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Baker, Leonard. Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Leo Baeck was the leading rabbi in Berlin when Hitler came to power, and he
assumed a main role in helping Berlin Jews, first to emigrate, and when that was
no longer possible, to resist through underground activities. Refusing to leave
Germany himself, he eventually was sent to Theresienstadt.
Breitman, Richard. The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.
This is not a biography of Himmler in the traditional sense that it chronicles
the life of the man from birth to death. Rather, it focuses on his years as a
Nazi, his relationship with Hitler, and his role in masterminding the Final
Solution. Other Nazi leaders, like Goering and Goebbels, are discussed at length.
Brietman, Richard and Walter Lanqueur. Breaking the Silence. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1986.
Eduard Schulte was a major German industrialist who abhorred Hitler and Nazism.
He is the man credited with passing on to the Allies news, not only of troop
movements and weapon programs, but revelation of the Nazi plans for genocide.
This biography relates Schulte s story from his childhood to his postwar years.
The authors also describe the responses of Allied governments to the information
he passed on to them.
Bullock, Alan. Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. New York: HarperCollings, 1991.
The focus of this study is less on Hitler himself than on his position within the
Nazi Party. Bullock explores the connection between Hitler and Nazism and places
both in historical context. In addition, he traces the roots of Nazism back to
the Weimar Republic
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler's List. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992.
Oskar Schindler was an influential German industrialist with high-level
connections in Nazi Germany. He used his position to protect many Jews.
Keneally's absorbing biography is based on interviews with many of those helped
by Schindler.
Sereny, Gitta. Into that Darkness. New York: Random House, 1983.
Franz Stagl, a convicted Nazi war criminal, was interviewed in prison by the author. These interviews are supplemented by testimony from witnesses. Stagl was Commandant of the camps at both Sobibor and Treblinka. His testimony, as told to Sereny, is revealing and chilling.
Appelfeld, Aharon. Badenheim, Nineteen Thirty-Nine. New York: Pocket Books, 1981.
The story revolves around a group of upper-class Jews in an Austrian resort town,
on the eve of war. The author, himself a Holocaust survivor, creates a haunting
picture of impending tragedy, heightened by the reader s awareness of the events
to come.
Begley, Louis. Wartime Lies. New York: David McKay, 1991.
Begley, himself a child caught up in the Holocaust, has written a first-person
novel about a young Jewish boy and his aunt who survive only due to a pattern of
denial and compromise that leaves its own scars.
Borowski, Tadeausz. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. New York: Viking
Penguin, 1992.
Through this collection of remarkable short stories, Borowski describes his
experiences in Auschwitz and Dachau. His focus is on the atmosphere of the camps
and its effect on the inner being. He probes the minds of both victims and
perpetrators.
Fink, Ida. A Scrap of Time. New York: Schochen, 1989.
The title story in this collection of short stories concerns the way time was
measured by Holocaust victims. Other stories describe people in a variety of
normal human situations distorted by the circumstances of the times.
Friedlander, Albert. Out of the Whirlwind. New York: Schocken, 1989.
Not all of the entries in this anthology are fiction; excerpts are also included
from historical works and personal narrative. The book is arranged thematically,
making it especially helpful for a teacher looking for material to support
specific aspects of a curriculum.
Glatstein, Jacob. Anthology of Holocaust Literature. New York: Macmillan, 1973.
Chapters in this collection cover life in the ghettos, children, the camps,
resistance, and non-Jewish victims. Excerpts are included from both works of
fiction and primary source materials such as diaries, memoirs, and ghetto
documents. Man of these pieces can be especially useful if teachers provide
additional background information on the authors and context of the writings.
Kosinski, Jerzy. The Painted Bird. New York: Random House, 1993.
In this autobiographical novel, Kosinski chronicles the horrors visited upon a
six-year old boy wandering through Europe during the Holocaust. This is without
doubt the most graphic and brutal Holocaust material in existence.
Ozick, Cynthia. The Shawl. New York: Random House, 1990.
Originally published as two separate stories in the New Yorker, the first, very
brief, title story tells of a mother witnessing her baby s death at the hands of
camp guards. The second story, Rose, describes that some mother, 30 years later,
still haunted by that event. This is Holocaust fiction at its best, brief but
unforgettable.
Schwarz-Bart, Andre. The Last of the Just. Cambridge, MA: R. Bently, 1981.
Based on the Talmudic legend of thirty-six men of each generation upon whose
virtue the existence of the world depends, this novel traces the history of the
Levy family from medieval time to Ernie Levy, the last of the just, who died at
Auschwitz.
Wiesel, Elie. The Town Beyond the Wall. New York: Schocken, 1982.
In this post-Holocaust novel, a survivor returns to his home town seeking to understand and confront those who stood by and watched his deportation. Wiesel probes the issue of survivors coming to terms with the Holocaust experience.
Anatoli, A. Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of Novel. Cambridge, MA: Robert Bentley, 1979.
