnographic aspects of the changing settings of the author’s unfolding story.”
summary from http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Check-Library-Holocaust-Testimonies/dp/0853036357/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393886653&sr=1-1&keywords=girl+check+coat
NOTE: Author’s name may also be listed as “Winecka”.
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Winter, M. (1997). Trains: A memoir of hidden children during and after World War II. Jackson, MI: Kelton Press.
“Trains is the moving account of a hidden child, a lonely girl who survived the Holocaust and escaped the Nazis in World War II Poland by living among strangers and pretending to be a Catholic girl, and who continued to hide her identity, heritage, and history in Communist Poland for two decades after the war ended. Trains is also the inspiring story of a courageous woman finding, facing, and telling the truth about her extraordinary life.”
summary from http://www.amazon.com/Trains-Memoir-Hidden-Childhood-During/dp/0966016203/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393886828&sr=1-3&keywords=winter+trains
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Zapruder, A. (Ed.). (2002). Salvaged pages: Young writers’ diaries of the Holocaust. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
“This is a stirring collection of diaries written by young people, ages 12 to 22, during the Holocaust. Some of the writers were refugees, others were hiding or passing as non-Jews, some were imprisoned in ghettos, and nearly all perished before liberation.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/salvaged-pages-alexandra-zapruder/1111639983?ean=9780300103076
National Jewish Book Award – Holocaust, 2001
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Alexandra Zapruder's web page "In the Classroom": http://www.alexandrazapruder.com/azapruder-classroom.htm
Study Guide to the MTV Film I'm Still Here (movie based on Salvaged Pages): http://www.alexandrazapruder.com/pdf/zapruder-fhao-teachers-guide.pdf OR https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/resources/im-still-here-real-diaries-young-people-during-holocaust
Zelman, L. (1998). After survival: One man’s mission in the cause of memory. (M. Schneeweiss, Trans.). New York: Holmes & Meier.
“Leon Zelman is in love with Vienna, his adopted city, where he has carved out a life for himself as a ‘public Jew’, despite the city's anti-Semitic legacy. In Leon Zelman’s memoir, we learn how he came to choose Vienna and how he walked a political tightrope for fifty years in postwar Austria. He is founding editor and publisher of Das Judische Echo, a distinguished journal of culture and politics, and co-founder of the Jewish Welcome Service, whose original goal was to document the presence of a vital Jewish community after the Holocaust and, later, to establish student exchange programs between Austria and Israel. In his memoir, we experience his unique perspective on the psychology of displacement and on postwar politics – and we read of his experiences with Bruno Kreisky, the Waldheim affair, the World Jewish Congress, and Edgar Bronfman. However, of his many achievements, Zelman is most proud of providing a bridge between Jews (past and present) and new generations of Austrians, and in recognition of this, he was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor of the City of Vienna in 1994.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/after-survival-leon-zelman/1112176502?ean=9780841913820
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Teacher’s Guide:
Zullo, A. (2009) Escape: Children of the Holocaust. New York: Scholastic.
“Features seven true stories of brave boys and girls who lived through the Holocaust. Their compelling accounts are based on exclusive, personal interviews with the survivors. Using real names, dates, and places, these stories are factual versions of their recollections.”
summary from http://catalog2.loc.gov/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=240619&recPointer=1&recCount=25
Age Range: 9-13 years
Reading Level: AR Level – 6.3; 940L
Teacher’s Guide:
_____. (2012). We fought back: Teen resisters of the Holocaust. New York: Scholastic.
“The young Jewish people in this book, which contains unforgettable true stories of courage and survival, took on incredible risks to fight back against the Nazis in World War II.”
http://www.arbookfind.com/bookdetail.aspx?q=155348&l=EN&slid=477910369
Age Range:
Reading Level: AR Level – 7.7; 1070L
Teacher’s Guide:
Zullo, A. & Bovsun, M. (2004). Survivors: True stories of children in the Holocaust. New York: Scholastic.
“Gripping and inspiring, these true stories of bravery, terror, and hope chronicle nine different children’s experiences during the Holocaust.
“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.”
summary from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/survivors-allan-zullo/1110861882?ean=9780439669962
Age Range: 8-12 years
Reading Level: AR Level – 6.4; 970L
Teacher’s Guide: