New Books in the Library

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank

By Nathan Englander. NY: Vintage Books, 2013
A New York Times Notable Book. An NPR Best Book of 2012. 
These eight powerful stories, dazzling in their display of language and imagination, show a celebrated short-story writer and novelist grappling with the great questions of modern life.


From the title story, a provocative portrait of two marriages inspired by Raymond Carver’s masterpiece, to “Peep Show” and “How We Avenged the Blums,” two stories that return to the author’s classic themes of sexual longing and ingenuity in the face of adversity, these stories affirm Nathan Englander’s place at the very forefront of contemporary American fiction. Read More

Taking Root: My Live As A Child Of Janusz Korczak - The Father Of Children's Rights. The biography of Shlomo Nadel.

By Lea Lipiner. Translated by Ora Baumgarten. Toronto: Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, 2015.

Shlomo Nadel was born in 1920 in Warsaw, Poland. His father died when he was very young and his mother was forced to place Shlomo in Dr. Korczak’s orphanage and his younger brother Simcha (Samek) in a very different type of orphanage. Nadel thrived during his time at the orphanage (1927 -1935) and became the resident photographer. It was the orphanage’s policy to “discharge” children at the age of 15. It was a harsh reality for Nadel to face, but the skills he acquired served him well. Shlomo Nadel's memories of the orphanage reveal the story of a wonderful institution founded by Dr. Korczak for Jewish children in Warsaw. 

Borrow the book from our library or download the book for free here.  Special thanks to Tatyana Spady for donating the book to our library. 

White House in a Grey City. 

Written and Illustrated by Itzchak Belfer, a child of Janusz Korczak. Toronto: Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, 2015.

Itzchak Belfer, born in Warsaw, Poland, one of the children in the orphanage under the management of Dr. Korczak, was the only survivor of his large family which was wiped out in the Holocaust.

Itzchak fulfilled his dream of living in Israel and studied at the Avni Institute of Art and Design. He has channeled his artistic talents, which were already obvious during his years in the orphanage, to the commemoration of Dr. Korczak's work and the memory of his family. Borrow the book from our library or download the book for free here.  Special thanks to Tatyana Spady for donating the book to our library. 

One Voice, Two Lives: From Auschwitz Prisoner to 101st Airborne Trooper

By Cantor David S. Wisnia. NJ: ComteQ Publishing, 2015.

This powerful memoir takes the reader from a peaceful home in Sochaczew, Poland to terror in Auschwitz-Birkenau and lastly to the safety of the Screaming Eagles. David Wisnia, a child singing star, was the middle child in a family of five. His father was a prosperous furniture manufacturer; his mother a contented housewife.  After the family moved to Warsaw, David’s family celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. He remembers the marmalade, a rare delicacy, served on this special day. Months later, Europe was at war, Warsaw was occupied, and tragedy struck his family. David became a fugitive on the run from the Nazis. Special thanks to Carl Shuthoff for donating this book to our library. Read More

A Brief Stop on the Road From Auschwitz.

By Goran Rosenberg. Translated by Sarah Death. NY: Other Press, 2015. Winner of the August Prize. 

A shattering memoir by a journalist about his father’s attempt to survive the aftermath of Auschwitz in a small industrial town in Sweden. On August 2, 1947 a young man gets off a train in a small Swedish town to begin his life anew. Having endured the ghetto of Lodz, the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the slave camps and transports during the final months of Nazi Germany, his final challenge is to survive the survival. 

In this intelligent and deeply moving book, Göran Rosenberg returns to his own childhood to tell the story of his father: walking at his side, holding his hand, trying to get close to him. It is also the story of the chasm between the world of the child, permeated by the optimism, progress, and collective oblivion of postwar Sweden, and the world of the father, darkened by the long shadows of the past. Read more

New Books!

Gottesfeld, Jeff. The Tree in the Courtyard: Looking Through Anne Frank's Window. (Peter McCarty, Illustrator.) NY: Knopf Books, 2016.

Told from the perspective of the tree outside Anne Frank's window—and illustrated by a Caldecott Honor artist—this book introduces her story in a gentle and incredibly powerful way to a young audience.

The tree in the courtyard was a horse chestnut. Her leaves were green stars; her flowers foaming cones of white and pink. Seagulls flocked to her shade. She spread roots and reached skyward in peace.

The tree watched a little girl, who played and laughed and wrote in a diary. When strangers invaded the city and warplanes roared overhead, the tree watched the girl peek out of the curtained window of the annex. It watched as she and her family were taken away—and when her father returned after the war, alone.

The tree died the summer Anne Frank would have turned eighty-one, but its seeds and saplings have been planted around the world as a symbol of peace. Its story, and Anne’s story, are beautifully told and illustrated in this powerful picture book.

Stargardt, Nicholas. The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945. NY: Basic Books, 2015. 

As early as 1941, Allied victory in World War II seemed all but assured. How and why, then, did the Germans prolong the barbaric conflict for three and a half more years?

In The German War, acclaimed historian Nicholas Stargardt draws on an extraordinary range of primary source materials—personal diaries, court records, and military correspondence—to answer this question. He offers an unprecedented portrait of wartime Germany, bringing the hopes and expectations of the German people—from infantrymen and tank commanders on the Eastern front to civilians on the home front—to vivid life. While most historians identify the German defeat at Stalingrad as the moment when the average German citizen turned against the war effort, Stargardt demonstrates that the Wehrmacht in fact retained the staunch support of the patriotic German populace until the bitter end.

Astonishing in its breadth and humanity, The German War is a groundbreaking new interpretation of what drove the Germans to fight—and keep fighting—for a lost cause.

Tornillo, Louis. What Do You Know About the Holocaust? Race and Genocide. FL: BookLocker.com, 2015. 

Written by a former public school teacher, What Do You Know is organized around an interactive quiz that tests the reader's knowledge, followed by short essays which deeply explore key events and issues with rich historical detail. It focuses on the racial ideology that drove the Holocaust, and links it to the racism that is still a potent force in our own society. "What Do You Know About The Holocaust? Race and Genocide" will surprise and provoke readers.

New Books in the Holocaust Center's Library

Sasso, Sandy Eisenberg. Anne Frank and the Remembering Tree. Ill. Erika Steiskal. IN: The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. 2015. 

"In most windows I saw people working and children playing. When the soldiers came, people began covering their windows, so I couldn't see inside anymore. But the tiny attic window of the narrow brick house behind Otto Frank's business offices had no shade. For a long time the rooms were empty. Then one day, Otto's whole family came to live there. They called their new home the Secret Annex..."

A story of Anne Frank, who loved a tree and the tree who promised never to forget her.


This book is co-published with the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, chosen by the Anne Frank Center as the first U.S. recipient of a sapling from the tree outside of the Secret Annex window (the tree is the narrator in the book). Recommended for ages 6-9.  Thank you to Bob Evans for donating this book to the Holocaust Center's Library.

Douglas, Lawrence. The Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and the Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial. NJ: Princeton University Press. 2016.

In 2009, Harper’s Magazine sent war-crimes expert Lawrence Douglas to Munich to cover the last chapter of the lengthiest case ever to arise from the Holocaust: the trial of eighty-nine-year-old John Demjanjuk. Demjanjuk’s legal odyssey began in 1975, when American investigators received evidence alleging that the Cleveland autoworker and naturalized US citizen had collaborated in Nazi genocide. In the years that followed, Demjanjuk was twice stripped of his American citizenship and sentenced to death by a Jerusalem court as "Ivan the Terrible" of Treblinka—only to be cleared in one of the most notorious cases of mistaken identity in legal history. Finally, in 2011, after eighteen months of trial, a court in Munich convicted the native Ukrainian of assisting Hitler’s SS in the murder of 28,060 Jews at Sobibor, a death camp in eastern Poland.


