By Lori Nick
Fraser Valley Regional Library
“To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time. The witness has forced himself to testify. For the youth of today, for the children who will be born tomorrow. He does not want his past to become their future." --Elie Wiesel, author and Nobel Prize Winner
Many people avoid reading books about the Holocaust. The details of the treatment that millions of children, women and men endured during World War II are horrific. It is very difficult to read how so many innocent people were humiliated, tortured and killed. I read Holocaust literature because of the amazing courage of the people who lived to tell their stories of survival, and to speak for those who did not survive. The strength of character and determination it would have taken to survive a Nazi labour or concentration camp is awe-inspiring.
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank was one of the first books I read concerning the Holocaust. Anne is like many other teenage girls—she writes about movie stars she admires, boys she likes, and her dreams for the future. She hopes one day to be a journalist and famous writer. Tragically, Anne died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the age of 15. Ironically, her dream of becoming a famous author was achieved. The book has been translated into more than 60 languages, and 31 million copies have been sold.
Women who lived through the Holocaust as teenagers have also written memoirs or have had their stories told by others.
Edith Velmans-Van Hessen was a Jewish teenager who was hidden by a Dutch Christian family during World War II. Velmans uses her teenage diary and letters from her parents to tell her story in Edith’s Story: The True Story of a Young Girl’s Courage and Survival During World War II.
Escape Into Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman's Survival During World War II by Sonia Games is an unforgettable book about a young Jewish girl who is orphaned from her family during World War II. She is 10 years old when there is a bomb raid where she lives in Praszka, Poland. Sonia survives the war by pretending to be an Aryan Christian, while aiding resistance groups at the same time. It is a remarkable story of survival and courage.
Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story is written by Ann Kirschner. Kirschner’s mother Sala was sent to work at “Organization Schmelt” labour camps in Poland at the age of 16. Kirschner re-creates Sala’s struggle to survive with photographs and letters that Sala had written and received, throughout her 5 year imprisonment in 7 different camps.
Strange and Unexpected Love: A Teenage Girl’s Holocaust Memoirs is written by Fanya Gottesfeld Heller. At the age of 15, Heller and her family are forced into hiding. She survives with the help of a non-Jewish, Ukrainian militiaman with whom she falls in love.
There are also books about the Holocaust that have been written for younger readers. Ruth Minsky Sender was 13 years old when the Germans invaded Poland. In her memoir The Cage, Sender writes about caring for her younger siblings in a ghetto after her mother is arrested. Later she is sent to Auschwitz and then a slave labour camp. According to Publisher’s Weekly, this memoir is suitable for ages 10 and up.
Livia Bitton-Jackson was 13 years old when Hungary was invaded in 1944. She and her mother were sent to Auschwitz. Bitton-Jackson describes her horrific experiences in I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing up in the Holocaust. This memoir is suitable for ages 12 and up.
By the end of World War II, the Nazis had killed 6 million Jews, including an estimated 1.2 million children. Many Holocaust survivors have written powerful descriptions about their terrible experiences. They lost parents, grandparents, and siblings, and their childhoods had been stolen. We owe the survivors not to forget or ignore the horrors of war, but to honour their losses by remembering and understanding what so many were forced to endure.
