Best of
Holocaust

2015

KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps


Nikolaus Wachsmann - 2015
    The Third Reich has been studied in more depth than virtually any other period in history, and yet until now there has been no history of the camp system that tells the full story of its broad development and the everyday experiences of its inhabitants, both perpetrators and victims, and all those living in what Primo Levi called "the gray zone." In KL, Wachsmann fills this glaring gap in our understanding. He not only synthesizes a new generation of scholarly work, much of it untranslated and unknown outside of Germany, but also presents startling revelations, based on many years of archival research, about the functioning and scope of the camp system. Examining, close up, life and death inside the camps, and adopting a wider lens to show how the camp system was shaped by changing political, legal, social, economic, and military forces, Wachsmann produces a unified picture of the Nazi regime and its camps that we have never seen before. A boldly ambitious work of deep importance, KL is destined to be a classic in the history of the twentieth century.

Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women


Sarah Helm - 2015
    He called it Ravensbrück, and during the years that followed thousands of people died there after enduring brutal forms of torture. All were women. There are a handful of studies and memoirs that reference Ravensbrück, but until now no one has written a full account of this atrocity, perhaps due to the mostly masculine narrative of war, or perhaps because it lacks the Jewish context of most mainstream Holocaust history. Ninety percent of Ravensbrück's prisoners were not Jewish. Rather, they were political prisoners, Resistance fighters, lesbians, prostitutes, even the sister of New York's Mayor LaGuardia. In a perverse twist, most of the guards were women themselves. Sarah Helm's groundbreaking work sheds much-needed light on an aspect of World War II that has remained in the shadows for decades. Using research into German and newly opened Russian archives, as well as interviews with survivors, Helm has produced a landmark achievement that weaves together various accounts, allowing us to follow characters on both sides of the prisoner/guard divide. Chilling, compelling, and deeply unsettling, Ravensbrück is essential reading for anyone concerned with Nazi history.

Auschwitz #34207: The Joe Rubinstein Story


Nancy Sprowell Geise - 2015
    A great read..." --Myles Friedman, Finelines Pubslush Review Blog "Auschwitz #34207 will join work by Primo Levi on a shelf of classic Holocaust narratives."--Foreword Reviews Seventy years ago Joe Rubinstein walked out of a Nazi concentration camp. Until now, his story has been hidden from the world. Shortly before dawn on a frigid morning in Radom, Poland, German soldiers forced twenty-one year-old Icek “Joe” Rubinsztejn onto a crowded, open-air truck. The next day, several around him were dead. From there, things got worse for young Joe—much worse. Joe arrived at Auschwitz on April 30, 1942. Only now, in his 90s, has he revealed how he survived when so many others perished. His is a remarkable narrative—a unique story of endurance and courage. Barefooted when he was seized by the Nazis, he became one of New York’s leading shoe designers. Joe’s story bears witness to the ultimate triumph of the human spirit. While the Nazis took everything else, they were unable to take his unassailable joy. His is a story of discovering light in the darkest of places.

The Children's Train


Jana Zinser - 2015
    Parents fear for their own lives but their focus is on protecting their children. When England arranges to take the children out of Germany by train, the Kindertransport is organized and parents scramble to get places on the trains for their young family members, worried about what the future will hold. Soon, trains filled with Jewish children escaping the Nazis chug over the border into Holland, where they are ferried across the English Channel to England and to freedom. But for Peter, the shy violin player, his sister Becca, and his friends Stephen and Hans, life in England holds challenges as well. Peter’s friend Eva, who did not get a seat on the Kindertransport, is left to the evil plans of Hitler. Peter, working his musician’s hands raw at a farm in Coventry, wonders if they should have stayed and fought back instead of escaping. When the Coventry farm is bombed and Nazis have reached England, Peter feels he has nothing left. He decides it’s time to stand and fight Hitler. Peter returns to Germany to join the Jewish underground resistance, search for the mother and sister he left behind in Berlin, and rescue his childhood friend Eva.

Our Crime Was Being Jewish: Hundreds of Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Stories


Anthony S. Pitch - 2015
    These are the true, insider stories of victims, told in their own words. They include the experiences of teenagers who saw their parents and siblings sent to the gas chambers; of starving children beaten for trying to steal a morsel of food; of people who saw their friends commit suicide to save themselves from the daily agony they endured. The recollections are from the start of the war—the home invasions, the Gestapo busts, and the ghettos—as well as the daily hell of the concentration camps and what actually happened inside.Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and this hefty collection of stories told by its survivors is one of the most important books of our time. It was compiled by award-winning author Anthony S. Pitch, who worked with sources such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to get survivors’ stories compiled together and to supplement them with images from the war. These memories must be told and held onto so what happened is documented; so the lives of those who perished are not forgotten—so history does not repeat itself.

Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning


Timothy Snyder - 2015
    Based on new sources from eastern Europe and forgotten testimonies from Jewish survivors, Black Earth recounts the mass murder of the Jews as an event that is still close to us, more comprehensible than we would like to think, and thus all the more terrifying.The Holocaust began in a dark but accessible place, in Hitler's mind, with the thought that the elimination of Jews would restore balance to the planet and allow Germans to win the resources they desperately needed. Such a worldview could be realized only if Germany destroyed other states, so Hitler's aim was a colonial war in Europe itself. In the zones of statelessness, almost all Jews died. A few people, the righteous few, aided them, without support from institutions. Much of the new research in this book is devoted to understanding these extraordinary individuals. The almost insurmountable difficulties they faced only confirm the dangers of state destruction and ecological panic. These men and women should be emulated, but in similar circumstances few of us would do so.  By overlooking the lessons of the Holocaust, Snyder concludes, we have misunderstood modernity and endangered the future. The early twenty-first century is coming to resemble the early twentieth, as growing preoccupations with food and water accompany ideological challenges to global order. Our world is closer to Hitler's than we like to admit, and saving it requires us to see the Holocaust as it was -- and ourselves as we are.  Groundbreaking, authoritative, and utterly absorbing, Black Earth reveals a Holocaust that is not only history but warning.

But You Did Not Come Back


Marceline Loridan-Ivens - 2015
    It is the profoundly moving and poetic memoir by Marceline Loridan-Ivens, who at the age of fifteen was arrested in occupied France, along with her father. Later, in the camps, he managed to smuggle a note to her, a sign of life that made all the difference to Marceline—but he died in the Holocaust, while Marceline survived. In But You Did Not Come Back, Marceline writes back to her father, the man whose death overshadowed her whole life. Although her grief never diminished in its intensity, Marceline ultimately found her calling, working as both an activist and a documentary filmmaker. But now, as France and Europe in general faces growing anti-Semitism, Marceline feels pessimistic about the future. Her testimony is a memorial, a confrontation, and a deeply affecting personal story of a woman whose life was shattered and never totally rebuilt.

