Books for Children about the Holocaust

Compiled by Rabbi Amy R. Scheinerman

• Abells, Chana Byers, The Children We Remember. Maryland: Kar-Ben Copies, 1983. The volume records the story of children who died in, and survived ,the Holocaust. It does so through the use of photographs from the Yad VaShem Archives. The text is minimal and moving. The photographs are exceptional. Please be aware that there is a photograph of a child, in its parent's arms, being shot by a Nazi soldier. Some people believe that the Holocaust should be presented to very young children; others believe that children need more maturity to understand the Holocaust and not merely be frightened. Please consider this very carefully before sharing this book with your child. (Intended for young children)
• Adler, David A., The Number on My Grandfather's Arm. New York: UAHC, 1987. A grandfather tells his young granddaughter about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. Illustrated with photographs of the grandfather and his granddaughter and three photos from the Nazi era. A simple telling of the basic facts of the Holocaust. (age 5-7)
• Adler, David A., We Remember the Holocaust. Henry Holt and Company, 1989. This book chronicles the Holocaust through the voices of those who experienced it. Contains many photographs.
• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne Frank came of age during the Holocaust, where she lived in hiding for two years with her family. During that time, she kept a diary, in which she records her personal experiences. (age 11 and up)
• Appleman-Jurman, Alicia, Alicia: My Story. Bantam Books, 1988. Alicia was only 13 years old when she began saving the lives of people she didn't know, while she herself attempted to flee Poland. Her story and her courage are inspiring.
• Auerbach, Inge, I am a Star: Child of the Holocaust. Prentice-Hall, 1986. An autobiographical account of a child survivor of the concentration camps.
• Bernbaum, Israel, My Brother's Keeper. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1985. An artist tells the story of the Holocaust through his own paintings, concentrating on the Warsaw Ghetto.
• Bush, Lawrence, Rooftop Secrets and Other Stories of Anti-Semitism. New York: UAHC, 1986. The stories in this book span from 1492-1986. Included is a story about the Nazi era. (age 10 and up)
• Drucker, Malka and Michael Halperin, Jacob's Rescue. Jacob and his brothers are sheltered during the Holocaust by a non-Jewish family who risk their lives and sacrifice much to save the children. (age 10 and up)
• Finkelstein, Norman, Remember Not to Forget. New York: Franklin Watts, 1985. This volume gives the facts of the Holocaust in a very direct manner. The author emphasizes the importance of remembering as a means to prevent a future reoccurrence of the Holocaust. (For young children)
• Gies, Miep, Anne Frank Remembered. Simon & Schuster, 1987. This is the account of the hiding of Anne Frank and her family from the perspective of the woman who hid, fed and protected the family until the Nazis uncovered their hiding spot. It provides the perspective of a non-Jew living under Nazi occupation. (age 12 and up)
• Herman, Erwin and Agnes, The Yanov Torah. Maryland: Kar-Ben Copies, 1985. The dramatic (and true!) story of a Torah scroll that was smuggled, parchment by parchment, into a Nazi work camp, and then 40 years later, out of the Soviet Union by a Jew who emigrated to the United States. (Age 8+)
• Isaacman, Clara, Clara's Story. The Jewish Publication Society, 1984. The autobiographical account of a young girl's escape, with her family, from Nazi persecution in Belgium.
• Johnston, Tony, The Harmonica. Charlesbridge, 2004. The true story of Henryk Rosmaryn is told for very young children: When the Nazis invaded Poland, his family was torn apart. Separated from his parents, he was sent to a concentration camp where he played Schubert on the harmonica for the brutal commandant of the camp, and sustaining his fellow prisoners with sweet music. The harmonica, a gift from his father, helped him survive. Ron Mazellan's artwork powerfully conveys the emotions of the story. (Age 6-9)
• Klein, Gerda Weissmann, Promise of a New Spring. New York: Rossel Books, 1981. This book compares the Holocaust with a devastating forest fire. It emphasizes the enormous destruction of the Holocaust and teaches children that they are the "new spring" which comes, even after a forest fire. (For young children)
• Koehn, Ilse, Micshling, second degree: My Childhood in Nazi Germany: Puffin Books, 1977. Ilse Koehn was classified as a "mischling, second degree" meaning that she had one Jewish grandparent. During the war, her parents taught her to pretend she was a loyal German, even joining the Hitler Youth Movement. Her story of the war years provides another perspective on the Holocaust.
• Kuchler-Silberman, Lena, My Hundred Children. Bantam Doubleday, 1987. The autobiographical account of a woman who rescued a small army of Jewish children from Poland and brought them to live in Israel.
• Linnea, Sharon, Raoul Wallenberg. Raoul Wallenberg was a young, Swedish diplomat who took it as his personal mission to save Hungarian Jews from the Nazis. Using his diplomatic privileges and amassing a large staff of people to produce forged passports and documents, Wallenberg saved more than 100,000 Jews from extermination at the hands of Adolph Eichmann. (age 10 and up)