An award-winning novelist as well as legal scholar, Douglas offers a compulsively readable history of Demjanjuk’s bizarre case. The Right Wrong Man is both a gripping eyewitness account of the last major Holocaust trial to galvanize world attention and a vital meditation on the law’s effort to bring legal closure to the most horrific chapter in modern history. Thank you Nick Coddington for donating this signed copy to the Holocaust Center's library.  

Helm, Sarah. Ravensbruck: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women. NY: Doubleday, 2014.

Months before the outbreak of World War II, Heinrich Himmler—prime architect of the Holocaust—designed a special concentration camp for women, located fifty miles north of Berlin. Only a small number of the prisoners were Jewish. Ravensbrück was primarily a place for the Nazis to hold other inferior beings: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Resistance fighters, lesbians, prostitutes, and aristocrats—even the sister of New York’s Mayor LaGuardia. Over six years the prisoners endured forced labor, torture, starvation, and random execution. In the final months of the war, Ravensbrück became an extermination camp. Estimates of the final death toll have ranged from 30,000 to 90,000.

For decades the story of Ravensbrück was hidden behind the Iron Curtain. Now, using testimony unearthed since the end of the Cold War and interviews with survivors who have never talked before, Sarah Helm takes us into the heart of the camp. The result is a landmark achievement that weaves together many accounts, following figures on both sides of the prisoner/guard divide. Chilling, compelling, and deeply necessary, Ravensbrück is essential reading for anyone concerned with Nazi history. Thank you K. Kennell for donating this book to the Holocaust Center's library. 

Hornby, Elfi. Dancing to War. WA: The First World Publishing, 1997.

In this, her first book, the author recounts her incredible experiences as she, a sixteen-year-old dancer, was being sent to the worst battle zone of WW II—the Russian front in mid minter of 1943—to entertain German troops. Under the thumb of an unsympathetic, exploitative director, she faces unimaginable hardships and challenges, witnesses the horrors of war, meets many of its heroes and villains and is forced to rethink all she had been taught about life, country and God. She and her colleagues barely escape, riding in a cattle car back to Berlin.


The book brims with action and adventure, and is amply sprinkled with both laughter and tears. It offers a rare glimpse of war from “the other side.” Thank you to Dr. and Mrs. Elie Levy for donating this book to the Holocaust Center's library. 

New Books in the Library!

Swansong 1945

By Walter Kempowski 

Swansong 1945 chronicles the end of Nazi Germany and World War II in Europe through hundreds of letters, diaries, and autobiographical accounts covering four days that fateful spring: Hitler’s birthday on April 20, American and Soviet troops meeting at the Elbe on April 25, Hitler’s suicide on April 30, and finally the German surrender on May 8. Side by side, we encounter vivid, first-person accounts of civilians fleeing Berlin, ordinary German soldiers determined to fight to the bitter end, American POWs dreaming of home, concentration-camp survivors’ first descriptions of their horrific experiences, as well as the intimate thoughts of figures such as Eisenhower, Churchill, Stalin, Joseph Goebbels, and Hitler himself.

These firsthand accounts, painstakingly collected and organized by renowned German author Walter Kempowski, provide the raw material of history and present a panoramic view of those tumultuous days. The more than 1,000 extracts include a British soldier writing to his parents to tell them there are no baths but plenty of eggs and chocolate, an American soldier describing “the tremendous burst of lilacs” as he approaches the Elbe, Mussolini wishing Hitler a happy birthday, Eva Braun bragging to a girlfriend about what a “crack shot” she’s become, and much more.

Motherland: Growing Up with the Holocaust

By Rita Goldberg 

Like Anne Frank, Hilde Jacobsthal was born in Germany and brought up in Amsterdam, where the two families became close. Unlike Anne Frank, she survived the war, and Otto Frank was to become godfather to Rita, her first daughter. “I am the child of a woman who survived the Holocaust not by the skin of her teeth but heroically. This book tells the story of my mother’s dramatic life before, during and after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. “I wrote Motherland because I wanted to understand a story which had become a kind of family myth. My mother’s life could be seen as a narrative of the twentieth century; along with my father she was present and active at many of its significant moments.” 