The Earth Is Singing (Usborne Modern Classics)


Vanessa Curtis - 2015
    I am 15. I am Latvian. I live with my mother and grandmother. My father is missing, taken by the Russians. I have a boyfriend and I'm training to be a dancer. But none of that is important any more. Because the Nazis have arrived, and I am a Jew. And as far as they are concerned, that is all that matters. This is my story. "A tragic, harrowing and deeply moving account of the Holocaust from the perspective of an ordinary girl." - The Bookseller

Somewhere There Is Still a Sun: A Memoir of the Holocaust


Michael Gruenbaum - 2015
    All of that changed forever when the Nazis invaded Prague. The Gruenbaum family was forced to move into the Jewish Ghetto in Prague. Then, after a devastating loss, Michael, his mother and sister were deported to the Terezin concentration camp.At Terezin, Misha roomed with forty other boys who became like brothers to him. Life in Terezin was a bizarre, surreal balance - some days were filled with friendship and soccer matches, while others brought mortal terror as the boys waited to hear the names on each new list of who was being sent 'to the East.'Those trains were going to Auschwitz. When the day came that his family's name appeared on a transport list, their survival called for a miracle - one that tied Michael's fate to a carefully sewn teddy bear, and to his mother's unshakeable determination to keep her children safe.Collaborating with acclaimed author Todd Hasak-Lowy, Michael Gruenbaum shares his inspiring story of hope in an unforgettable memoir that recreates his experiences with stunning immediacy. Michael's story, and the many original documents and photos included alongside it, offer an essential contribution to Holocaust literature.The book is now available in 12 languages: English (Simon and Schuster), German (Rowohlt), French (Didier Jeunesse), Spanish (Edelvives) , Greek (Papadopoulos Publishing), Russian (Samokat), Turkish, Ukrainian, Slovenian, Czech, Burmese (Myanmar) and Sinhala (Sri Lanka); Bulgarian and Khmer (Cambodia) are scheduled later this year. Publishers in China, Israel, The Netherland, Brazil, Italy, Tanzania (Swahili and Kinyarwanda), Romania, Japan and others are also close to signing up. Our goal is still the same - to have the book be added to the curricula of all middle schools around the world.. Simon and Schuster, together with Scholastic, sold 75,000 copies of the book in the USA last year.

The Earth is Singing


Vanessa Curtis - 2015
    I am fifteen. I am Latvian. I live with my mother and grandmother. My father is missing - taken by the Russians. I have a boyfriend. When he holds my hand, everything feels perfect. I'm training to be a dancer. But none of that matters now.Because the Nazis have arrived, and I am a Jew. And as far as they are concerned, that is all that matters. This is my story.

Paper Hearts


Meg Wiviott - 2015
    Based on historical events about a group of girls who were slave laborers at the munitions factory in Auschwitz.

I Only Wanted to Live: The Struggle of a Boy to Survive the Holocaust


Arie Tamir - 2015
    The epic history is narrowed down to the struggle of a single boy nicknamed Leosz to survive the war. From age 7 to age 13, he endures all the horrors that the Holocaust brings upon the Jewish people. Life hangs on split-second timing, decision-making in impossibly cruel circumstances, incredible resourcefulness, luck and the help of others, even Germans.In the Krakow Ghetto, Leosz is saved from three mass deportations to the death camps. He escapes the ghetto, survives for several weeks pretending to be a Polish street child, and then goes into hiding. Although sentenced to die after being caught, he is instead miraculously reunited with his family in the Plaszow labor camp. A year later, father and son become slave laborers in the Gozen 2 camp in Austria, where his father perishes. Close to death himself, Leosz is finally liberated by the American army on May 5th, 1945. Scroll up and grab a copy today.

Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews 1933-1949


David Cesarani - 2015
    Based on decades of scholarship, documentation newly available from the opening of Soviet archives, declassification of Western intelligence service records, as well as diaries and reports written in the camps, Cesarani provides a sweeping reappraisal that challenges accepted explanations for the anti-Jewish politics of Nazi Germany and the inevitability of the “final solution.” The persecution of the Jews, as Cesarani sees it, was not always the Nazis’ central preoccupation, nor was it inevitable. He shows how, in German-occupied countries, it unfolded erratically, often due to local initiatives. For Cesarani, war was critical to the Jewish fate. Military failure denied the Germans opportunities to expel Jews into a distant territory and created a crisis of resources that led to the starvation of the ghettos and intensified anti-Jewish measures. Looking at the historical record, he disputes the iconic role of railways and deportation trains. From prisoner diaries, he exposes the extent of sexual violence and abuse of Jewish women and follows the journey of some Jewish prisoners to displaced persons camps. David Cesarani’s Final Solution is the new standard chronicle of the fate of a heroic people caught in the hell that was Hitler’s Germany.

Born Survivors


Wendy Holden - 2015
    Rachel is sent to Auschwitz, unaware that her husband has been shot. Priska and her husband travel there together, but are immediately separated. Also at Auschwitz, Anka hopes in vain to be reunited with her husband. With the rest of their families gassed, these young wives are determined to hold on to all they have left—their lives, and those of their unborn babies. Having concealed their condition from infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, they are forced to work and almost starved to death, living in daily fear of their pregnancies being detected by the SS. In April 1945, as the Allies close in, the inmates are sent to Mauthausen concentration camp on a hellish seventeen-day train journey. On the seventieth anniversary of Mauthausen’s liberation from the Nazis by American soldiers, renowned biographer Wendy Holden recounts this extraordinary story of three children united by their mothers’ unbelievable—yet ultimately successful—fight for survival.

A Detail Of History: The harrowing true story of a boy who survived the Nazi holocaust


Arek Hersh - 2015
    He takes us into the tragic world imposed on him that robbed him of his childhood. The depth of the tragedy, strength of courage and power of survival will move you and inspire you.Contrary to assertions that the Holocaust years were a mere ‘detail of history’, Arek Hersh gives us a glimpse into the greatest catastrophe that man has ever inflicted on his fellow man.

Single Handed: A Heroic Story of Surviving the Holocaust, the Korean War, and Earning the Medal of Honor


Daniel M. Cohen - 2015
    The teenager endured its horrors for more than a year. After surviving the Holocaust, he arrived penniless in America, barely speaking English. In 1950, Tibor volunteered for service in the Korean War. After acts of heroism that included single-handedly defending a hill against an onslaught of enemy soldiers, braving sniper fire to rescue a wounded comrade, and commandeering a machine gun after its crew was killed, he was captured. As a POW, Tibor called on his experience in Mauthausen to help fellow GIs survive two and half years of captivity. Tibor returned from Korea in 1953, but it wasn’t until 2005—at age 76—that he was invited to the White House, where he received the Medal of Honor from President George W. Bush. It had taken over half a century for Tibor’s adopted homeland to recognize this Jewish immigrant for acts of valor that went “beyond the call of duty.” But when it did, the former Hungarian refugee became the only survivor of the Holocaust to have earned America’s highest military distinction. Drawing on eyewitness accounts and extensive interviews, author Daniel M. Cohen presents the inspiring story of Tibor “Teddy” Rubin for the first time in its entirety and gives us a stirring portrait of a true hero. INCLUDES PHOTOS

Train


Danny M. Cohen - 2015
    Giving voice to the unheard victims of Nazism — the Roma, the disabled, homosexuals, intermarried Jews, and political enemies of the Nazi regime — this historical thriller will change how we think about Holocaust history.Marko screwed up. But he's good at swallowing his fear.By now, the 17-year-old 'Gypsy' should be far from Nazi Germany. By now, he should be with Alex. That's how they planned it. But while Marko has managed to escape the Gestapo, Alex has been arrested in the final round-ups of Berlin's Jews. Even worse, Marko’s little cousin Kizzy is missing. And Marko knows he’s to blame.Yet the tides of war are turning. With hundreds of Christian women gathered in the streets to protest the round-ups, the Nazis have suspended the trains to the camps. But for how long? Marko must act now. Against time, and with British warplanes bombing Berlin, Marko hatches a dangerous plan to rescue Alex and find Kizzy.There are three people who can help: Marko’s sister with her connections to the Resistance, Alex’s Catholic stepsister, and a mysterious Nazi girl with a deadly secret.But will Marko own up to how Kizzy disappeared? And then there’s the truth about Alex — they just wouldn’t understand.

Hidden Gold: A True Story of the Holocaust


Ella Burakowski - 2015
    Leib and Hanna Gold though they had more time to develop an escape plan. While Leib leaves to negotiate a hiding place, Hanna and their children, Shoshana, Esther, and twelve-year-old David, steal away in the night to find shelter with a family friend. Leib promises to join them in the morning, but when daylight breaks, Leib had vanished. Hanna must flee to a safer refuge or she and her children will perish.So begins a true story of terror, suspense, and deplorable hardship that lasts more than two years. In a place where everyone is afraid, neighbors turn on neighbors, gentiles betray Jews, and Jews victimize each other, hoping to survive the Holocaust. David Gold's memories of his formative years during World War II are captured by his niece, author Ella Burakowski, in this heart-stopping testament to the human spirit.

The Complete Works of Primo Levi


Primo Levi - 2015
    Yet Levi’s body of work extends considerably beyond his experience as a survivor. Now, the transformation of Levi from Holocaust memoirist to one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers culminates in this publication of The Complete Works of Primo Levi. This magisterial collection finally gathers all of Levi’s fourteen books—memoirs, essays, poetry, and fiction—into three slip-cased volumes. Thirteen of the books feature new translations, and the other is newly revised by the original translator. Nobel laureate Toni Morrison introduces Levi’s writing as a “triumph of human identity and worth over the pathology of human destruction.” The appearance of this historic publication will occasion a major reappraisal of “one of the most valuable writers of our time” (Alfred Kazin).The Complete Works of Primo Levi features all new translations of: The Periodic Table, The Drowned and the Saved, The Truce, Natural Histories, Flaw of Form, The Wrench, Lilith, Other People’s Trades, and If Not Now, When?—as well as all of Levi’s poems, essays, and other nonfiction work, some of which have never appeared before in English.

Jars of Hope


Jennifer Roy - 2015
    While many people lived in fear of the Nazis, Irena defied them, even though it could have meant her life. She kept records of the children she helped smuggle away from the Nazis grasp, and when she feared her work might be discovered, she buried her lists in jars, hoping to someday recover them and reunite children with their parents. This gripping true story of a woman who took it upon herself to help save 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust is not only inspirational; it's unforgettable.

Fulcrum of Malice: A Novel of Nazi Germany (Corridor of Darkness Book 3)


Patrick W. O'Bryon - 2015
    Deep in this ominous city of shadows, the American agent conspires with a powerful German spymaster to subvert Hitler’s state. His personal goal: save the life of a loving friend. But threading his way through the menacing streets with a target on his back, Ryan suspects he may have to buy her release with his own death. Fulcrum of Malice is the final volume in the Corridor of Darkness trilogy.Praise for Corridor of Darkness:“…an intriguing early WWII spy yarn set in a well-researched, authentic Germany.” – Kirkus Reviews“…A grand adventure set in Germany’s darkest hours.” – Compulsion ReadsPraise for Beacon of Vengeance:“A resounding five stars…seamlessly melds his fictional characters with the events and real characters of the era.” – Awesome Indies Reviews Corridor of Darkness, A Novel of Nazi Germany has received the AIA Gold Seal of Excellence, the B.R.A.G. Medallion, and a bronze medal in the international 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

My Eyes Looking Back at Me: Insight Into a Survivor's Soul


Menucha Meinstein - 2015
    Rejoice over the bonds of love, friendship and forgiveness, of finding relatives, and share the triumph of unexpected turns in Leah's story that will inspire you, leaving you breathless. "How did she do it?" You'll find it all here, as you follow Leah through the many phases of her life, her redemption and revenge against Hitler's evil, and to grateful happiness during her 90th year. When Leah Cik Roth decides to write her secret memoirs for her children, writer, Menucha Meinstein, walks into her life as a volunteer. The two develop the deepest of human bonds as together they uncover Leah's lifelong bitterness and suppressed Holocaust memories. Through Soul-Writing, they struggle to relive Leah's stories, revealing heroic patterns of resilience from the young age of five. Her memories bring out fresh pain, and renewed feelings of loss and loneliness. The Holocaust is merely a backdrop to Leah's life. Together, the two women share joy in the legacy that Leah leaves for the world.

A FATEFUL CHOICE: My Survival Story


Abraham Rozenzveig - 2015
     A decision is made that changes the course of his and his family’s lives, sealing their fates forever. Hiding deep in the foul swamps and murky forests of Belarus, Avramele endures abandonment and terrible loneliness. But with incredible courage for such a young child, with the help of a remarkable family and a little bit of luck, a strong willed and resilient boy emerges from his dark and painful past. Trekking across war-torn Europe, through refugee camps and an Alpine orphanage, crossing stormy seas and suffering imprisonment in Cyprus, Avramele (Abraham) reclaims his life on the shores of Israel.

Anne Frank: Life and Legacy


Jemma J. Saunders - 2015
     In 1945, at the age of fifteen she died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, becoming one of the six million Jews who were murdered in Europe under the Nazi regime. But through her writing her memory lives on. Her ‘Diary of a Young Girl’ remains one of the most widely read non-fiction books in the world and was described as ‘one of the greatest books of the last century’. Anne started keeping a diary shortly before she went into hiding with her family in 1942, and over the course of two years she honed her craft as a writer, documenting the details of their daily lives alongside her personal reflections, fears, and aspirations. By chance, the majority of her writings were saved after the family was arrested and in 1947, after much deliberation, her father, Otto, oversaw the publication of the first edition of her diary in the Netherlands. Within a decade, it had become an international bestseller. First adapted for both stage and screen in the 1950s, awareness and readership of Anne’s diary continued to grow and its author became a household name, gradually acquiring something of a symbolic status. 70 years on ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ still resonates just as powerfully with young and old readers alike. Jemma Saunders goes beyond Anne’s diary to fill in the gaps about her family history, her life before she went into hiding, and her final months at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. A sobering tale, Anne Frank’s story is one that will continue to inspire generations of readers for decades to come. Jemma J Saunders works at the University of Birmingham. She is also the author of ‘The Holocaust: History in an Hour’. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

The Strange Ways of Providence In My Life


Krystyna Carmi - 2015
    Her childhood was filled with friends, both Polish and Ukrainian girls, that played games with her. She attended a Ukrainian school, participated in school celebrations; she lived a normal, everyday life. In her memoire, published after many years of silence, Krystyna Carmi shows the history of her family and her life. The book contains more than 100 pictures, taken by Krystyna’s father, a professional photographer, and sent it to their family in Israel before the war.Krystyna was gifted with an amazing memory and as such was able to recall the atmosphere of those days, describing in details the appearance of a household; and if that wasn’t enough, Krystyna Carmi writes about something very rare, the smells she remembered from childhood. Walking with her on the streets of pre-war Obertyn, we get to know the Jews, the Ukrainians, and the Poles and the social and material conditions of their lives, as well as their names and surnames. Krystyna Carmi paints a psychological portrait of these people; she writes about how they dressed, what they ate, what their attitude towards others was, and above all, towards God. She writes about things seemingly trivial, however when looking back, they are incredibly significant.But the happy childhood did not last long. The first days of war brought overall fear and panic, the entrance of Red Army soldiers to Obertyn, the arrest of Polish patriots, liquidation of Jewish shops, the gradual growth into a more difficult reality of occupation, the Hungarian army in Obertyn, Jews murdered by Ukrainians in the local towns, incredible photos of the members of the Jewish community, drowning in the Dniester by Ukrainians. However, the worst was still ahead of the Jewish community in Obertyn and her family. First, the Germans, then the Kołomyja ghetto. She was with her parents as well as her maternal and paternal grandfathers. The life conditions in which Obertyn Jews had to live are described in the poem Molasa ”" Ghetto Sweets; she shows in a fictile, detailed way, psychophysical suffering caused by hunger.People died in the ghetto because of hunger and physical exhaustion; their bodies were collected on a platform. These deaths do not escape the attention of a sensitive and suffering girl, who years later will write a poem with the title In Remembrance of Innocently Suffering People of Different Ages and Sexes from Kołomyja Ghetto; a picture of the platform will stay in her memory forever. "The open mouth and eyes of these human corpses have been hunting me all my life."Then she returned from the ghetto with her parents, and escaped from Obertyn, following by her sisters’ death, which she described in a very suggestive way in her poems: Black Kamionka Forest. Part I Testimony and Black Kamionka Forest. Part II Curse). Her parents’ death, hiding, hunger, thirst, fear for life, then indifference as time goes by because life is hard. It would be easier to part with the world, but The Strange Ways of Providence in her Life has chosen for her to live, to be. This is how you could present in short, the content of Krystyna Carmi’s memoire. The memoire are interspersed with the cover of Doctor Markus Willbach, a friend of the Sorger family to emphasize the authenticity of Krystyna Carmi’s (maiden name: Sorger) memories as the images, situations, and events witnessed by her as a little girl coincide with Doctor Willbach’s account, an a

The Third Reich in History and Memory


Richard J. Evans - 2015
    In this brilliant and eye-opening collection, Richard J. Evans, the acclaimed author of the Third Reich trilogy, offers a criticalcommentary on that transformation, exploring how major changes in perspective have informed research and writing on the Third Reich in recent years.Drawing on his most notable writings from the last two decades, Evans reveals the shifting perspectives on Nazism's rise to political power, its economic intricacies, and its subterranean extension into postwar Germany. Evans considers how the Third Reich is increasingly viewed in a broaderinternational context, as part of the age of imperialism; discusses the growing emphasis on the larger economic and cultural circumstances of the era; and emphasizes the development of research into Nazi society, particularly in the understanding of Nazi Germany as a political system based onpopular approval and consent. Exploring the complex relationship between memory and history, Evans also points out the places where the growing need to confront the misdeeds of Nazism and expose the complicity of those who participated has led to crude and sweeping condemnation, when insteadhistorians should be making careful distinctions.Written with Evans' sharp-eyed insight and characteristically compelling style, these essays offer a summation of the collective cultural memory of Nazism in the present, and suggest the degree to which memory must be subjected to the close scrutiny of history.

Mister Doctor


Irène Cohen-Janca - 2015
    Korczak abandon the children of the Warsaw Ghetto.November 1940. A circus parade walks through the streets of Warsaw, waving a flag and singing. They are 160 Jewish children, forced by the Nazis to leave their beloved orphanage. It’s a sad occasion, but led by Doctor Korczak, their inspirational director, the children are defiantly joyful.Their new home is in the ghetto, a prison for Jews. Day by day, more people arrive. Some are forced to live on the street and freeze to death. Others die of disease and starvation, Though they lack food, warmth, and freedom, the children’s spirits are sustained by the steadfast respect and kindness of “Mister” Doctor.But the Jewish children will never grow up: in August 1942, they board the train that will carry them away to the death camps. Offered his freedom, Doctor Korczak refuses to abandon the children and proudly joins them on their last journey.This profoundly moving illustrated book is based on the true story of the celebrated Polish educator, writer, and doctor Janusz Korczak. His works inspired the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the UN in 1959.With mood-setting artwork and lyrical text, Mister Doctor allows young readers to meet the remarkable man whose humanity and bravery still stand as a glimmer of light in one of history’s darkest periods.

I Survived Hell On Earth [Illustrated Edition]


Leon Niescior - 2015
    He had been guilty of small-time political agitation as a part of the Polish Underground movement; but the full weight of the Nazi secret police bore down on him for his helping a Jewish girl escape a death sentence. Beaten and tortured at Lublin prison, he was sentenced to serve his time at Auschwitz, a death sentence that somehow he survived. Filled with the details of the horrendous conditions of Auschwitz, the author relates his time spent under the brutal SS regime for political prisoners in this autobiography. Witness to the gas chambers, selections and casual barbarism of Auschwitz-Birkenau close by, that claimed so many lives, Nieiscor endured beatings that knocked out his teeth, starvation that left him a shell of himself, this is not for the faint-hearted.

Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp


Leonard Berney - 2015
    T.D. is the only book to be published that recounts the events that led up to the British Army’s uncovering of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp and its 60,000 prisoners, how the Army dealt with the unprecedented horror that existed in the camp, how the surviving prisoners were rescued, how the inmates were evacuated, how the Royal Army Medical Corps established the world’s largest hospital to care for the many thousands of sick and emaciated ex-inmates, how the survivors were rehabilitated and cared for, how they were repatriated to their own countries, why many thousand refused to return ‘home’ and the eventual establishment of the Belsen Displaced Persons camp, the largest DP camp in Germany. The author of this book was a senior British Army officer who participated in the liberation of the Camp, who was in charge of evacuating the ex-prisoners to the vast Rehabilitation Camp that the Army set up, and who was then appointed as the Commandant of that Camp until its management was handed over to the United Nations, and who gave evidence against the SS guards at the Belsen War Crimes Trial. Forewords by Nanette Blitz Konig, Belsen survivor and former classmate of Anne Frank, and Major-General Nicholas Eeles CBE, with the introduction by the Oscar®-nominated film director, Joshua Oppenheimer.

The Safest Lie


Angela Cerrito - 2015
    Anna draws the attention of Jolanta—the code name for the real-life Resistance spy Irena Sendler, who smuggled hundreds of children out of the ghetto. Jolanta wants to help Anna escape. Anna's mother drills her day and night, teaching her a new identity, that of Roman Catholic Anna Karwolska. Soon Anna is whisked out of Warsaw to a Catholic orphanage and then to a foster family.Anna's story is a suspenseful and deeply moving account of the sacrifices endured, the dangers faced, and the heroism demonstrated by courageous young victims, their parents and their saviors. It sheds light on yet another tragedy of the Holocaust: rescued children who lost not only their loved ones, but their very identities and Jewish heritage.

Where You Go, I Go: The Astonishing Life of Dr. Jacob Eisenbach, Holocaust Survivor and 92-year-old Full-Time Dentist


Karen McCartney - 2015
    This is the story of two brothers clinging together for survival after their family perished in the wrath of the Third Reich. Younger brother Sam clings to Jacob and voluntarily boards the Nazi death train with his brother when they came for Jacob. They struggled horrifically, and when the dust cleared at war's end, only one of them survived. Dr. Eisenbach is a 92-year old dentist practicing in Southern California. His fascinating and terrifying story is a page-turner. He has shared his longevity secrets and his sunny philosophy, as well as his forgiveness of his Nazi tormentors.

One Voice, Two Lives: From Auschwitz Prisoner to Airborne Trooper


David Wisnia - 2015
    

The Weight of Freedom


Nate Leipciger - 2015
    After the war. The words blended into the clang of the wheels. Would there ever be an end to the war?"Nate Leipciger, a thoughtful, shy eleven-year-old boy, is plunged into an incomprehensible web of ghettos, concentration and death camps during the German occupation of Poland. As he struggles to survive, he forges a new, unbreakable bond with his father and yearns for a free future. But when he is finally liberated, the weight of his pain will not ease, and his memories remain etched in tragedy. Introspective, complicated and raw, The Weight of Freedom is Nate's journey through a past that he can never leave behind.

A Cup of Honey: The Story of a Young Holocaust Survivor, Eliezer Ayalon


Neile Sue Friedman - 2015
    I told him that I had not been able to tell my story. He said that it was my obligation to speak out and to tell the world about the Holocaust. He told me that I had survived for a reason-to tell the world what had happened to my family and to me. Suddenly I remembered that my mother had once told me the same thing-that it was beshert, or meant to be, that I survive to tell the story of my family.” -Eliezer Ayalon For ten-year-old Lazorek Hershenfis in Radom, Poland, life with his family is joyful. Lazorek’s father, Israel (known as “Srul”) operates a leather-cutting business from the front of the family’s sparsely furnished, one0romm apartment, and the family spends idyllic summers harvesting fruit from orchards in the nearby countryside. His brothers Mayer and Abush work as tailors to supplement the family’s income, slipping Lazorek occasional pocket money for the movies with friends. Lazorek’s sister Chaya is a kindergarten teacher and a playmate especially cherished, whether the game is catch the homemade balls of the challenging “strulkies” with stones. A deeply respected healer in the community, Lazorek’s beautiful mother Rivka shows him the meaning of caring unselfishly for others, from the breastfeeding the child of an ill friend as if it were her own and preparing special food for Lazorek himself to making middle-of-the-night visits to help sick neighbor. But what is given does not always appear to be returned in kind, as Lazorek discovers on his journey into the ghetto and the concentration camps. Although Lazorek’s father and mother sell much of their jewelry and silver for cash to pay for a visa to Palestine the British mandatory government denies the application. It is then that they lose hope of a better life, and according to Lazorek, events begin to happen so quickly that he runs out of time to be afraid. Lazorek survives and journeys to Palestine, taking the name Eliezer Ayalon. A new life begins.. . but can memories be forgotten? With “A Cup of Hone,” Neile Sue Friedman and Eliezer Ayalon impart the richness and endurance of the family love that inspires the Holocaust survivor to perpetuate the lives of those he lost by telling their story. “Neile played an essential role in bringing my part of this history to lights,” notes Mr. Ayalon. “I hope that by reading my story, as well as others like it, the next generation will learn the lessons of the Holocaust—that hate and intolerance were defeated by hope and courage.”

Tunnel, Smuggle, Collect: A Holocaust Boy


Jeffrey N. Gingold - 2015
     Based on the hidden and illuminating video and audio recordings of interviews with the author’s father and grandmother, Tunnel, Smuggle, Collect: A Holocaust Boy (2nd edition) tells the true and tormenting story of a 7-year-old boy during the Holocaust. When Germany occupied Poland in 1939, he and his family were confined to the Warsaw Ghetto, along with 400,000 other Jews. Young Sam Gingold helps his family survive by smuggling food and medicines, and as the war continues, is forced to labor under Nazi rule in the walled city within a city. After a harrowing underground escape, the family is pursued by the Gestapo across the Polish countryside. A compelling, poignant story of courage, resilience, and determination. For the Gingold family, “survivor” is a living word.

Youth in Flames: A Teenager's Resistance and Her Fight for Survival in the Warsaw Ghetto


Aliza Vitis-Shomron - 2015
    In September 1939, when the Nazis began their reign of terror in Europe and invaded Poland, Aliza was eleven years old. In her diaries—furtively written on scraps of precious paper that she kept throughout the war—she described the history of her family, struggling to survive in the occupied Warsaw Ghetto. Those diaries and later writings formed the basis for this memoir. Becoming a member of Hashomer Hatzair, the noted youth movement in the Warsaw Ghetto, gave Aliza hope and encouraged her to fight for survival. As a result of an extraordinary series of “miracles,” Aliza managed to survive after being sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She was among those liberated by American troops, and she has continued to tell the story throughout her life. Aliza is among the last of the Warsaw Ghetto survivors. She has been passionately lecturing around the world about the revolt, and she has escorted numerous youth groups on their visits to Poland. This book has been previously translated and published in Hungarian, Polish, and Hebrew.