As a Russian boy of twelve, A. Anatoli used to play in the and was in earshot of
the machine gun fire that signaled the massacre by Nazi mobile killing units of
more than 33,000 Jews on Sep- tember 29 and 30, 1941. Long regarded as one of the
greatest Soviet novels of World War II, Babi Yar is an unforgettable account of
the years of German occupation.
Delbo, Charlotte. None of Us Will Survive. Boston: Beacon Press, 1968.
Delbo is one of the most eloquent of Holocaust writers. She writes of her
experiences at Auschwitz in prose so powerful that the reader seems to become a
part of the experience. Through the poetic use of language rather than graphic
descriptions of atrocities, she creates unforgettable images.
Donat, Alexander. The Holocaust Kingdom. New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1963.
The author, a Polish Jew whose Holocaust experiences included the Warsaw ghetto,
Majdanek, and Dachau, was separated from his wife and son at Majdanek but
reunited with them after the war. He tells his own story and the stories of
others with whom he came in contact. His wife describes her own experiences in
the final section of the book.
Eliach, Yaffa. Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust. New York: Vintage Books, 1988.
Through interviews and oral histories, Eliach garnered eighty-nine tales, both
true stories and fanciful legends. This beautiful, compelling collection bears
witness, in a traditional idiom, to the victims suffering, dying, and surviving.
Frankl, Viktor. Man's Search for Meaning: An lntroduction to Logotherapy. New
York: Pocket Books, 1984.
A psychiatrist as well as a concentration camp survivor, Frankl s work is only
secondarily a personal memoir. Primarily, it is an attempt to understand and
explain the psychology of camp victims through Frankl s own experiences and
observations.
Hillesum, Etty. An Interrupted Life. New York: Pocket Books, 1991.
Hillesum s diary entries from 1941-1942 and her letters to family and friends
from the Westerbork transit camp in occupied Netherlands reveal her personal
development in a time of terror. Soon after being deported from Westerbork, she
died in Auschwitz, at the age of twenty-nine.
Leitner, Isabella. Fragments of lsabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz. New York: Dell,
1983.
A survivor of Auschwitz recounts the ordeal of holding her family together after
their mother is killed in the camp. This slim volume is an eloquent account of
survival in the midst of chaos and destruction. A glossary of camp language is a
valuable addition. Leitner's story is continued in Saving the Fragments.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
Levi was an Italian Jew captured in 1943 and still at Auschwitz at the time of
liberation. He not only chronicles the daily activities in the camp, but his
inner reactions to it, and the destruction of the inner as well as the outer
self. This memoir is one of the most important books on the Holocaust.
Meed, Vladka. On Both Sides of the Wall. New York: Holocaust Publications, 1979.
This is an informative memoir of the Warsaw ghetto by one of the young smugglers
who maintained contact between the ghetto and the Aryan side of the city. Working
for the Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB), Vladka Meed helped smuggle weapons
Nir, Yehuda. The Lost Childhood. San Diego: Harcourt Publications, 1979.
This compelling memoir chronicles six extraordinary years in the life of a Polish
Jewish boy, his mother, and his sister, who all survived the Holocaust by
obtaining false papers and posing as Catholics. Yehuda Nir lost almost
everything, including his father, his possessions, his youth and innocence, and
his identity, but he managed to live with the help of chance, personal
resourcefulness, and the support of his family.
Szwajger, Adina B. I Remember Nothing More: The Warsaw Children's Hospital and
the Jewish Resistance. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992.
The author was beginning her last year of medical school when the Nazis invaded
Poland in 1939. From that time until January 1943, she worked in the Children's
Hospital of the Warsaw Ghetto. When the hospital was closed after the first armed
Jewish resistance, she left the ghetto with false papers, and from then until the
liberation, worked as a courier for the resistance.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam, 1960.
Wiesel is one of the most eloquent writers of the Holocaust, and this book is his
best known work. This compelling narrative describes his own experience in
Auschwitz. His account of his entrance into Auschwitz and his first night in the
camp is extraordinary. This narrative is often considered required reading for
students of the Holocaust.
Yoors, Jan. Crossing: A Journal of Survival and Resistance in World War II. New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1971.
Every summer during his teen years, Yoors left his comfortable, upper middle class family life in Belgium to travel around Europe with a Rom (Gypsy) family. This beautifully written journal focuses on the participation of Yoors and his fondly remembered Rom friends in resistance activities during World War II.
Frank, Anne. The Diary of Anne Frank: The Critical Edition. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1989.
This edition of the internationally acclaimed diary includes three different
versions: the portion that was originally found, the revisions made by Anne
herself, and the version edited by her father. In addition, there is extensive
commentary on each version.
Hilberg, Raul, et. al., eds. The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow. Lanham, MD:
Madison Books, 1982.
Czerniakow was chairman of the Nazi-appointed Jewish Council in Warsaw from the
German invasion in 1939 until his suicide in 1942. His diaries record the history
of the period as well as his personal involvement with the Germans.
Ringelblum, Emmanuel. Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto: The Journal of Emmanuel
Ringelblum. New York: Schocken, 1974.
The official archivist of the Warsaw ghetto, Ringelblum's training as an
historian made him uniquely qualified to understand the importance of documenting
events inside the ghetto. He carefully collected and hid documentary evidence and
personal notes.