Rita Goldberg Hilde Jacobsthal was fifteen when the Nazis invaded Holland. After the arrest of her parents in 1943 she fled to Belgium, where she went into hiding and worked with the Resistance at night. She was liberated by the American army in 1944. In April 1945 she volunteered with a British Red Cross Unit to go to the relief of Bergen-Belsen, which had itself been liberated one week before her arrival. The horror and devastation were overwhelming, but despite her shock and grief she stayed at the camp for two years, helping with the enormous task of recovery. Sorrow and exuberance went hand in hand as the young people at Belsen found renewed life and each other. Hilde got to know Hanns Alexander (subject of the recently published Hanns and Rudolf), who was on the British War Crimes Commission, and, eventually, a Swiss doctor called Max Goldberg. Motherland is the culmination of a lifetime of reflection and a decade of research. Rita Goldberg enlarges the story she heard from her mother with historical background. She has talked with her about the minutest details of her life and pored over her papers, exploring not only her mother's life but her own. Complicated feelings are explored lightly as Rita takes the story beyond Bergen-Belsen, where paradoxically her parents met and fell in love; beyond Israel’s War of Independence where they both volunteered, and on to the next chapter of their lives in the US. A deeply moving story, Motherland will become an essential text about World War II, the Holocaust and the survival of the spirit.

Stranger in my own Country: A Jewish Family in Modern Germany

By Yascha Mounk 

As a Jew in postwar Germany, Yascha Mounk felt like a foreigner in his own country. When he mentioned that he is Jewish, some made anti-Semitic jokes or talked about the superiority of the Aryan race. Others, sincerely hoping to atone for the country’s past, fawned over him with a forced friendliness he found just as alienating.

     Vivid and fascinating, Stranger in My Own Country traces the contours of Jewish life in a country still struggling with the legacy of the Third Reich and portrays those who, inevitably, continue to live in its shadow. Marshaling an extraordinary range of material into a lively narrative, Mounk surveys his countrymen’s responses to “the Jewish question.” Examining history, the story of his family, and his own childhood, he shows that anti-Semitism and far-right extremism have long coexisted with self-conscious philo-Semitism in postwar Germany. 

     But of late a new kind of resentment against Jews has come out in the open. Unnoticed by much of the outside world, the desire for a “finish line” that would spell a definitive end to the country’s obsession with the past is feeding an emphasis on German victimhood. Mounk shows how, from the government’s pursuit of a less “apologetic” foreign policy to the way the country’s idea of the Volk makes life difficult for its immigrant communities, a troubled nationalism is shaping Germany’s future.

Mendel's Daughter: A Memoir

By Martin Lemelman

In 1989 Martin Lemelman videotaped his mother, Gusta, as she opened up about her childhood in 1930s Poland and her eventual escape from Nazi persecution. Mendel's Daughter, selected as one of the best books of 2006 by the Austin Chronicle, is Lemelman's loving transcription of his mother's harrowing testimony, bringing her narrative to life with his own powerful black-and-white drawings, interspersed with reproductions of actual photographs, documents and other relics from that era. The result is a wholly original, authentic and moving account of hope and survival in a time of despair. 

Gusta's story opens with a portrait of shtetl life, filled with homey images that evoke the richness of food and flowers, of family and friends and of Jewish tradition. Soon, however, Gusta's girlhood is cut short as her family experiences Hitler's rise, rumors of war, invasion, occupation, round-ups and pogroms, forcing Gusta into flight and hiding. 