Imprisoned: Drawings from Nazi Concentration Camps


Arturo Benvenuti - 2015
    His plan—his own Viae Crucis—was to meet with as many former prisoners of Nazi-fascist concentration camps as he could. He wanted not only to learn their stories, but to learn from their stories.He met with dozens of survivors from Auschwitz, Terezín, Mauthausen-Gusen, Buchenwald, Dachau, Gonars, Monigo, Renicci, Banjica, Ravensbrück, Jasenovac, Belsen, and Gurs. Many of these men and women shared their memories with Benvenuti along with artwork they’d created during their internment with pencil, ink, and charcoal.After four decades of research, Benvenuti presented these original black-and-white pieces in Imprisoned. This stunning collection provides visuals that oftentimes even the most eloquent words and sentences cannot convey.In his foreword, chemist, writer, and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi highlighted the importance of these reproductions, stating, “some have the immediate power of art; all have the raw power of the eye that has seen and that transmits its indignation.”

From Yellow Star to Pop Star: How one young girl survived the Holocaust and became a singing sensation


Dorit Oliver-Wolff - 2015
    By six years old she was in hiding from the German soldiers who were rounding up and transporting her fellow Jews to concentration camps around Europe. Years of terror follow, with narrow escapes from capture and bombing raids plus betrayals by those she thought were her friends until, at last, she and her mother are rescued from the basement flat in which they are hiding. Singing helps her survive those dark days. But the Holocaust is only part of Dorit’s amazing story. After the war, stateless and without papers, she joins a touring dance troupe in order to be permitted to travel. She studies by day and sings and dances in seedy clubs by night until a talent scout spots her… and then her story really begins. Tense, moving and inspirational, Dorit’s remarkable story moves the reader through fear and horror, to freedom and joy and shows how the bravery and fortitude of one little Jewish girl helped her survive the Holocaust and become a star.

No Heil Hitler!


Paul Cieslar - 2015
    They were in strict formation, one slightly in front of the other, as if taking part in a demonstration, barely above ground level. I could see the grey fuselage, the pilots in the cockpits and the ominous black crosses on the wings. The noise alone felt like it would shake all my teeth out. I saw the flicker of flames as the first plane fired its guns, and heard the trees above my head splintering as the stream of bullets hit them. Branches toppled down, Cattle panicked. Leaves and twigs sprayed across the field. The ricocheting bullets whined around the valley." War had come to Poland and 10-year-old Paul's life had suddenly changed. Forced to abancon any outward allegiance to their Polish heritage and Seventh-day Adventist faith, Paul's family were determined to keep obedience to God foremost.

The Boy From Auschwitz: A touching story of tragedy


A Survivor - 2015
    officer. Without expression he recorded particulars: the names, former addresses, dates of birth, occupation, etc. of each one of us. It was not until eleven a.m. on Thursday morning, exactly twenty-four hours after our capture in the castle at Mariathal, that we were allowed into the barracks for a rest.I stayed but a few minutes with my parents, and then I left the barracks for a cautious exploration of our cage. My first object was to try to establish the number of inmates interned in this particular camp. To my great horror I soon learned that the previous day a transport of a thousand people had been sent to Auschwitz which included my eldest sister, Ilonka, her husband, Romi, and their five small children.

Out Of The Ashes: The Story Of A Survivor


Leon Thorne - 2015
     While there have been literally thousands of books written about and by the life of the Jews during the years when six million Jews were wiped out in concentration and extermination camps, few volumes are as authentic and as stark as Out of the Ashes; Rabbi Thorne not only possesses total recall; he owns a literary style which brings to life a period which shall forever be remembered as one of the most dramatic eras in human existence. But this is more than a personal document. It represents the agony of an entire people and even the reader who thinks he knows what happened under Hitler will gasp in amazement at this story of a man who, deeply religious and faithful to the precepts of Orthodox Judaism, manages to retell the tale of a handful of years which saw men, women and children subjected to atrocities beyond human imagination. You will read in this book of moments of heroism, self-sacrifice and destruction which you will always remember. You will be convinced that this is exactly how it was and you will marvel at how the author managed to survive scores of “Actions” and pogroms. You will wonder how he survived. But at the same time, you will understand how, in surviving, Rabbi Thorne held fast to his belief in the ultimate triumph of the Jewish people. Although Out of the Ashes is full of sadness, it is also replete with stories of the victory of the human spirit. It is a valuable historical document; it is, for sheer story-telling, unsurpassed by any other writer who lived through these years. It is the story of one man, of an entire people and of a history which all mankind would do well to ponder. Out of the Ashes is a major book, a great contribution to the literature of our time.— Print Ed.

North to Freedom


Karen Meyer - 2015
    From spine-tingling sounds coming from the dark woods to slave catchers hot on their trail, fear is their constant companion. Can Moses and Tom trust the two men on horseback who offer them aid? Across the Ohio River in Ripley, young Will Butler fears the consequences of the Fugitive Slave Law if he helps runaways. But after hearing Rev. John Rankin's compelling message, the entire Butler family becomes a link in the Underground Railroad. Grampa told the boys to trust God, but will Grampa's prayers be enough to get them safely through the snake-filled Great Black Swamp? A life or death decision stands between them and the steamship at Lake Erie. Will Moses and Tom ever be free?

Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Nazi Concentration Camp


Mark Celinscak - 2015
    With breathtaking thoroughness, Distance from the Belsen Heap documents what they saw and how they came to terms with those images over the course of the next seventy years. On the basis of research in more than seventy archives in four countries, Mark Celinscak analyses how these military personnel struggled with the intense experience of the camp; how they attempted to describe what they had seen, heard, and felt to those back home; and how their lives were transformed by that experience. He also brings to light the previously unacknowledged presence of hundreds of Canadians among the camp’s liberators, including noted painter Alex Colville.Distance from the Belsen Heap examines the experiences of hundreds of British and Canadian eyewitnesses to atrocity, including war artists, photographers, medical personnel, and chaplains. A study of the complicated encounter between these Allied soldiers and the horrors of the Holocaust, Distance from the Belsen Heap is a testament to their experience.

The Life of Anne Frank


Anne Frank House - 2015
    Life of Anne Frank

A Detail of History: The harrowing true story of a boy who survived the Nazi Holocaust


Arek Hersh MBE - 2015
    

Hell Before Their Very Eyes: American Soldiers Liberate Concentration Camps in Germany, April 1945


John C. McManus - 2015
    In the weeks that followed, as more camps were discovered, thousands of soldiers came face to face with the monstrous reality of Hitler’s Germany.These men discovered the very depths of human-imposed cruelty and depravity: railroad cars stacked with emaciated, lifeless bodies; ovens full of incinerated human remains; warehouses filled with stolen shoes, clothes, luggage, and even eyeglasses; prison yards littered with implements of torture and dead bodies; and―perhaps most disturbing of all―the half-dead survivors of the camps. For the American soldiers of all ranks who witnessed such powerful evidence of Nazi crimes, the experience was life altering. Almost all were haunted for the rest of their lives by what they had seen, horrified that humans from ostensibly civilized societies were capable of such crimes.Military historian John C. McManus sheds new light on this often-overlooked aspect of the Holocaust. Drawing on a rich blend of archival sources and thousands of firsthand accounts―including unit journals, interviews, oral histories, memoirs, diaries, letters, and published recollections― Hell Before Their Very Eyes focuses on the experiences of the soldiers who liberated Ohrdruf, Buchenwald, and Dachau and their determination to bear witness to this horrific history.

Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books


Mark Glickman - 2015
    Nazi soldiers and civilians emptied Jewish communal libraries, confiscated volumes from government collections, and stole from Jewish individuals, schools, and synagogues. Early in their regime the Nazis burned some books in spectacular bonfires, but most they saved, stashing the literary loot in castles, abandoned mine shafts, and warehouses throughout Europe. It was the largest and most extensive book-looting campaign in history. After the war, Allied forces discovered these troves of stolen books but quickly found themselves facing a barrage of questions. How could the books be identified? Where should they go? Who had the authority to make such decisions? Eventually the military turned the books over to an organization of leading Jewish scholars called Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc.—whose chairman was the acclaimed historian Salo Baron and whose on-the-ground director was the philosopher Hannah Arendt—with the charge of establishing restitution protocols. Stolen Words is the story of how a free civilization decides what to do with the material remains of a world torn asunder, and how those remains connect survivors with their past. It is the story of Jews struggling to understand the new realities of their post-Holocaust world and of Western society’s gradual realization of the magnitude of devastation wrought by World War II. Most of all, it is the story of people —of Nazi leaders, ideologues, and Judaica experts; of Allied soldiers, scholars, and scoundrels; and of Jewish communities, librarians, and readers around the world.

A Little Village Called Lidice: The Story of the the Return of the Women and Children of Lidice


Zdena Trinka - 2015
    The reprisal was ordered by Hitler following the assassination of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich on May 27, 1942 outside of Prague. On June 9, 1942, Gestapo and other German forces entered the small village of Lidice (chosen apparently at random by the Nazis), rounded up all men and male teenagers 15 and over, and executed them by firing squad (173 in all). Their bodies were placed in a common grave. Some women were also executed, with most transported to concentration camps. A handful of the approximately 100 village children were removed from their mothers to be raised by German families, but over 80 were sent to their death in the extermination camp at Chelmo, where they were placed in sealed trucks and gassed. Following the executions, the village was razed by fire, leveled by explosives, then bulldozed into rubble. The village's famous cherry orchards were also uprooted and destroyed, a small lake was filled-in, and a stream diverted. Grass was planted so that the village was, in effect, obliterated. At war's end, only a few women and 17 Lidice children survived to return to the village. Following the war, houses for a new Lidice were built near the site of the original village, and a memorial erected in honor of those who were killed.Author Zdena Trinka (1892-1967) was a native of North Dakota who wrote a number of additional books, mostly concerning the history of North Dakota. She escaped the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia while on a visit.

Henri's War: A Buchenwald Holocaust Story


A Survivor - 2015
     Readers Reviews: A powerful and detailed account and very chilling to the thought of human activity to other humans. Very gripping and hard to put down, a highly recommend book. A compelling read and an insight into mans inhumanity to man.it seems unbelievable today how one deranged lunatic in Berlin could cause such destruction and persuade people to act in such a barbaric fashion towards others. I found this to be a fascinating read. Recommended. From the Heart of a man. From the depths of Hell. A harrowing narration of the Worlds darkest hours. This book should be compulsory reading in Schools. We must never forget. Thank you for all of the amazing reviews and purchasing this eBook.

A Name Unbroken (The Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs)


Michael Mason - 2015
    Recruited into forced labour, sent to a ghetto and, ultimately, to the Nazi camps of Auschwitz and Mühldorf, Miklos never stopped fighting to change his fate. After the war, he risked everything in order to leave his past behind. Decades later, a chance meeting in Toronto led Miklos, now Michael Mason, to discover the power of his new name.

The Auschwitz Photographer


Anna Dobrowolska - 2015
    It tells the story of Wilhelm Brasse, who spent 5 years in the camp as a prisoner-photographer and was a unique witness to the Auschwitz reality. He took pictures of the inmates, made private portraits of his SS masters and documented the medical experiments of Doctor Mengele.Brasse’s experience has been the subject of a celebrated documentary “The Portraitist.” This book, in addition to recounting his personal narrative , explores many lesser-known aspects of daily life in the camp such as the orchestra, sports events and even a brothel. It is amply illustrated with 300 photographs, some published for the first time, and supplemented with accounts of other inmates as well as historical commentary.

Karski's Mission: To Stop the Holocaust


Rafael Medoff and Dean Motter - 2015
    He was twice smuggled to the Warsaw Ghetto and to a transit camp, where he witnessed Jews being herded onto cattle cars and sent off to their death. He then met with top leaders of the Western world to incite action. This fascinating story has elements of spy thriller and offers a fast-paced narration along with bold and dramatic illustrations. “Karski’s Mission” has received a Silver Medal by the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the Graphic Novel/Drawn Book – Drama/Documentary category.

Holocaust High Priest: Elie Wiesel, "Night," the Memory Cult, and the Rise of Revisionism (Holocaust Handbooks Book 30)


Warren B. Routledge - 2015
    Routledge, PhD., is the pen name of a retired U.S. university professor of humanities. He taught for over forty years and held tenured positions at three major U.S. universities. "Holocaust High Priest" weaves together five compelling and interrelated narratives. The book's main concern is to present the world's first unauthorized biography of Elie Wiesel. It shines the light of truth on the mythomaniac who, in the 1970s, transformed the word "Holocaust" and made it the brand name of the world's greatest hoax: the unfounded claim by an extremist segment of World Jewry to the effect that the German government's wartime policy of territorial transfer of Europe's Jews out of the Reich was in actuality an "extermination program." In these pages, both Wiesel's personal deceits and the whole myth of "the six million" are mercilessly exposed and laid bare for the reader's perusal. Unfortunately, Zionist control of the U.S. Government as well as the nation's media and academic apparatus has allowed Wiesel and his fellow extremists to force a string of U.S. presidents to genuflect before this imposter as symbolic acts of subordination to World Jewry, while simultaneously forcing U.S. school children to submit to Holocaust brainwashing by their teachers. The second strand involves close readings of several of Wiesel's published texts, with emphasis on his alleged "autobiography," the novel "Night." The author demonstrates Wiesel's appalling ignorance of both the physical details and layouts of the Auschwitz and Buchenwald camps, and this ignorance also extends to German administrative protocols and procedures. Amazingly, the novel's chronology of the events said to have "really happened" in the author's life is also disjointed, confusing and internally contradictory. The author also shows the role played by the meme of "retroactive continuity" in the telling of the Holocaust story. The third strand involves an historical account of the rise of Holocaust revisionism mainly in the U.S. and France in response to the many obvious lies contained in the Jewish Holocaust narrative. From the sudden appearance of the revisionist work of Profs. Butz and Faurisson in the 1970s, through the Zündel trials of the 1980s, to the work of contemporary revisionists like Bradley R. Smith, Germar Rudolf, Carlo Mattogno, Thomas Kues and others today, this study shows, through the words of the Holocaustian extremists themselves, how effective the revisionists have been in demolishing their lies. The fourth strand shows how certain ambitious and unscrupulous U.S. Catholic intellectuals have hitched a ride on the Holocaust bandwagon as a means of advancing their careers. Ritual denunciation of the alleged "silence" of Pope Pius XII is unfortunately very much a part of this behavior. Finally, the fifth strand concerns all those U.S. Jews, young and old, who have been turned off by one or another aspect of the Holocaust story and its use within the U.S. Jewish community, but who never criticize it openly for non-Jewish ears. As for younger U.S. Jews, Rabbi Jacob Neusner has been pointing out for years that it has not kept them Jewish. What he calls the "Holocaust and Redemption" cult within U.S. Jewry has contributed to a pronounced abandonment of Jewish identity through intermarriage with non-Jews at percentages never before seen or even imagined.

