BookDragon Holocaust Tag

A Rebel in Auschwitz: The True Story of the Resistance Hero Who Fought the Nazis from Inside the Camp by Jack Fairweather [in School Library Journal]

22 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Biography, European, Jewish, Nonfiction, Polish, Repost, Young Adult Readers

What’s immediately striking here is the casting of a woman to narrate: the titular rebel is the Polish hero – a man – Witold Pilecki. So, too, is the author, Jack Fairweather, who adapted his 2019 award-winning The Volunteer. The reasons for choosing a female...

I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One to Say Sorry To: Stories by Mikołaj Grynberg, translated by Sean Gasper Bye [in Shelf Awareness]

05 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Eastern European, European, Fiction, Jewish, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

Photographer/psychologist/author Mikołaj Grynberg is best known in his native Poland for his documentary nonfiction featuring his generation of Polish Jews, born after the Holocaust and raised by survivors. Grynberg turns to fiction for the first time with I'd Like to Say Sorry, but There's No One...

A Play for the End of the World by Jai Chakrabarti [in Shelf Awareness]

12 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Eastern European, European, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Time, geographies, and backgrounds all seem to flow effortlessly through Jai Chakrabarti's exquisite debut novel, A Play for the End of the World. At its core is the provenance of a possible love story between two strangers in New York City. Interwoven into this uncertain...

The Teacher by Michal Ben-Naftali, translated by Daniella Zamir [in Booklist]

04 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Biography, European, Fiction, Israeli, Jewish, Repost, Translation

“Elsa Weiss left no testimony behind” when she jumped to her death some 30 years ago. She remains a recorded name, one of the 1,684 Jews on the infamous Kastner train that left Budapest, Hungary, in June 1944; she was among the 1,670 passengers to...

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris [in Booklist]

10 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Australian, European, Fiction, Jewish, Repost

“Choosing to live is an act of defiance, a form of heroism,” Lale assures his lover Gita. The pair are both Slovakian Jews, trapped in the hell of Auschwitz-Birkenau. As the death camp’s Tätowierer – the tattooist who scars prisoners with everlasting numbers – Lale...

The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe, translated by Lilit Thwaites

26 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Jewish, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Spanish novelist Arturo Iturbe transforms real-life Holocaust survivor Dita Kraus into 14-year-old Edita Adler, forcibly sent to Auschwitz with her parents. She’s assigned to Block 31, a wooden hut where the children of the ignominiously named “family camp” are sent to be “entertained” while parents...

Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit

25 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Audio, European, Fiction, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

Anna is 7 when her father disappears. In 1939 Krakow, Poland, being Jewish is enough to condemn people to death. When the Swallow Man appears – so named for his ability to conjure and communicate with birds – the unlikely pair reluctantly recognize in each other not...

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys [in School Library Journal]

08 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, European, Fiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW While the Titanic and Lusitania are both well-documented disasters, the single greatest tragedy in maritime history is the little-known 1945 sinking by Soviet torpedoes of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise liner that was supposed to ferry wartime personnel and refugees to safety. The...

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende, translated by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson [in Library Journal]

09 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, European, Fiction, Japanese American, Jewish, Latina/o/x, Repost, Translation

Multiple narratives swirl around Alma Belasco, a Polish teenager who escaped the Nazis in 1939 and arrived in San Francisco to share a privileged life with an indulgent aunt and uncle. Now 73, Alma is a favorite resident in a senior facility, devotedly looked after...

Mister Doctor: Janusz Korczak and the Orphans of the Warsaw Ghetto by Irène Cohen-Janca, illustrated by Maurizio A.C. Quarello, translated by Paula Ayer

22 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, European, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Translation, Young Adult Readers

While this summer's Justice League and Fantastic Four make for great celluloid entertainment, for true inspiration, Mister Doctor – as Dr. Janucz Korczak was called by his beloved children – is a real life superhero to be admired and emulated. His accomplishments beyond doctoring included also being a scholar,...

Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba by Margarita Engle

23 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Cuban, Cuban American, Fiction, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

In case you've missed the recent headlines, Cuba has been in the news a lot: "We are separated by 90 miles of water, but are brought together through shared relationships and the desire to promote a democratic, prosperous, and stable Cuba," a recent official White...

The Whispering Town by Jennifer Elvgren, illustrated by Fabio Santomauro

14 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Children/Picture Books, European, Jewish, Nonfiction

Sometimes, whispers can speak more loudly than any shouts and screams ...

Hidden Like Anne Frank: 14 True Stories of Survival by Marcel Prins & Peter Henk Steenhuis, translated by Laura Watkinson

01 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in European, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Anne Frank, the world's most famous hidden child during the Holocaust, was one of 28,000 Jews in the Netherlands alone who went into hiding. She was one of 12,000 who were betrayed and didn't survive. Among the 16,000 who lived, was award-winning filmmaker and cameraman...

Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón

20 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Biography, European, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

Some time in the recent past, a video link came through that began with birthday wishes for Anne Frank, as if she had miraculously survived the Holocaust and lived many fulfilling decades. [I can't seem to find the link again, so if anyone recognizes the description...

Soldier Doll by Jennifer Gold

12 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Canadian, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Young Adult Readers

Canadian lawyer/author Jennifer Gold’s debut novel starts with such promise: a contemporary teenager's discovery of the eponymous "soldier doll" is interwoven with the doll's near-century-long journey from Europe to the U.S. to Vietnam, landing in a garage sale in Toronto to be bargained for a mere...

Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust by Loïc Dauvillier, illustrated by Marc Lizano, color by Greg Salsedo, translated by Alexis Siegel

31 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, European, Fiction, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Preorder this title now and you can stop reading here ...

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian

09 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Armenian American, Audio, European, Fiction, Jewish

Every so often, I seem to get on a specific reading spree on a topic not exactly of my choosing – that is, the books seem to serendipitously line up on their own. The latest batch of they-chose-me-titles have been set during the final brutal months...

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

08 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, European, Fiction

Confession: If I didn't have to read Elizabeth Wein's follow-up to her breath-wringing adventure, Code Name Verity, I would have kept Rose Under Fire under wraps, hidden somewhere amidst my must-read pile, and just be content with basking in the potential promise of a satisfying 'gawwww' sometime...

Shelter and Seconds Away [Mickey Bolitar series] by Harlan Coben

30 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Fiction, Jewish, Young Adult Readers

If you're needing a Myron Bolitar fix – Harlan Coben, the first author to win an Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony (three of the top awards for mystery writers), seems to be taking a break from his most persistent protagonist after 10 volumes – then this new series...

Odette’s Secrets by Maryann Macdonald

27 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in European, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Poetry, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

I'm compelled to start backwards with a number: 84. As children's writer (more than 25 times over) Maryann Macdonald explains in her ending "Author's Note," 84% of French children survived the horrors of World War II; in fact, "more children survived in France than in any other...