Mendel's Daughter is Martin Lemelman's solemn and stirring testament to his mother's bravery and a celebration of her perseverance. The devastatingly simple power of a mother's words and a son's illustrations combine to create a work that is both intensely personal and universally resonant. Mendel's Daughter combines an unforgettable true story with elegant, haunting illustrations to shed new light on one of history's darkest periods.

To borrow these books or any other books in the library, please contact us at 206-582-3000 or email Amanda@HolocaustCenterSeattle.org 

New Books in our Library!

All of these books and more are available to check out from our new library! Please email Amanda@holocaustcenterseattle.org

Escape in Time: Miri's Riverting Tale of Her Family's Survival During World War II

By Ronit Lowenstein-Malz

Nessya’s grandmother, Miri Eneman Malz, has friends, a loving family—and a secret: she is a Holocaust survivor. When twelve-year-old Nessya learns the truth, she wants to know what happened. After decades of silence, Grandma Miri decides it’s time to tell her story. It all begins one terrible day in the spring of 1944, when Germany crosses Hungary’s border and soldiers arrive in Miri’s hometown of Munkács. Suddenly, the Jews are trapped and in danger. Surrounded by war and unimaginable hatred, the family makes a daring escape. But that is only the beginning, and over the course of the year new threats continually confront them. Incredibly, despite numerous close calls, they defy the odds and live. Based upon actual memoirs, this is the story of the Eneman family . . . of their remarkable ingenuity, astonishing luck, boundless courage, and unending love.

On Amazon

A Good Place to Hide: How One French Community Saved Thousands of Lives During World War II

By Perter Grose 

The untold story of an isolated French community that banded together to offer sanctuary and shelter to over 3,500 Jews in the throes of World War II. Nobody asked questions, nobody demanded money. Villagers lied, covered up, procrastinated and concealed, but most importantly they welcomed.This is the story of an isolated community in the upper reaches of the Loire Valley that conspired to save the lives of 3,500 Jews under the noses of the Germans and the soldiers of Vichy France. It is the story of a pacifist Protestant pastor who broke laws and defied orders to protect the lives of total strangers. It is the story of an eighteen-year-old Jewish boy from Nice who forged 5,000 sets of false identity papers to save other Jews and French Resistance fighters from the Nazi concentration camps. And it is the story of a community of good men and women who offered sanctuary, kindness, solidarity and hospitality to people in desperate need, knowing full well the consequences to themselves.

On Amazon

The Story of an Underground: The Resistance of the Jews of Kovno in the Second World War

By Dov Levin & Zvie A. Brown 

This is the story of the fighting underground of the Jews of Kovno, Lithuania, in World War II. The authors, historians Zvie A. Brown and Dov Levin, were themselves members of the Kovno underground, and this well-researched book based on documentary material, verbal testimonies, and written memoirs of witnesses, among other sources is supplemented by the authors own personal accounts. The authors here describe the first steps of the organized Jewish underground in the Kovno Ghetto, its desperate search for allies outside the ghetto, and its first bloodstained attempts to break through the ring of isolation and establish a base of support for partisan battle. They relate the insurgence at its height: contacts with partisans in the forest, acquisition of weapons and equipment, and training of fighters for partisan warfare. The authors paint a picture of daily life in the partisan brigades, including the tense relationship between the Jewish and non-Jewish fighters. They relate the final days of the underground as the ghetto was being destroyed, and then the last journey of the Kovno brigades from the forest bases back to liberated Kovno.

On Amazon

The Diary of Rywka Lipszyc: Found in Auschwitz by the Red Army in 1945 and first published in San Francisco in 2014