The Trumpets of Jericho


J. Michael Dolan - 2015
    Meet her and the rest of the heroes, and villains, in this epochal saga that will both thrill and horrify you at the heights and depths our unpredictable kind is capable of reaching. In Trumpets, the historian J. Michael Dolan has produced a work that he believes will stir you as deeply as its subject has him. In conjunction with bringing this epic tale to light, he explores, among other themes, religion and the existence of God, the psychology of genocide, friendship and romantic love, sexual and other pathologies, the nature of good and evil, right and wrong. Above all, he shows how the most monstrous crime ever committed was in the end no match for the indomitability, the grandeur of the human spirit."As moving as Schindler's List, horrific as Son of Saul, heroic as The Grey Zone... an adventure of a book destined itself for Hollywood." --Raja-Rao Literary Endowment

Who Betrayed the Jews?: The Realities of Nazi Persecution in the Holocaust


Agnes Grunwald-Spier - 2015
    In many cases they regarded themselves as Hungarians, Frenchmen, etc,. First and Jews second, so persecution came as a terrible shock to them. Many had fought for their country in the First World War, but this offered very little protection - not even for those awarded the Iron Cross. They were forced out of their professions and universities. Their neighbours and school friends betrayed them to the authorities. In turn the authorities 'legally' withdrew their rights and also stripped them of their possessions under Aryaniszation policies. Many who believed themselves to be Christian were affected by the Nazis' ruthless racial laws and foudn themselves and their children categorized as 'half-breeds'. Bodies such as the police and railway companies co-operated with the Nazis in transporting Jews to their detahs or to be subjected to unspeakable medical experiments. The betrayal did not end in 1945 as there is evidence of Holocaust survivors being attacked as they returned home.

Going Back: 16 Jewish women tell their life stories, and why they returned to Germany—the country that once wanted to kill them.


Andrea von Treuenfeld - 2015
    Fleeing the life-threatening policies of Nazi-era Germany, they escaped with the hope of a better life, relocating to countries around the world. A very different kind of diary, the book tells of the Jewish experience of the Holocaust with each chapter telling the story of a different woman, adapting to life as a refugee, and then an eventual return to Germany after the war.

In Their Own Words: Lasting Memories of the Holocaust Survivors


Anthony S. Pitch - 2015
    Who else will tell it?”Award-winning history author Anthony S. Pitch takes this plea to heart and presents survivors’ true accounts in his new work, In Their Own Words, to remind readers of the horrors that took place so they may never happen again.There are a wide variety of events and life circumstances among the over 400 compelling narratives. A GI who liberated Buchenwald said it was worse than a dream as he walked around like inmates “in a trance.” With their hair shaved off sisters standing side by side could not recognize each other. The tattooed number on a woman’s arm was thought by Texans, after the war, to be a reminder of a good time at a summer camp.In Their Own Words is directed at a new generation, too untutored to know much of anything about the Holocaust. It will surely add to the perspective of others who may regard the Holocaust as a remote and distant happening, too far removed from our modern age to have relevance.These are the words of those who knew. They lived it. They endured it. They saw it. And they survived it.

Like Finding My Twin: How An Eighth-Grade Class Reunited Two Holocaust Refugees


Fern Schumer Chapman - 2015
    Both 12-year-old girls were traveling alone and immediately became best friends. Unfortunately, the two unaccompanied minors lost touch after their arrival in 1938.Decades later, after a northern Illinois middle-school class read Is It Night or Day?, a historical novel that captures the two girls’ friendship, the students were so moved by the story that they made it a class project to reunite the two friends. Through pictures, historical documents, and storytelling, Like Finding My Twin captures the friendship of the two Holocaust refugees, the students’ research, and the remarkable reunion 73 years after Gerda and Edith shared their immigration journey.www.fernschumerchapman.com

The Sweet Dell: The True Story of One Family's Fight to Save Jews in Nazi-Occupied Holland


Nicholas John Briejer - 2015
    Pieter Schoorl listened to the heavy iron doors of a basement cell in the Gestapo's Amsterdam headquarters close behind him.  It had been easy for him to hide the first Jew—a blonde-haired, blue-eyed three-year-old.  And had Dr. Schoorl and his wife Anne helped only the one child, this would be a far simpler story.  But the pleas for help never ended.  Dutch commandoes met at the Schoorls' kitchen table, and shot-down Allied pilots shared breakfast with their five children.  Jews continually arrived at the Schoorls' farm unannounced in the dark of night.  The couple eventually filled their two homes with “guests.”  When there was no room left, they searched the countryside for more hiding places.   Nearly seven decades later their American grandson, Nicholas Briejer, travels to Europe in search of the grandparents he did not know.  Through the memories of Piet and Anne’s elderly children, he discovers not only their secluded farm, but the qualities of the heart that drove the couple to—in the words of his grandfather—do “what any man should.”

Escaping the Russian Bear: An Estonian Girl's Memoir of Loss and Survival During World War II


Kristina Von Rosenvinge - 2015
    This unprovoked criminal act occurred in what was technically peacetime, but the fragile relationship between the USSR and Finland and the occupation of Estonia by the Red Army, prevented further inquiry. All Kristina knew was that her mother would never return. When her father, serving in the German army, died on the Eastern Front, she was adopted by her aunt and uncle. They understood, after the deportations in 1940, that they had to escape occupied Estonia or be destroyed by the Russian Bear. This book is a fascinating and moving account of how the family first masqueraded as Baltic Germans, made their escape, and returned to Estonia, only to make another last-minute departure on a German troop ship on the last day before the Soviets returned to Estonia. Kristina’s family survived the war as it swept through Austria, and the days that followed were dominated by a search for enough food to eat. After winning their struggle for normal life and stability in Austria, they nevertheless decided to resettle in the United States. Estonia remained under communist occupation until 1991. Now, in 2015, Estonia is again concerned about Russian aggression.