Top 10 Books for International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Friday, January 27 was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On that date in 1945, the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated. Some of the stories listed here share the lives of some of those who were imprisoned there. Some were imprisoned at other camps. Still others fled their homes in Europe in an attempt to escape the Nazis.
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is “freebie”, so I’ve chosen to share some of the books I’ve read or that are still on my reading list that feature stories based on historical events or family history. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl in which bloggers share their top ten book choices. Here are mine for this week.
10 Books to Read for International Holocaust Remembrance Day
The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz: A True Story Retold for Young Readers by Jeremy Dronfield
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review
What you need to know: The true story of two Austrian-Jewish brothers in WWII. One escapes to America. The other goes with his father into concentration camps, first Buchenwald and then Auschwitz.
Release Date: January 24, 2023
Boy From Buchenwald: The True Story of a Holocaust Survivor by Robbie Waisman with Susan McClelland
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review
What you need to know: How the author and 472 other boys (including Elie Wiesel) survived imprisonment in Buchenwald and found hope when Albert Einstein and Rabbi Herschel Schacter brought them to a home for rehabilitation.
Release Date: May 11, 2021
The Librarian of Auschwitz: The Graphic Novel by Antonio Iturbe, Salva Rubio, and Loreto Aroca
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review
What you need to know: Based on the true story of a fourteen-year-old girl imprisoned in Auschwitz becomes the guardian of 8 books slipped past the guards. I enjoyed this graphic novel a lot and thought of Dita when reading another book that mentioned books in Auschwitz.
Release Date: January 3, 2023
MAUS:
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | Reviews: Book 1 . Book 2
What you need to know: A man navigates a challenging relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor, who tells the tale of his experiences.
Release Date: November 19, 1996
28 Days: A Novel of Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review
What you need to know: Ruthie and her family board the St. Louis to escape from Germany and the concentration camps. When they’re denied entrance to Havana, Ruthie is determined to help find a place she and her family will be safe. A novel in verse based on real historical events.
Release Date: May 1, 2021
28 Days: A Novel of Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | TBR
What you need to know: When she learns of plans to murder everyone living in the Warsaw Ghetto, sixteen-year-old Mira joins the resistance, holding the Ghetto for 28 days. Based on the author’s family history.
Release Date: March 14, 2014
Letters from Cuba by Ruth Behar
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | TBR
What you need to know: After fleeing to Cuba with her father, Esther writes letters to her sister, who remains in Poland with the rest of the family. She records all her experiences as she waits, desperately hoping the rest of her family will be able to make their escape from the Nazis as well. Based on the author’s family history.
Release Date: August 25, 2020
Just a Girl: A True Story of World War II
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | TBR
What you need to know: In 1938 Italy, six-year-old Lia’s life is turned upside down by war. As danger grows, Lia and her sisters hide at a convent where she grows into a young teen, waiting for the day she can be “just a girl” again. A memoir adapted for young readers.
Release Date: January 1, 1994
The Length of a String by Elissa Brent Weissman
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | TBR
What you need to know: Imani, an adopted girl, discovers her grandmother’s diary in her search for her birth parents. In it, she discovers the story of Anna, her great grandmother, a Jewish girl who fled Nazi-occupied Luxembourg to the US where she was adopted herself.
Release Date: May 1, 2018
Have you read any books on the Holocaust or World War II?
If you have, which ones stick with you the most? Have you read any of the books on my list of ten books for International Holocaust Remembrance Day? Let me know! I would love to add more books to my reading list.