Tory, Avraham. Surviving the Holocaust: The Kovno Ghetto Diary. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1990.
Tory, a ghetto inmate and secretary of the Jewish Council, wrote this account under conditions of extreme danger. This remarkable, detailed chronicle documents life and death in the Jewish ghetto of Kovno, Lithuania, from June 1941 to January 1944. Translated from the Yiddish, the book includes a valuable collection of photos and sketches by artists in the ghetto.
Fuchs, Elinor, ed. Plays of the Holocaust: An International Anthology. New York: Theater Communications Group, 1987.
This represents the only major anthology of Holocaust drama from a variety of
nations in a number of literary styles. In addition to the plays themselves, the
book includes a bibliography of Holocaust drama.
Heyen, William. Erika: Poems of the Holocaust. St. Louis, MO: Time Being Books,
1991.
Heyen and his immediate family emigrated to the United States from Germany before
the war, but he had two uncles who remained there and died serving Germany.
Heyen's poems reflect his unique perspective and his ambivalent feelings about
his family s painful history. Earlier editions were published under the title
Swastika Poems.
Hinz, Berthold. Art in the Third Reich. New York: Pantheon, 1979.
The art and architecture produced during the Third Reich is examined not only for
its content and technique, but for the role it played in Nazi politics and
philosophy. Numerous reproductions supplement the text.
Hyett, Barbara Helfgott. In Evidence: Poems of the Liberation of Nazi
Concentration Camps. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986.
Part of a team that interviewed American liberators of concentration camps, Hyett translated their words into these poems. The selections are brief and the language is spare and stark reflecting the difficulty these men had in articulating the horrors they witnessed.
Aaron, Frieda W. Bearing the Unbearable: Yiddish and Polish Poetry in the Ghettos and Concentration Camps. Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1990.
Aaron, herself a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto and Majdanek concentration camp,
has undertaken the first study of Yiddish and Polish camp poetry. She emphasizes
the distinction between contemporary writings and works written after the
experience, the latter typical of most Holocaust literature.
Ezrahi, Sidra D. By Words Alone: The Holocaust in Literature. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1982.
This literary history of the Holocaust discusses a number of specific works,
including works in American literature. The author also focuses on the language
of the Holocaust and the ways in which different writers interpret the same
facts.
Fine, Ellen. The Legacy of Night: The Literary Universe of Elie Wiesel. Albany,
NY: State University of New York Press, 1983.
Fine looks closely at the works of Wiesel, tracing the literary and spiritual
patterns she finds. In addition to looking at connections between books, from
Night to The Testament, she examines individual books in depth. Other works on
Wiesel include The Vision of the Void by Michael Berenbaum and Confronting the
Holocaust edited by Alvin Rosenfeld and Irving Greenberg.
Heinemann, Marlene E. Gender and Destiny: Women Writers and the Holocaust.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1986.
Focusing on six specific Holocaust books by women writers, including Charlotte
Delbo's "None of Us Will Return", Heinemann examines the areas in which Holocaust
literature by female writers differs from that created by male writers.
Insdorf, Annette. Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1990.
Films from both Hollywood and Germany are examined here, as well as films
produced in other, mostly western, European countries. Both documentaries and
fictional films are included, as are both short and feature-length films. Insdorf
particularly looks at whether a film confronts or evades the real issues of the
Holocaust.
Langer, Lawrence L. The Age of Atrocity: Death in Modern Literature. Boston:
Beacon Press, 1978.
In this study, Langer analyzes four major literary works, by Mann, Camus,
Solzhenitsyn, and Delbo. Using these works as examples, he traces the evolution
of the twentieth-century concept of death, from individual death, to mass death,
to death by atrocity, and death by extermination. From both literary and
historical perspectives, this book contributes a great deal to the understanding
of the Holocaust and of inappropriate death.
Langer, Lawrence L. The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press, 1975.
Examining specific literary works, Langer provides detailed analysis of a number
of novels, including Schwartz-Bart's "The Last of the Just" and Kosinki's "The
Painted Bird". He also includes some poetry and Wiesel's "Night", which, although
non-fiction, qualifies as literature due to its imaginative power and artful
presentation.
Rosenfeld, Alvin H. A Double Dying: Reflections on Holocaust Literature.
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1980.
This survey of Holocaust literature includes works of both fiction and
non-fiction. Rosenfeld focuses particularly on the criteria for judging books on
the Holocaust. He discusses a number of individual books, from classics like
Night to more recent works, including some which he describes as exploiting the
Holocaust. The usefulness of this source is augmented by an excellent
bibliography.
Roskies, David. Against the Apocalypse: Responses to Catastrophe in Modern Jewish
Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1984.
This scholarly study of Jewish literature includes both pre- and post-Holocaust literature in addition to Holocaust literature itself. It also includes monuments and other works of art. It focuses on the literary and artistic expression of modern Jewish experience in eastern Europe, beginning in the late nineteenth century and continuing through World War I and the Holocaust into the post-Holocaust world.
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