Here is the extraordinary Diary of Rywka Lipszyc, finally published 70 years after it was created. Handwritten in a school notebook between October 1943 and April 1944, this remarkable diary depicts the nightmare of life under the Nazis in Poland's infamous Lodz ghetto-through the eyes of a brilliant, 14-year-old Jewish girl. With the eloquence of an innocent, Rywka vividly chronicles the disease, starvation, deportations, fear and cruelty she witnessed. She lost her entire family-parents, brother, and two sisters-in Nazi ghettos and killing centers. Yet in the face of despair, she reveals a belief in God and a faith in humanity that inspired in her a determination to live. In 1945, Rywka's diary was found in the ruins of the Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoria by a doctor serving with the liberating Soviet Army. For more than a half-century the diary remained among the doctor's private possessions, until after her death, when her granddaughter emigrated from the USSR and brought it to Jewish Family and Children's Services' Holocaust Center in San Francisco. Sensitively translated, with footnotes, historical essays, photographs, maps, news clippings, and the gripping story of the recent search for Rywka Lipszyc-whose fate has never been determined-this book is sure to enter the ranks of the most poignant Holocaust testimonies, a tale of darkness and light, faith and love.

On Amazon

From the Red Desert to Jerusalem

By Elia Kahvedjian 

From the Red Desert to Jerusalem is the remarkable autobiography of a remarkable man. Urfa-born Elia Kahvedjian witnessed the Genocide of Armenians as a 5-year-old boy. The book tells of his adventures in the badlands of Turkey and Syria, his eventual move to Jerusalem, and his many achievements as a top photographer, painter, and community leader in the Holy City. The book was translated into English by his eldest son Harout Kahvedjian of Toronto.

On Amazon

New Books in the Library!

Last week I mentioned some of the new DVDs we have available; this week I'm highlighting a few of our new books!

Dividing Hearts:
The Removal of Jewish Children from Gentile Families in
Poland in the Immediate Post Holocaust Years
by Emunah Nachmany Gafny

From the back cover:
"It is difficult for us to agree that because of financial limitations, Jewish children will not be able to return to their people. That was undoubtedly the last wish of the parents who were martyred -- that their children should return to Judaism." (Members of the presidium of the Zionist Koordynacja for the Redemption of Children)

These words express the feelings of the Jewish activists in Poland after the Holocaust. Shortly after the liberation of Poland from Nazi occupation, several Jewish organizations were created in order to locate Jewish children who had been hidden during the war by Polish Christians, so as to transfer them to Jewish children's homes.

Emunah Nachmany Gafny's book deals with questions posed by these operations: Why did several organizations come into being for the same purpose? What were the relations among them? What was the nature of the operations of each body? What were the reactions of the Polish rescuers? How did Polish courts view the removal of the children to Jewish orphanages? What was the attitude of the Church? How did the children themselves react?

-------

The Momuments Men:

Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History

by Robert M. Edsel

From the Author's Note:

"Most of us are aware that World War II was the most destructive war in history. We know of the horrific loss of life; we've seen images of the devastated European cities. [...] But what if I told you there was a major story about World War II that hasn't been told, a significant story at the heart of the entire war effort, involving the most unlikely group of heroes you've never heard of?  What if I told you there was a group of men on the front lines who quite literally saves the world as we know it; a group that didn't carry machine guns or drive tanks, who weren't official statesmen; men who not only had the vision to understand the grave threat to the greatest cultural and artistic achievements of civilization, but then joined the front lines to do something about it?

These unknown heroes were known as the 'Monuments Men,' a group of soldiers who served in the Western Allied military effort from 1943 until 1951. Their initial responsibility was to mitigate combat damage, primarily to structures -- churches, museums, and other important monuments. As the war progressed and the German border was breached, their focus shifted to locating movable works of art and other cultural items stolen or otherwise missing. During their occupation of Europe, Hitler and the Nazis pulled off the "greatest theft in history," seizing and transporting more than five million cultural objects to the Third Reich. The Western Allied effort, spearheaded by the Monuments Men, thus became the "greatest treasure hunt in history," with all the unimaginable and bizarre stories that only war can produce."

Coming to theaters February 2014! Film website and trailer: http://www.monumentsmen.com/

-------

The Weaver's Scar: For Our Rwanda

by Brian Crawford (local author!)

 

From the publisher:

"The Weaver's Scar is the first young adult novel written in English and for an American audience dealing directly with the Rwandan genocide.

