Holocaust Resources: Holocaust Resources

In a stirring chronicle, Doreen Rappaport brings to light the courage of countless Jews who organized to sabotage the Nazis and help other Jews during the Holocaust. Under the noses of the military, Georges Loinger smuggles thousands of children out of occupied France into Switzerland. In Belgium, three resisters ambush a train, allowing scores of Jews to flee from the cattle cars. In Poland, four brothers lead more than 1,200 ghetto refugees into the forest to build a guerilla force and self-sufficient village. And twelve-year-old Motele Shlayan entertains German officers with his violin moments before setting off a bomb. Through twenty-one meticulously researched accounts — some chronicled in book form for the first time — Doreen Rappaport illuminates the defiance of tens of thousands of Jews across eleven Nazi-occupied countries during World War II. In answer to the genocidal madness that was Hitler’s Holocaust, the only response they could abide was resistance, and their greatest weapons were courage, ingenuity, the will to survive, and the resolve to save others or to die trying. Extensive end matter includes: - timeline of important events - index - pronunciation guide - source notes - maps integrated throughout text

The remarkable story of collective and individual acts of bravery and altruism. Photos, map, bibliography, index.

"Why am I talking to you?" he asked aloud. "I don't believe in ghosts." "You want to know the truth," replied the dybbuk, "Neither do I. But here I am." Avrom Amos likes to crack jokes. He loves the spotlight. And if he wants something, he knows how to get it. He's just like any other boy, except for one thing: He's a ghost-a dybbuk. During World War Two he'd been murdered by the Nazis, right after he saved the life of a young ventriloquist named Freddie. Freddie doesn't know it yet, but he's about to return the favor. Because the dybbuk wants revenge, and he knows exactly how to get it.

Some Jewish teens were fortunate enough to escape Nazi-controlled territory, sometimes alone and often with little but the clothes on their backs. This volume focuses on how four teens eluded and escaped from the Nazis.

Many know the tragic story of Anne Frank, the teen whose life ended at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. But most people don't know about Eva Schloss, Anne's playmate and stepsister. Though Eva, like Anne, was taken to Auschwitz at the age of 15, her story did not end there. / This incredible memoir recounts -- without bitterness or hatred --the horrors of war, the love between mother and daughter, and the strength and determination that helped a family overcome danger and tragedy. 

While searching his grandmother’s attic for likely items to sell at a yard sale, Jeroen finds a photo album that brings back hard memories for his grandmother, Helena. Helena tells Jeroen for the first time about her experiences during the German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War, and mourns the loss of her Jewish best friend, Esther. Helena believes that her own father, a policeman and Nazi sympathizer, delivered Esther to the Nazis and that she died in a concentration camp. But after hearing her story, Jeroen makes a discovery and Helena realizes that her father kept an important secret from her.

Liberated from a German concentration camp at the end of World War II but haunted by the memory of her ordeal, fifteen-year-old Piri starts a strange new life as a Jew in Sweden. Sequel to "Upon the Head of the Goat."

During the Holocaust, many Jewish teens went into hiding-in homes, in barns, in the woods-to avoid being captured and killed. Others managed to disguise themselves as non-Jews. This book explores their experiences and feelings when hiding from the Nazis.

First-person accounts of fourteen Holocaust survivors who as children were hidden from the Nazis by non-Jews.

Hundreds of thousands of German boys and girls joined the Hitler Youth, the Nazi youth organization. This volume examines how they were seduced into obeying the Nazis and how their dreams were finally shattered.

Discusses the historical background, from the Treaty of Versailles through Hitler's rise to power, that led to the horrible and systematic slaughter of millions of Jews by the Nazis during World War II.

Millions of people perished in the Nazi concentration camps. Teens were among those who most often survived. This book tells their stories of despair, sadness, and the hope that they maintained despite the horror of the camps.

Accelerated Reader is a program based on the fact that students become more motivated to read if they are tested on the content of the books they have read and are rewarded for correct answers. Students read each book, individually take the test on the computer, and receive gratification when they score well. Schools using the Accelerated Reader program have seen a significant increase in reading among their students. Globally and locally, teens are confronted with a wide variety of social issues and difficult political realities. These titles are excellent for community service learning and tolerance building.

IIrena Sendler, a Polish social worker, helped nearly four hundred Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and into hiding during World War II.

