Fiction
Lois Lowry
9780007395200
It is 1943 and for 10-year-old Annemarie life is still fun. But there are worries too - the Nazis have occupied Copenhagen and there are food shortages, curfews and the threat of being stopped by soldiers and Annemarie's best friend is a Jew.
Morris Gleitzman
9780241380482
Sequel to ‘Once,’ ‘Then,’ ‘Now,’ ‘After,’ ‘Soon,’ and ‘Maybe,’ late in life, Felix finds himself back where he started, living in an aged-care home that reminds him of his childhood orphanage. He’s not happy. His body might be old, but his spirit is still youthful. When he learns that a dear friend from his early years is in terrible danger, Felix doesn’t hesitate. He makes his second orphanage escape, goes back to Poland and throws himself into a daring and dangerous journey with a new young friend. Felix knows it might be the end of him, but he hopes it will allow him to do something first.
Matt Killeen
9781474942386
Sarah has played many roles. Dutiful daughter. Talented gymnast. Persecuted Jew. Lost orphan. But now she faces her most challenging role of all. Now she must become the very thing she hates. For the only way she can survive as a spy at a boarding school for the cream of Nazi society is to become a monster like them. A monster who can destroy them.
Lucy Adlington
9781471407161
As 14-year-old Ella begins her first day at work, she steps into a world of silks, seams, scissors, pins, hems and trimmings. She is a dressmaker, but this is no ordinary sewing workshop. Hers are no ordinary clients. Ella has joined the seamstresses of Birkenau-Auschwitz. Every dress she makes could mean the difference between life and death. And this place is all about survival. Ella seeks refuge from this reality, and from haunting memories, in her work and in the world of fashion and fabrics. She is faced with painful decisions about how far she is prepared to go to survive. Is her love of clothes and creativity nothing more than collaboration with her captors, or is it a means of staying alive?
Irena Sendler: a graphic novel
Margaret Littman
9781503765788
Irena Sendler was a humanitarian and social worker in Nazi occupied Poland during World War II. Her Job allowed her to pass through the armed gates of the Warsaw ghetto, bringing limited aid to the 45,000 Jewish people who were forcibly moved there. In secret, 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. This is her story.
Monica Hesse
9780316490597
Germany, 1945. Eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman is alive, but not whole. Her body is just beginning to heal from the trauma of the Holocaust, her mind is broken, and her life is shattered. She knows that she will never see her beloved parents, grandmother, or aunt again-she watched as they were all sent to the left, to the gas chambers, at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Only she and her younger brother Abek were sent to the right, and her last words to him were a promise: Abek to Zofia, A to Z. When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet. And we will be whole, and everything will be fine. I promise I will find you. Desperate to find Abek, fulfil her vow, and rebuild their lives, Zofia's search brings her to their hometown in Poland and then deep into a displaced persons camp in Germany.
Michael Rosen
9780702303180
Beginning in 1939, young Solly in London exchanges letters with his teenaged cousin, Bernie, in Poland. While Solly is evacuated and tries his best to adjust to life in the English countryside, Bernie's parents know that as Jews they're not safe staying in Warsaw, so they send Bernie to the Russian-occupied side of the country in the hope that he'll be safer there. Soon, though, he is arrested and sent off to a forced labour camp in Russia. As the cousins exchange sporadic letters, they try to keep their spirits up, trading jokes and observations about the world changing all around them. Then Bernie seizes the opportunity to join the 'Anders Army' and fight the Axis powers and tells Solly all about his experiences in Iran and eventually Italy, where he fights alongside the British at the famous Battle of Monte Cassino.
Marius Marcinkevičius
9780500653265
Eitan and his best friend Rivka live in a place where children laugh, dogs bark, and neighbours chat. But no one can leave, and once you go through the gates, you never come back. This story takes place in Vilnius in Lithuania, when Jews were forced into ghettos and suffered greatly in the hands of the Nazis. Conveying the horrors of the Holocaust in a sensitive but powerful way, Marius Marcinkevicius's 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.
Hiba Noor Khan
9781839133138
War comes to the streets of Paris and Safiyyah's life changes for ever. Her best friend's family have fled, and the bombing makes her afraid to leave the mosque where she lives. But when her father is arrested by the Nazis for his secret Resistance work, it falls to Safiyyah to run the dangerous errands around the city. It's not long before hundreds of persecuted Jews seek sanctuary at the mosque. Can Safiyyah find the courage to enter the treacherous catacombs under Paris and lead the Jews to safety?
Judith Kerr
9780007274772
This semi-autobiographical classic, written by the beloved Judith Kerr, tells the story of a Jewish family escaping Germany in the days before the Second World War.
