Annotated Thematic Bibliography
The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender
Grade 9 Up This reflective Holocaust memoir presents a series of brief scenes from 1939, when
the author was 12 and Hitler invaded Poland, through the Russian liberation of the Mitelsteine
labor camp in 1945. Like many other survivors of the Holocaust who have written accounts,
Sender presents harrowing descriptions of life and death in the ghetto and concentration camps,
and gives fervent testimonials to the love, strength, and dignity that helped make her survival
possible. This extraordinary situation allows Riva, and readers, rare glimpses of wartime German
civilian life, and of the small sparks of compassion and humanity still present in her Nazi
captors. Older students with previous knowledge of the subject will find Sender's narrative
moving and thought provoking. But because of the book's sparse, impressionistic writing style,
and its highly selective content, The Cage should be purchased only as a supplement to well
developed and much used Holocaust collections. From Amazon.com
The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss (Trophy Newbery)
Grade 5-8-The deLeeuw family, Dutch Jews, did not emigrate to the U.S. in time to escape the
German Holocaust. However, friends kept them hidden during those turbulent years and they did
survive the War. As presented in Johanna Reiss' novel, based on her own experiences in Holland
during World War II, (HarperCollins, 1972), Annie, the young first person narrator, and her
older sister must live in an upstairs bedroom belonging to a rough but sympathetic farmer and his
family. From Amazon.com
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Newbury)
The evacuation of Jews from Nazi-held Denmark is one of the great untold stories of World War
II. On September 29, 1943, word got out in Denmark that Jews were to be detained and then sent
to the death camps. Within hours the Danish resistance, population and police arranged a small
flotilla to herd 7,000 Jews to Sweden. Lois Lowry fictionalizes a true-story account to bring this
courageous tale to life. She brings the experience to life through the eyes of 10-year-old
Annemarie Johannesen, whose family harbors her best friend, Ellen Rosen, on the eve of the
round-up and helps smuggles Ellen's family out of the country. From Amazon.com
Rena’s Promise by Rena Korneich Gelissen
Imagining that, by volunteering for a work camp, she would somehow be protecting her family
from the Nazis, Rena, at age 17, put on her best clothes, left her fiance and the Polish village of
Tylicz in the Carpathian Mountains and was sent off to Auschwitz. Presently, her sister Danka
arrived, as did cousins, schoolmates and neighbors. As a child, she had promised her mother to
Egbert, BYU, 2007
look after her baby sister, and that promise obsessed her throughout her incarceration in the
camp. It gave her reason to survive, so that one day she could bring Danka safely home. How
they escaped starvation, beatings, the crematorium, the medical experiments of the notorious
Josef Mengele and survived the end of the war is all recounted here in this spirited survivor's
testament, written with freelancer Macadam. After the war, Rena married a Red Cross worker
and emigrated to the U.S., following her sister. From Amazon.com
A Hero and the Holocaust by David A. Adler
Gr. 3-5. In a quiet, brief account of the Polish Jewish orphanage-director Janusz Korczak, who
cared for hundreds of children in the Warsaw ghetto and then went with them to his death in
Treblinka, this picture-book biography introduces the hero's personal story, putting it within the
context of the fate of children in the Holocaust. Moving quotes from Korczak's diary are part of
the text, and throughout Adler is careful to distinguish fact from surmise. The narrative,
however, is just an outline, so the book's grade-school audience will need to talk with adults
about the history of Nazism, the ghettos, transports, camps, and gas chambers. Adler does
provide a brief afterward and a useful bibliography. The illustrations, oil paintings on linen in
sepia tones, are unforgettable. From Amazon.com
Faithful Elephants: A True Story of Animals, People, and War by Yukio Tsuchiya
A zookeeper narrates the story of how there came to be graves at the zoo: when Tokyo was
showered with bombs during the bleak days of World War II, the authorities feared that if the
zoo were destroyed, the animals might accidentally be freed and wreak havoc on the city. So
they decided that all the zoo animals would be killed. But the elephants wouldn't eat the
poisonous food they were offered, and the needles in the syringes containing poison broke before
they could penetrate the elephants' rough skin. So the elephants were starved to death, a slow and
painful process watched by the zookeepers who loved them. An upsetting story for children or
adults, this powerfully conveys the deadly side effects of war. But this is a book that provokes
questions about the nature of death and dying (children may read into this that some may be
killed for the greater good of all), and so should be chosen with care. From Amazon.com
Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Eve Bunting
In this unique introduction to the Holocaust, Eve Bunting encourages young children to stand up
for what they think is right, without waiting for others to join them. From Amazon.com
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Star of Fear, Star of Hope by Jo Hoestlandt
Suffused with bittersweet regret, this sensitive picture book from France begins with the
reminiscences of an old woman. The narrator, Helen, describes being eight years old-when it's
1942, in Nazi-occupied France. Her best friend, Lydia, has been forced to wear a Star of David
on her jacket. The night of Helen's ninth birthday, Lydia sleeps over. While Helen's parents are at
work, strangers tap on a neighbor's door, calling out strange passwords and looking for shelter.
The Nazis are arresting Jews. Lydia asks to go home to her family, which infuriates Helen-it's
her birthday, after all. Her last words to Lydia are "You're not my friend anymore!" She never
sees Lydia again but, in all the intervening years, sustains hope ("with all my heart") that Lydia
has survived. In a powerful marriage of art and text, the simple, spare lines and muted tones of
Kang's illustrations quietly support the poignant story. Fluidly written and centered in events a
child can comprehend, the book is an ideal starting point for serious discussion about the
Holocaust. Ages 7-10. From Amazon.com
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Thematic Bibliography for I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia BittonJackson
Simple
Reading
A Hero and the Holocaust
by David A. Adler
Faithful Elephants by
Yukio Tsuchiya
Star of Fear, Star of Hope by Jo
Hoestlandt
Terrible Things by Eve
Bunting
The Upstairs Room by Johanna
Reiss
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
More
Challenging
Egbert, BYU, 2007
The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender
Rena’s Promise by Rena Kornreich
Gelissen