• Lowry, Lois, Number the Stars. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989. Historical fiction about the rescue of the Jews by the Danish people during World War II. A Newberry Medal winner. A book every child should read. (age 10 and up)
• Marvin, Isabel R., Bridge to Freedom. Fictitious story about a Jewish girl and a young Nazi deserter who stumble into the same cave toward the end of World War II and find they must trust each other and devise an escape plan together in order to survive. (age 10 and up)
• Meltzer, Milton, Rescue: The Story of How Gentiles Saved Jews in the Holocaust. Twelve accounts of courageous gentiles who not only refused to help the Nazis, but worked to save Jews at great risk to themselves. The stories are thrilling, terrifying and inspiring. (age 10 and up)
• Perl, Lila, and Marion Blumenthal Lazar, Four Perfect Pebbles.Greenwillow Books, 1996. Perl tells the story of Marion Blumenthal Lazan's family's experience during the Holocaust, including their efforts to escape Nazi Germany, their time in Westerbork in Holland, their internment in Bergen-Belsen, their status as refugees, and the eventual immigration to the U.S.A. Historical facts and explanations pertaining to the family's experience are clearly explained. The book is a superb account of one family's experience during the war years. (age 10+) Marion Blumenthan maintains a website in connection with the book. I recommend visiting it.
• Ransom, Candice, So Young to Die: The Story of Hannah Senesh. New York: Scholastic, 1993. Hannah Senesh left Europe to emigrate to Palestine, but her family remained in Hungary. During the war, she joined the British army and parachuted behind enemy lines to help her people. She was captured by the Germans and tortured to death. Her story, though it ends sadly, is an inspiring tale of courage, vision, and integrity.
• Reiss, The Journey Back.
• Reiss, The Upstairs Room. Thomas Y. Crowell, 1972. As a child in Holland during the Holocaust, Johanna Reiss and her older sister spent years hiding upstairs in the house of a Gentile farm family. Reiss avoids painting people as saints or villains, and includes a short epilogue describing her visit with the family years later, bringing her own girls to see where she hid during the war. This book is a good alternative choice for children who would not be able to handle some of the themes in Anne Frank's diary. The reader for the audiobook version is excellent at portraying the various characters.
• Roseman, Kenneth, Escape from the Holocaust. New York: UAHC, 1985. A Do-It-Yourself Jewish adventure book in which the reader makes decisions that faced Jews during the Nazi era and discovers what happened to different people during the Holocaust. (age 10 and up)
• Roth-Hano, Renee, Touch Wood. Four Winds Press, 1988. The autobiographical account of a young girl who survived the Holocaust in occupied France, living much of the time in a Catholic monastery.
• Schloss, Eva's Story. England: Castle-Kent, 1988. A Holocaust survivor's story engagingly told. Schloss was a friend of Anne Frank. (11 and up)
• Schur, Maxine, Hannah Szenes--a Song of Light. The Jewish Publication Society, 1986. The biography of an extraordinary young woman who, raised in Hungary, immigrated to Palestine, but returned to Nazi Europe in 1943 to help the Jewish resistance fighters. She parachuted into Nazi territory and was eventually captured and tortured to death by the Nazis. (age 10 and up)
• Schnur, Steven, The Tie Man's Miracle. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1995. On the last night of Chanukah, Mr. Hoffman arrives to sell his neckties. Staying longer than he expects, he shares with 7-year-old Seth the story of how he lost his family in the Holocaust, as well as a story about a Chanukah miracle. This book is suitable for very young children.
• Suhl, Yuri, Uncle Misha's Partisans. Historical fiction account of a young boy whose family is killed by Nazis and who seek revenge by joining a group of resistance fighters, engaging in many dangerous missions during the Holocaust. This book is both exciting and suspenseful. (age 10 and up)
• Vos, Ida, Anna Is Still Here. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993. The war is over, but Anna is still haunted by the years she spent separated from her parents in hiding from the Nazis. The book deals with her readjustment after the war.
• Vos, Ida, Hide and Seek. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991. Tells the story of one Jewish family under German occupation. Through the eyes of the daughter, Rachel, we see the increased restrictions placed on Jews. Finally, the family leaves their home and goes into hiding.
• Wiesel, Elie, Night. Wiesel's account of his personal experience in the concentration camps when he was a teenager. (age 11 and up)
• Yolen, Jane, The Devil's Arithmetic. Hannah does not understand the significance of Passover until she is transported through time to a Polish village in the 1040's, and taken away to a concentration camp along with all the Jews from the village. This book won a national Jewish Book Award. (age 9 and up)
• Zar, Rose, In the Mouth of the Wolf. The Jewish Publication Society, 1983. The autobiographical account of a young Jewish woman from Poland who escaped the ghetto and survived the war by pretending to be Gentile.

Holocaust: An End to Innocence -- visit Seymour Rossel's website which provides a complete introduction to the Holocaust and its meaning that can be read by students and their parents alike.