Michael Rosen
9781529515985
Eugene Handschuh was a Jewish member of the Resistance in occupied Paris. After he was captured by the Nazis, he was placed on a convoy to Auschwitz. Against all the odds, with the help of strangers and fellow members of the Resistance, Eugene and his father escaped the convoy and survived - when so many others did not. Former Poet Laureate Michael Rosen was inspired to tell this story after discovering his father's uncle and aunt were on the same convoy as Eugene but never returned.
Non-Fiction
Ma Isabel and Vegara Sánchez
9781786032928
Part of the bestselling Little People, BIG DREAMS series, Anne Frank tells the inspiring story of the writer whose diary captured the hearts of the public.
Leon Leyson
9781471119682
A remarkable memoir of strength and bravery from Leon Leyson, one of the youngest children to survive the Holocaust on Oskar Schindler's list.
The Holocaust: the origins, events and remarkable tales of survival
Philip Steele
9781783125241
This thought-provoking book uses evocative photographs, maps and easy-to-follow text to tell the story of this dark event to young readers in a clear and sensitive way. It explores the complex reasons for the Holocaust, what life was like in the ghettos and concentration camps, the aftermath and the founding of the state of Israel. Accounts from survivors and incredible stories of heroism and survival make it a compelling read for a new generation who are keen to learn about this dark period in human history.
The missing: the true story of my family in World War II
Michael Rosen
9781406386752
By turns charming, shocking, and heart-breaking, this is the true story of Michael Rosen's search for his relatives who 'went missing' during the Second World War - told through prose, poetry, and pictures. When Michael was growing up, stories often hung in the air about his great-uncles: one was a clock-mender and the other a dentist. They were there before the war, his dad would say and weren't after. Over many years, Michael tried to find out exactly what happened: he interviewed family members, scoured the Internet, pored over books and travelled to America and France. The story he uncovered was one of terrible persecution - and it has inspired his poetry for years since. Here, poems old and new are balanced against an immensely readable narrative; both an extraordinary account and a powerful tool for talking to children about the Holocaust.
Michael Rosen
9781406393705
Former Children's Laureates Michael Rosen and Sir Quentin Blake join forces for a personal and uniquely affecting collection of poems about migration and displacement. Michael's poems are divided into four: in the first series, he draws on his childhood as part of a first-generation Polish family living in London; in the second, on his perception of the War as a young boy; in the third, on his 'missing' relatives and the Holocaust; and in the fourth, and final, on global experiences of migration. By turns charming, shocking and heart-breaking, this is an anthology with a story to tell and a powerful point to make.
Jeremy Dronfield
9780241565742
In 1938, the Nazis come to Vienna. They hate anyone who is different, especially Jewish people. 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, a terrible place, full of fear. When his father is sent to a certain death, Fritz can't face losing his beloved Papa. He chooses to go with him and fight for survival. Meanwhile, Kurt must go on a frightening journey, all alone, to seek safety on the far side of the world. In this extraordinary true story, Fritz and Kurt must face unimaginable hardships, and the two brothers wonder if they will ever return home.
The girl who sang: a Holocaust memoir of hope and survival
Estella Nadel
9781444975819
Here is an illustrated graphic novel recounting the heart-rending true story of a young girl's struggle for survival during the Holocaust, suitable for children age 10+. Born to a Jewish family in a small Polish village, Estelle Nadel - then known as Enia Feld - was just seven years old when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. Once a vibrant child with a song for every occasion, Estelle would eventually lose her voice as, over the next five years, she would survive the deaths of their mother, father, their eldest brother and sister, and countless others. Estelle would weather loss, betrayal, near-execution, and spend two years away from the warmth of the sun - all before the age of 11.
The girl who fought back: Vladka Meed and the Warsaw Ghetto uprising
Joshua Greene
9781338880519
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is one of history's most powerful acts of resistance. Here, author Joshua M. Greene tells the true story of a young Jewish woman who was instrumental in the uprising as a smuggler of messages and weapons into and out of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Tova Friedman
9781526366658
Tova Friedman was one of the youngest people to emerge from Auschwitz. After surviving the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in Central Poland where she lived as a toddler, Tova was four when she and her parents were sent to a Nazi labour camp, and almost six when she and her mother were forced into a packed cattle truck and sent to Auschwitz II while her father was transported to Dachau. Tova witnessed atrocities that she could never forget, and experienced numerous escapes from death. In 'The Daughter of Auschwitz', Tova immortalises what she saw, to keep the story of the Holocaust alive. Written with former war reporter Malcolm Brabant, their meticulous research has helped Tova recall her experiences in searing detail.
Marian Hoefnagel
9780237539245
Written in simple, direct language, this biography is an easy-to-read introduction to Anne Frank's short life. Readers can follow her day-to-day life in hiding with her family and discover the hopes and fears of a young teenager as she writes to her best friend Kitty, the name she gives to her diary.