Holocaust Memorial Day takes place each year on 27 January. This date marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. It's a day to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution, and in other genocides, such as in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur.
The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2023 is Ordinary People. Genocide is facilitated by ordinary people. Ordinary people turn a blind eye, believe propaganda, join murderous regimes. And those who are persecuted, oppressed and murdered in genocide aren’t persecuted because of crimes they’ve committed – they are persecuted simply because they are ordinary people who belong to a particular group (eg, Roma, Jewish community, Tutsi). You can find out more information about the theme on the Holocaust Memorial Day website.
You can explore this theme with the stories of bravery and resistance in our booklist. Reserve them now to collect at your local library.
Reserve The just: how six unlikely heroes saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust, by Jan Brokken
Reserve I want you to know we're still here: my family, the Holocaust and my search for truth, by Esther Safran Foer
Reserve Always remember your name: the children of Auschwitz, by Andra Bucci
Reserve In the midst of civilized Europe: the pogroms of 1918–1921 and the onset of the Holocaust, by Jeffrey Veidlinger
Reserve The Nazis knew my name: a remarkable story of survival and courage in Auschwitz, by Magda Hellinger
Reserve The happiest man on Earth, by Eddie Jaku
Reserve The last survivor, by Frank Krake
Reserve Lily's promise: how I survived Auschwitz and found the strength to live, by Lily Ebert
Reserve The dressmakers of Auschwitz: the true story of the women who sewed to survive, by Lucy Adlington
Reserve How to be a refugee: the gripping true story of how one family hid their Jewish origins to survive the Nazis, by Simon May
Reserve The betrayal of Anne Frank: a cold case investigation, by Rosemary Sullivan
Reserve The boy who drew Auschwitz, by Thomas Geve
Reserve Three sisters, by Heather Morris
Reserve The Nine: how a band of daring Resistance women escaped from Nazi Germany - the powerful true story, by Gwen Strauss
Reserve The barefoot woman, by Scholastique Mukasonga
Reserve Do not disturb, by Michela Wrong
Reserve The journey: the boy who lost everything... and the horses who saved him, by Abdul Musa Adam
Reserve No escape: the true story of China’s genocide of the Uyghurs, by Nury Turkel
Reserve The chief witness: escape from China's modern-day concentration camps, by Sayragul Sauytbay
Reserve My survival: a girl on Schindler's list: a memoir, by Rena Finder
Reserve Anne Frank, by Stephen Krensky
Reserve On the move: poems about migration, by Michael Rosen
Reserve Anne Frank: the girl heard around the world, by Linda Elovitz Marshall
Reserve They went left, by Monica Hesse
Reserve Soon, by Morris Gleitzman
Reserve After the war, by Tom Palmer
Reserve Anna at war, by Helen Peters
Reserve When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit, by Judith Kerr
Reserve War games: two stories, by Terry Deary
