I am working on building a personal Holocaust library for myself in my home.  I already have about 35 books in my library.  I have most of the most common like Night by Elie Wiesel, Anne Frank, The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.....

I am looking for mostly Non-Fiction, but I am also looking for important fiction as well.  If anyone has anything that they think would appeal to me for my collection, please let me know.  If it can be patched up and read, that works.  The book can be unpostable. I have paperback, hardback, library binding, books held together by the grace of God and some tape (LOL), etc.

I find a lot of the books I trade in thrift shops on the weekends and I usually find one good book about the Holocaust or about the Third Reich each weekend, but I am still looking for more.  Let me know if you can think of something. If I don't already have the book and it can be read and the binding is intact mostly with front and back covers kind-of, I would love to have it.  If it is unpostable I would be happy to gift a credit! Thanks,

Kerry

Hi Kerry,

I don't have any Holocaust books on my shelf, but I'd like to recommend some for your collection that you could request from other members. 

The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender (nonfiction)

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (fiction)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (fiction)

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli (fiction)

Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman (nonfiction)

Daniel's Story by Carol Matas (fiction)

I don't have the book (we have it at the library), and I notice that there aren't any copies posted here (although the wish lists are short).  But I've recommended "Six Million Paper Clips" by Peter W. Schroeder & Dagmar Schroeder-Hildebrand to kids I've worked with.

Herman Wouk wrote 'winds of war' and 'war and remembrance'. Excellent story. i've read them several times. There is also a small kids book called 'Ten" or Twenty'. About kids hiding out with the nuns. very small and very good. I traded my copy of it a couple of months ago.

Thanks so far everyone, (don't give up yet...I love the recommendations) 

aggieeditor:  I do not have The Cage (but Ruth Minsky Sender's name is SO familiar), I have not heard of The Book Thief, so that is a great recommendation, and I also haven't read Milkweed, but I love Jerry Spinelli.  The rest, I have and I have to say that Maus I and II are two of the best Holocaust books I have read.  I feel like I am talking face to face with a survivor.  I also have The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (It is one of the few books my 14 year-old son read without a battle).  

trucker monkey: I have seen the DVD of Paperclips as part of group of homeschool teens and parents and the parents and the kids were ALL mesmerized by the movie.  I actually did not realize that it was a book.  I now have it on my list and I will look for it. 

lynnefree:  I actually JUST got my hand on an autographed copy of Winds of War.  I have never read it.  I saw a 3 for 1 special in the Book Bazaar and ordered it thinking that if it wasn't good, my daughters would like the freebies.  I have only heard great things about this novel.  I wlll also look for War and Rememberance.  Back when I was homeschooling my three (then) preteens, I ordered a lot of holocaust kids books from another parent and that's how I got a lot of our starter books on the subject (for the kids, at least).  Ten and Twenty was in that shipment and is on my shelf.  It is a great book.

Thanks everyone.  Please feel free to message me with any info you come up with!!!

I Have Lived a Thousand Years is very good.

Kerry:

I have one for you on my shelf:  "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis--a Novel"  Published by "Library of the Holocaust. 

ISBN 13: 9781567310993   ISBN 10:  1567310990.

I haven't read it, though it looks quite good.  It's about a Jewish family in Italy before WW II who got caught up in the whole mess when the Germans imposed all of their anti-semetic laws on the Italians---who were no heroes, but not quite so fanatical as the Nazis earlier.

I think I have the only copy on the PBS list, so you might go ahead and order it from me sometime soon.  I'll save it for you if I get an order for it from somebody else.

Winston

I've gotten rid of most of my Holocaust collection, what I still have on my shelf are:

The Cage - Ruth Minsky Sender

Sosha - Isaac Bashevis Singer

and My 100 Children - Lena Kuchler, which is more post-Holocaust.

I also have Treblinka - Jean-Francois Steiner that's not posted.

If you're interested in general Third Reich books I've got some of those too, one posted and several unposted (Night Trains - Barbara Wood, Hitler's Secret Service - Walter Schellenberg, The Goebbels Diaries, Inside the Thrid Reich - Albert Speer).

Let me know if you're interested!

I don't have this book but I just finished the Library's copy of Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay (fiction). It's about the French involvement during the holocaust.  Very moving story.

My daughter got very interested in the holocaust after visiting the Holocaust Museum on her 8th grade Washington, D.C. trip.  I know she's picked up several books about the holocaust and nazis at thrift stores since then.  So far I've found:
An Infinity of Mirrors by Richard Condon no ISBN (unpostable)

bookcatgirl:  I do want to order some books from you, and I have a question.  These are the ones I definitely want:

• "Hitler's Secret Service"
• "inside the Third Reich" by Albert Speer and

I wanted to get a little more info on the Goebbels Diaries.  Is this one book with multiple diaries in it?  The reason I ask is that I looked it up online and I saw some mention of several different years of diaries starting in the mid to late thirties.  This sounds like I really want, but I don't want a small part of a huge whole.  Let me know, also, what I need to do to order these!

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I just also wanted to say thanks to Jodi.  I can't believe that I didn't mention what a great book "I Have Lived a Thousand Years" is.  I think that along with night, it is one of the most important books to be used to teach adolescents about the Holocaust.

Amanda- I just got "Sarah's Key" through the swap, but haven't read it yet.  I have heard how good it is.  I am looking forward to it.

Thanks again to everyone who is helping me.  I really appreciate any and all suggestions.