It is a story of a Rwandan boy who manages to escape the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis and make it to America. It is a story that is both horrific and inspiring.

Faustin is a normal schoolboy growing up and very good at running and soccer. But dark secrets of the past hang over his family, and his father disapproves of his friends and his football games. Things only start to make sense when the teachers at school begin to emphasize the division between the Tutsis and Hutus, a division that even makes its way to the soccer field.

As the terrible events of the genocide unfold, Faustin discovers what caused his father’s disability, experiences the cruelty of his schoolteachers, and sees first-hand the horror of neighbor against neighbor. With his family slain, his only chance of survival lies in his running and sheer courage to outwit the enemy. He does not have to do it alone, as he discovers the value and courage of an unlikely friend."

For teachers who might be interested in using this book in the classroom, there is also a teacher guide available from the publisher. Check out the website for more information: http://www.rfwp.com/book/weavers-scar-for-our-rwanda.

New Books at the Holocaust Center!

 

Lives Lived and Lost, by Kaja Finkler and Gold Finkler

Golda and Kaja, mother and daughter, each survived the holocaust and tell their stories from differing perspectives. Their story paints a rich picture of Hasidic life before the holocaust and the terrible decision Golda, who was about to be sent to a slave labor camp, and her husband, who was to stay in the ghetto, would have to make: with which parent to send their daughter Kaja. After the war, mother and daughter were reunited in Sweden and eventually moved to America to establish new lives.

The Death of the Shtetl, by Yehuda Bauer

Unlike most books about life in pre-war Jewish towns in eastern Europe and their subsequent destruction during the holocaust---which are riveting narrative personal histories—Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at Hebrew University and Yad Vashem, Yehuda Bauer, takes a purely academic approach. Using newly translated Russian texts and Nazi files, he traces how the shtetls of eastern Europe were systematically destroyed. Yet resistance to the Nazis, such as the Bielski brothers’ family camp as seen in the recent movie Defiance, tells an additional story of Jewish courage. Because it is an academic analysis, the book may seem dry and be at too high of an academic level for a general audience. But for the reader who wants to read primary sources and delve into the chapter end-notes, it is ideal.

Reviews by Dr. Gene Printz-Kopelson.  Gene generously volunteers his spare time while in Seattle at the Holocaust Center.

New Books in the Library!

New books have been added to library, including: 

Difficult Questions in Polish-Jewish Dialogue 

             A collaborative project between the Forum for Dialogue Among Nations Foundation and the American Jewish Committee, this book endeavors to build bridges between Poles and Jews regarding the history of the Holocaust. 

The Pharmacist: In the Krakow Ghetto-- Tomasz Bereznicki 

             A graphic novel about the experiences of Tadeusz Pankiewicz, a pharmacist who continued to run his pharmacy even after it was incorporated into the Krakow ghetto. By keeping his pharmacy open he managed to help and rescue Jews over the course of two years.

New Year, New Books!

New for Middle School Trunks: Terrible Things by Eve Bunting!  Request a trunk for your class today!

        The animals in the clearing were content until the Terrible Things came, capturing all creatures with feathers. 

        Little Rabbit wondered what was wrong with feathers, but his fellow animals silenced him. "Just mind your own business, Little Rabbit. We don't want them to get mad at us."

        In this unique introduction to the Holocaust, Ms. Bunting encourages young children to stand up for what they think is right, without waiting for others to join them.

We also have a new book available to borrow: A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism by Phyllis Goldstein!  We have ten copies available! 

To request this or other books, please contact us: info@wsherc.org or 206-744-2201.

        A Convenient Hatred chronicles a very particular hatred through powerful stories that allow readers to see themselves in the tarnished mirror of history. It raises important questions about the consequences of our assumptions and beliefs and the ways we, as individuals and as members of a society, make distinctions between "us" and "them," right and wrong, good and evil. These questions are both universal and particular.

New Book !