It's 1938, and twelve-year-old Edith is about to move from the tiny German village she's lived in all her life to a place that seems as foreign as the moon: Chicago, Illinois. And she will be doing it alone. This dramatic and chilling novel about one girl's escape from Hitler's Germany was inspired by the experiences of the author's mother, one of twelve hundred children rescued by Americans as part of the One Thousand Children project. This title has Common Core connections. Is It Night or Day? is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

The framers of the Constitution in 1787 created a durable republican government, a unique achievement in the saga of human civilization. Throughout American history, however, a handful of people have suggested that the United States's problem is its Constitution and that the answer is a new document. This book republishes proposed alternative constitutions, most for the first time. The volume opens with an introduction that explores the significance of these constitutions to American constitutional development and assesses the framers' success in nearly precluding counter-constitutional opposition. The ten chapters that follow include an introduction to each proposed constitution, a brief biographical sketch of the author, the constitution itself, and a summary of the contemporary response to the proposed constitution. This book will be of interest to constitutional and legal historians and to intellectual and political historians.

The Last Train is the harrowing true story about young brothers Paul and Oscar Arato and their mother, Lenke, surviving the Nazi occupation during the final years of World War II.  Living in the town of Karcag, Hungary, the Aratos felt insulated from the war — even as it raged all around them. Hungary is allied with Germany to protect its citizens from invasion, but in 1944 Hitler breaks his promise to keep the Nazis out of Hungary.  The Nazi occupation forces the family into situations of growing panic and fear: first into a ghetto in their hometown; then a labor camp in Austria; and, finally, to the deadly Bergen Belsen camp deep in the heart of Germany. Separated from their father, 6-year-old Paul and 11-year-old Oscar must care for their increasingly sick mother, all while trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy amid the horrors of the camp.  In the spring of 1945, the boys see British planes flying over the camp, and a spark of hope that the war will soon end ignites. And then, they are forced onto a dark, stinking boxcar by the Nazi guards. After four days on the train, the boys are convinced they will be killed, but through a twist of fate, the train is discovered and liberated by a battalion of American soldiers marching through Germany.  The book concludes when Paul, now a grown man living in Canada, stumbles upon photographs on the internet of his train being liberated. After writing to the man who posted the pictures, Paul is presented with an opportunity to meet his rescuers at a reunion in New York — but first he must decide if he is prepared to reopen the wounds of his past.

U.S. soldiers liberated many Nazi concentration camps, often without being psychologically prepared for it. This volume presents the riveting stories of two teenage liberators and two teenage camp survivors who were liberated by American troops.

Young readers may not be aware of any cases of Jews fighting back. In fact, there was a substantial youth movement whose members were willing to sacrifice their own lives in order to launch a resistance movement against the Nazis. This book examines the life and death of Mordechai Anielewicz, a young Jew who led armed resistance struggles against Nazi captors.

What led to the Holocaust? How could it possibly have been allowed to happen? A comprehensive examination of German history reveals the seeds from which the Nazi party, and the Holocaust, were born. Readers gain an understanding of the vulnerability of human beings, both the perpetrators and the victims.

For the first time, a Dear America story is being told in two parts -- complete in one volume! Julie Weiss's world is suddenly torn apart by a war that will forever change the face of humanity. Her life as a privileged Jewish girl quickly becomes one of humiliation and terror. In part two, Julie has left Nazi Austria for New York, where she begins a new life with her extended family who she has never met.

She was a young German Jew. He was an ardent member of the Hitler Youth. This is the story of their parallel journey through World War II. Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck were born just a few miles from each other in the German Rhineland. But their lives took radically different courses: Helen's to the Auschwitz extermination camp; Alfons to a high rank in the Hitler Youth. While Helen was hiding in Amsterdam, Alfons was a fanatic believer in Hitler's "master race." While she was crammed in a cattle car bound for the death camp Auschwitz, he was a teenage commander of frontline troops, ready to fight and die for the glory of Hitler and the Fatherland. This book tells both of their stories, side-by-side, in an overwhelming account of the nightmare that was WWII. The riveting stories of these two remarkable people must stand as a powerful lesson to us all.

The village of Le Chambon, rich in European history, was home to WWII hero and spiritual leader Pastor André Trocmé. Draper reveals the heartwarming story of Trocmés courage to resist Nazi power and the strong messages of pacifism that he taught to villagers during the German occupation of France. Every moment of Trocmés life became a spiritual one.

