The boy who didn't want to die, by Peter Lantos

Peter and his parents set out from a small Hungarian town, travelling through Austria and then Germany together. Images of adventure flash one after another, sleeping in a tent, under the sky, discovering a disused brick factory. All against a background of terror, starvation, infection and death, before Peter and his mother can return home. 

 

When the world was ours, by Liz Kessler

A powerful, heart-breaking, ultimately redemptive novel about three childhood friends in 1930s Vienna whose fates are closely intertwined even when their lives take very different courses.

 

Saving Hanno, by Miriam Halahmy

The moving story of a German Jewish boy sent to England for safety via the Kindertransport who saves the life of his dog Hanno as war looms.

 

Code name Kingfisher, by Liz Kessler

When Liv finds a secret box from her grandmother’s childhood she uncovers an extraordinary war-time story of bravery, betrayal and daring defiance. A story that will change Liv and her family forever…

 

The lost war dog, by Megan Rix

An epic adventure as Gretchen follows her best friend Tilly and Wuffly the dachshund to England. How will each of them fare, as German evacuees in England? Will the three friends ever be reunited in safety?

 

Hitler's canary, by Sandi Toksvig

Based on true-life events during the Second World War this novel is a funny and gripping account of a childhood spent under occupation and a daring rescue.

 

Fritz and Kurt, by Jeremy Dronfield

In 1938, the Nazis come to Vienna. Fritz and Kurt's family are Jewish, and that puts them in terrible danger. Fritz, along with his father, is taken to a Nazi prison camp. When his father is sent to a certain death, Fritz chooses to go with him and fight for survival. Meanwhile, Kurt must go on a frightening journey to seek safety on the far side of the world.

A retelling of the Sunday Times bestselling The Boy Who Followed his Father into Auschwitz, a Daily Mail and Sunday Express Book of the Year.

 

I survived the Nazi invasion 1944, by Georgia Ball

A beautifully rendered graphic novel adaptation of Lauren Tarshis’s bestselling I Survived the Nazi Invasion 1944, with text adapted by Georgia Ball and art by AIvaro Sarraseca.

 

Irena Sendler, by Margaret Littman

Irena Sendler was a humanitarian and social worker in Nazi occupied Poland during World War II. Irena built a network of people to smuggle 2,500 children out of the ghetto, saving their lives. And in a hidden jar, she kept their family names. 

 

The pebble, by Marius Marcinkevicius 

This story takes place in Vilnius in Lithuania - but it could have happened anywhere in Europe during World War II. This tale tells the story of two children who experience the horror of separation and Nazi persecution, only to find each other again thanks to a pebble, which becomes a symbol of endurance and survival.

 

The librarian of Auschwitz, by Salva Rubio

Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezín ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious books the prisoners have managed to smuggle past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the secret librarian of Auschwitz. A graphic novel adaptation of the novel of the same name.