Thank you to Carl Shutoff for loaning us this great new book! More details below:

Title: Art Against Death

This book showcases the permanent exhibitions of the Terezin Memorial in the former Magdeburg Barracks. It focuses heavily on the musical and artistic aspects of living in the Terezin ghetto.

New Books in the Library!

We are happy to announce the inclusion of four new books and a DVD to our library collection!  These items are part of The Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs.

The new books include:

Gatehouse to Hell by Felix Opatowski, recipient of the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Award



Tenuous Threads/One of the Lucky Ones by Judy Abrams/Eva Felsenburg Marx
 

Little Girl Lost by Betty Rich


If Home is Not Here by Max Bornstein


The DVD is a collection of short films based on each of the books.

The Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs was "established to preserve and share the written memoirs of those who survived the twentieth-century Nazi genocide of the Jews of Europe and later made their way to Canada."  For more information about The Azrieli Foundation and their series, please visit http://www.azrielifoundation.org/memoirs/

Book Talk: Upon the Head of a Goat

Upon the Head of a Goat, by Aranka Seigal

Starting next week, Book Talk will be moving to an every other week schedule.

The Story

Upon the Head of a Goat is the account of Piri, a 9 year old Jewish girl, who is visiting her grandmother in Ukraine when World War II begins. As the Holocaust creeps closer, her life begins to change. Piri's friends turn their backs on her, and her family is forced to move to the Jewish ghetto. Eventually, she is forced onto a cattle car along with the rest of her family, destined for a concentration camp.

This book is unusual in that its focus is not on the concentration camps, but on the experiences and emotions of Piri and her family before they entered the camps. The turmoil, shame, fear and confusion Piri feels aptly illustrate the effects of Nazi discrimination and destruction during the opening of World War II. Upon the Head of a Goat is based on the writer's own experiences as a Holocaust survivor.

Besides Upon the Head of a Goat, Aranka Seigal has written several books about her experiences during the Holocaust, including one describing her experiences in the concentration camps. Upon the Head of a Goat has won several awards, including a 1982 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for Nonfiction and a 1982 Newbery Honor Award. It has been published in over 7 languages. Upon the Head of a Goat is aimed at Grades 6-8.

Resources

Check out this lesson plan for Middle School and High School students, which includes daily lessons, activities, multiple choice and short essay questions, homework and tests. Also check out this handout, identifying the story's main characters and providing a map of the areas the story takes place in. In addition, explore these discussion questions from Web English Teacher.

About Me

Leah Kuriluk is the Holocaust Education Resource Center's Library Intern. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Library and Information Science and a certificate of Information Management at Wayne State University. Leah also has a BA in History.

New Books at the Center!

Today we're excited to share that we have some new books in the center!  They include The Sketchbook from Auschwitz (above) and Beautiful Souls (below).  The following is an excerpt from the introduction to Sketchbook from Auschwitz:

Aside from the Sketchbook, no drawings fo the Holocaust itself are extant.  It is the only art work showing the fate of the Jews deported to the camp from the moment of their arrival at the ramp to the killing of the selected persons in the gas chambers.  This makes it a unique illustrative source. ... There can be no doubt... as to the artist's talent and courage.  He endangered himself by committing details fo camp life to paper; when it became clear that he coudl not go on drawing, he concealed his work. The fact that the last scene remains unifished may be a hint that the Sketchbook was hidden in dramatic circumstances.

An excerpt from the front flap of Beautiful Souls: 

Fifty years after Hannah Arendt examined the dynamics of conformity in her seminal account of the Eichmann trial, Beautiful Souls explores the flip side of the banality of evil, mapping out what impels oridnary people to defy the sway of authority and convention.  Through the dramatic stories fo unlikely resisters who feel the flicker of conscience when thrust into morally compromising situations, Eyal Press shows that the boldest acts of dissent are often carried out not by radicals seeking to overthrow the system but by true believers who cling with unusal fierceness to their convictions.