Pushing Time Away, The Pink Triangle, and The Hidden Holocaust

Pushing Time Away
My Grandfather and the Tragedy of Jewish Vienna
By Peter Singer, NY: Harper Collin Publishers, 2003

"What binds us pushes time away," wrote David Oppenheim to his future wife, Amalie Pollak, on March 24, 1905. Oppenheim, classical scholar, collaborator and then critic of Sigmund Freud, and friend and supporter of Alfred Adler, lived through the heights and depths of Vienna's twentieth-century intellectual and cultural history. He perished in obscurity at a Nazi concentration camp in 1943. More than fifty years later, philosopher Peter Singer set out to explore the life of the grandfather he never knew.

Combining touching family biography with thoughtful reflection on both personal and public questions we face today, Pushing Time Away captures critical moments in Europe's transition from Belle Époque to the Great War, to the rise of Fascism, and the coming of World War II.

The Pink Triangle
The Nazi War against Homosexuals

By Richard Plant, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1986

This is the first comprehensive book in English on the fate of the homosexuals in Nazi Germany. The author, a German refugee, examines the climate and conditions that gave rise to a vicious campaign against Germany's gays, as directed by Himmler and his SS--persecution that resulted in tens of thousands of arrests and thousands of deaths.

In this Nazi crusade, homosexual prisoners were confined to death camps where, forced to wear pink triangles, they constituted the lowest rung in the camp hierarchy. The horror of camp life is described through diaries, previously untranslated documents, and interviews with and letters from survivors, revealing how the anti-homosexual campaign was conducted, the crackpot homophobic fantasies that fueled it, the men who made it possible, and those who were its victims, this chilling book sheds light on a corner of twentieth-century history that has been hidden in the shadows much too long.

The Hidden Holocaust?

Gay and Lesbian Persecution in Germany 1933-45

The persecution of lesbians and gay men by the Nazis is a subject that has been constantly debated during the last decade, providing a theme for books, articles, and plays. Until recently the discussion has remained speculative: most of the relevant documents were stored in closed East German archives, and access was denied to scholars and researchers.

As a result of the unification of East and West Germany, these archives are now open. Hidden Holocaust, by the German scholars Gunter Grau and Claudia Shoppmann of Humboldt Uinversity, Berlin, demonstrates that the eradication of homosexuals was a declared gol of the Nazis even before they took power in 1933, and provide proof of the systematic anti-gay campaigns, the methods used tjo justify discrimination, and the incarceration mutilation and murder of gay men and women in Nazi concentration camps. 

A chilling but ground-breaking work in gay and lesbian studies

Meet A Volunteer: Nyayan

My name is Nyayan.  For the past few weeks I've been volunteering at the Holocaust Center. 

My mother was pregnant with me when my family fled the civil war in Sudan, so I was born in Ethiopia as a refugee.  My mother wanted me to have opportunities in my life and when I was 8, she sent me to the United States to live with my uncle.  I’ve been separated from my family for 10 years. I have been to school and learned English.  It has been very hard for me.

Last year my teacher at the Seattle World School brought our class to see the Anne Frank Exhibit at the new Holocaust museum.  While I was there, I saw this large picture of Steve Adler when he was 8 years old with a swastika symbol on it.  I learned that this was his passport to board the ship that took him to freedom.

Mr. Adler also came to visit us at the World School, where all the students are refugees working on our subjects and English.  We heard Mr. Adler tell us about his life as a refugee.  At the end, he asked “who is a refugee” and the whole class raised their hands.  It made me think that if he could make a difference in his life, so could I.  The day he came to talk at my school I began to think about my life and how Steve and I were both sent away from our country.  He thought one day, I would tell my story.  

Now I have been volunteering at the Holocaust Center before school starts again.  It is my first time working in an office, so it is interesting to experience that.  It's not as boring as I thought!  It is pretty quiet and chill here.  I have enjoyed helping prepare for the luncheon in October, and I learned how to use the printer and scanner.

Thanks to the Holocaust museum and center for helping me to begin to learn about the Holocaust and about myself. 

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.