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Kerry -

I don't have any current Holocaust books on my bookshelf but I can suggest a few titles:

In My Hands: Memories of a Holocause Rescuer by Irene Gut Opdyke -- I saw this as a play on Broadway (Irena's Vow) a couple of years ago and it was amazing.  Haven't read the book yet but the story was quite moving.

The Kommandant's Girl and The Diplomat's Wife both novels by Pam Jenoff -- I read both of these but have since swapped them.  The author has a website so you can take a look at that for more info on the books.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows - not specifically Holocaust but focuses on the aftermath of World War II and the German occupation of the Channel Islands.  I liked it so much I'm keeping my copy but you might want to hunt this one down.

The following are all on my TBR list but I could contact you once I've read them if you're interested.  I think most are currently Wishlisted books. 

The Zookeepers Wife by Diane Ackerman

Skeleton's at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian

The Girl and the Red Coat by Roma Ligocha

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy

Day After Night by Anita Diamant

Hope this helps and just PM me and let me know if you want me to contact you once I've read some of the above. 

Barbara A.

Somehow my post did not show up so I am doing it again.

I will never see another butterfly is a collection of poems and art work that was done by kids in concentration camps. They burried it and it was found later. If you ever get the chance go and see the play it is really good.

Also snow treasure is about a group of kids that had to get supplies past the german soldiers and they did on their sleds. There is some depate now whether this was really true or not but it is really a good book. Jean

Thank you so much Jean and Barbara A.

Jean- I think that I have read a small excerpt from "I will never see another butterfly" in one of the larger Holocaust books that I have in my collection, but I would love to read/see the entire collection and the play.  It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about the title.  I will hope that the play will show somewhere around me in the near future.

I haven't heard of "Snow Treasure".  I will look that one up.  I appreciate your help.  Neither were on my radar!

Barbara A.

I believe that I have heard of "The Zookeeper's Wife", but I haven't read it or read a review.  I have never heard about any of the other books you mentioned.  I am going to do some research on them, and I will PM you and probably ask you to contact me when you are done with all of them.  I love finding new information and literature.

Thanks to you both!

I took a graduate lit. class in Holocaust literature, and we read some very powerful texts:

This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (Borowski)

Auschwitz and After (Delbo)

Tales from a Child of the Enemy (Duba)

Shoah Train (Heyen)

Art from the Ashes:  A Holocaust Anthology (Langer)

Scroll of Agony:  The Warsaw Diary of Chiam Kaplan (Kaplan)

Survival in Auschwitz (Levi)

Auschwitz:  True Tales from a Grotesque Land (Nomberg-Przytyk)

The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak (Sierakowiak)

Let Me Go (Schneider)

Suggestion:  Start a PBS Holocaust list.  The list feature here is pretty easy to use.

Jill,

Thank you so, so, so much!  I wish I could have taken the course with you, but maybe in a year or so, I will be able to teach it (if they let nurses with extreme interest in the Holocaust teach college courses)!

Denise,

I will research and see about starting the Holocaust list.  I am fairly new and didn't know about it.  Thank you.

Kerry,

I've posted Inside the Third Reich and Hitler's Secret Service to my bookshelf. Send me a pm when you order them so I know that's it's you - I won't let anyone else take them (though they have no isbns, so I doubt anyone would find them!)

My 'The Goebbels Diaries' looks like it's selections from his 1942-1943 diaries - so it's not complete, if more has been published.

Also, I don't have these, but I defintely recommend Victor Klemperer's diaries. He was a professor (Jewish) who kept really extensive diaries before, during, and after the Holocaust.

I will recommend The Lost:  A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn.  I have a copy, but am not willing to give it up!  It is the true account of Mendelsohn's recent search for the story behind the deaths of his great-uncle's family at the hands of the Nazis.  Completely absorbing as it combines the story of his research with the events of the Holocaust and reflections about the Hebrew Bible.

Thanks Claire,

I will look up the book and see if it looks interesting.  I usually have around 15 extra credits for wishlist or books that I want to order on a whim, but since starting this post, I have used all of my credits.  In about a week, I will have some more to use and I will probably want to order this book from you.

Also, Thanks for the information on the True Story of Hansel and Gretel.  I am not Jewish, but when it comes to the Holocaust, I tend to think like a Jewish person.  Ask any of my kids (teens); if someone they know makes an antisemitic remark or if I hear them make a joke that I know they don't really mean, I get really angry.  It is one thing that I will not joke about and this from a person who usually loves to be silly! 

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Also---Hopefully others who have replied to my post about this subject will see this.  I started a book list.  I don't think I did it right, actually.  I listed all of the books that I actually have under my roof right now.  They are not listed from best to worst in my opinion, just randomly.  I also have somewhere between 9-12 more books in the mail to me right now, so I will add the as I get them.  I thought that anyone who has time, could list his or her recommendations/suggestions like you have been doing and you will be able to see what I already have, so you can either review that book or ignore it.  If anyone has a better idea, please let me know.  Thanks to all!

You should definitely check out the Holocaust books thread in the Judaism book recommendations forum:

http://www.paperbackswap.com/Holocaust-Books/topic/120701/

My personal list:

Inside the Gas Chambers: Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz
Author: Shlomo Venezia

Six Million Crucifixions: How Christian Teachings About Jews Paved the Road to the Holocaust
Author: Gabriel Wilensky

Thank you Sheryl.  I have not heard of all of these books.  I will put them on my list. 

Tonight I started reading The Last Jew of Treblinka by Chil Raichman, youmight want to add it to your list as well.  Unfortunately it's a library book so I can't send it to you.