Survive. At any cost. 10 concentration camps. 10 different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It's something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over. Everything he has, and everyone he loves, have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prisoner -- his arm tattooed with the words PRISONER B-3087. He is forced from one nightmarish concentration camp to another, as World War II rages all around him. He encounters evil he could have never imagined, but also sees surprising glimpses of hope amid the horror. He just barely escapes death, only to confront it again seconds later. Can Yanek make it through the terror without losing his hope, his will -- and, most of all, his sense of who he really is inside? Based on an astonishing true story.

This biography of Reinhard Heydrich, leader of the SS, details the rise to power by one of Hitlers most faithful servants and political spokesmen. Ramen describes Heydrichs drive and determination to gain full control of the police under Hitler, his indiscretions along the way, and his appointment to the occupied half of the newly divided country of Czechoslovakia: Bohemia-Moravia.

Very few non-Jews risked their own lives to save the lives of Jews targeted for death by the Nazis. This book relates the inspiring stories of some of these courageous teen rescuers.

Teenagers were among those most likely to resist the Nazis in ghettos and concentration camps. Their armed and unarmed resistance against the Nazis, as well as their spiritual resistance, are celebrated in this volume.

A paddle wheeler cruises up the Mississippi, delivering mail and hosting an occasional concert. A scene straight out of the nineteenth century? Not quite. This Mississippi is a toxic brown river. And the paddle wheeler is run by the River Rats, a troop of orphans who survived the Flash, a nuclear holocaust. What were once huge cities are now plague-ridden ruins haunted by gangs of savage children. And the concerts the Rats play are post-apocalyptic rock and roll--a music as rough and ragged as the musicians who perform it. When the Rats rescue a stranger from the river, all the troubles of the old world suddenly threaten to end their travels forever.

Esther remembers her own experience of the Holocaust as a Jewish girl living in Amsterdam, and recounts to her grandson Daniel and his friend Jeroen how she escaped from the Nazis and survived by going into hiding in the countryside. Her parents were not so lucky. Esther knows they were sent to a concentration camp and died there, and with Daniel’s help she embarks on a search to discover what happened to them during the last months of their lives. After tracking down an old friend who now lives in Israel, Esther finally learns the shocking story of how her parents met their fates at Auschwitz.

Gripping and inspiring, these true stories of bravery, terror, and hope chronicle nine different children's experiences during the Holocaust. These are the true-life accounts of nine Jewish boys and girls whose lives spiraled into danger and fear as the Holocaust overtook Europe. In a time of great horror, these children each found a way to make it through the nightmare of war. Some made daring escapes into the unknown, others disguised their true identities, and many witnessed unimaginable horrors. But what they all shared was the unshakable belief in-- and hope for-- survival. Their legacy of courage in the face of hatred will move you, captivate you, and, ultimately, inspire you.

A photohistory focusing on the young who struggled through the brutality of the Holocaust following the destruction of their world of family & friends.

The story of the search for the infamous war criminal and of his trial in Israel in 1961, during which the horror of the Holocaust was relived.

When her mother is killed by the Gestapo, a Jewish girl named Lola is sent into hiding. At first, Lola secretly lives in the home of a Ukrainian woman. But when someone threatens to expose her to the Nazis, Lola must flee again, this time hiding with another family in a dirt hole beneath a barn. Struggling against cold and hunger, the hidden family lives under the constant threat of discovery. Lola has lost everything - her home and her family. All she has left is one article of clothing, a dress lovingly embroidered by her mother. Will Lola ever find safety - or freedom? This moving, accessibly written memoir is a testament to the power of courage and hope.

This volume explains the events that led up to the Holocaust as well as the atrocity itself. It gives an overview of the Holocaust, describing the events which led up to the Nazis' attempt to get rid of a whole race of people while simultaneously fighting a war on two fronts.

Nine-year-old Piri describes the bewilderment of being a Jewish child during the 1939-1944 German occupation of her hometown (then in Hungary and now in the Ukraine) and relates the ordeal of trying to survive in the ghetto.

In 1941, Theo Coster was a student at the Amsterdam Jewish Lyceum, one in a class of 28 Jewish children that the Nazis had segregated from the rest of the Dutch population. Among Theo's fellow students was a young Anne Frank, whose diary would later become one of the most important documents of the Holocaust. In this remarkable group portrait, Coster and five of his fellow classmates gather their personal stories and memories of Anne. The accounts collected here do not just help us to rediscover Anne Frank. They also stand on their own as remarkable stories of ingenuity and survival during the Holocaust--from Albert Gomes de Mesquita, who hid in ten different towns across Europe--to Hannah Goslar, who experienced the horrors of Bergen-Belsen but also made a miraculous reconnection with Anne days before her death.