BOOKLIST Clifton House, Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2, Ireland Tel: +353 1 6690593 Email:[email protected] Website: www.hetireland.org This material has been produced with support from the Department of Education and Skills, Ireland Co-funded by the Europe for Citizens programme of the European Union Kunsill Lokali Qrendi Eko Centru Qrendi Qrendi Local Council Qrendi Eco Center © 2014 Holocaust Education Trust Ireland. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing. The Crocus Project – Booklist 1 There are very many books written about the horrors of the Second World War and the Jewish children who lived and died during it. Some are stories like Anne Frank’s. Some tell of survivors and refugees, some are about the brave people who tried to help. Most are based on true stories. The Nazis persecuted the Jews and they also persecuted others: black people, homosexuals, Roma and people with disabilities. Writers, journalists, socialists, trade unionists and political opponents to the Nazi regime were also targeted. There are several listings of books about the Holocaust suitable for children. The following are useful points of contact for lists and guides: • Publi c libraries www.askaboutireland.ie/libraries • Children’s books Ireland http://www.childrensbooksireland.com • Internationa l Board on Books for Young People http://www.ibbyireland.ie Every country participating in The Crocus Project will have its own recommended reading list. The books on this reading list refer specifically to the Holocaust. Teachers are strongly advised to read all books before reading them in the classroom and to add their own selections to the list. 2 The Crocus Project – Booklist Anne Frank’s Diary In 1944, Gerrit Bolkestein, a member of the Dutch government in exile, announced in a radio broadcast from London that after the war he hoped to collect eyewitness accounts of the suffering of the Dutch people under the German occupation, which could be made available to the public. As an example, he specifically mentioned letters and diaries. The broadcast was heard by a young Jewish girl called Anne Frank, who was hiding with her family and friends in a secret annexe in Amsterdam. She had been keeping a diary of her experiences since they first went into hiding in 1942. Anne thinks this is a brilliant idea and writes “Just imagine how interesting it would be if I were to publish a novel about the Secret Annexe!” In May 1944, the idea of this novel takes on serious form: “At long last after a great deal of reflection I have started my Achterhuis (Secret Annexe), in my head it is as good as finished, although it won’t go as quickly as that, if it ever comes off at all”. The diary of Anne Frank was found in the Secret Annexe after the family was arrested and was kept carefully by Miep Gies, one of the people who helped the family. Miep handed the diary back to Otto Frank, together with Anne’s notebooks and loose sheets of paper, when he returned to Amsterdam. The diary continues to be read by millions of people all over the world. The Diary of a Young Girl: Definitive Edition by Anne Frank Translated by Susan Massotty , Puffin Books, 2002 (Age 11+) Other editions of the diary are also available. Other Books about Anne Frank A Friend Called Anne by Jacqueline Van Maarsen Hannah Goslar Remembers Edited by Carol Ann Lee, Puffin Books, 2004 Bloomsbury (Age 11) (Age 11+) Hannah and her best friend, Anne Frank, lived a This is the true story of two best friends, one of relatively normal girlhood – going to school, playing whom was Anne Frank. Jacqueline van Maarsen in the park and growing up. Until one day, Anne gives a fascinating and moving account of her disappeared and Hannah and her family began to friendship with Anne and describes how she and realise that everything was changing around them. her own family lived through the Nazi occupation. In this profoundly moving book, we are told of the hardships of living through the Second World War, of Eva’s Story: Survivor’s Tale by the stepsister of the struggle for daily survival and finally of the Anne Frank by Evelyn Julia Kent and Eva Schloss , nightmare of deportation to a concentration camp – Castle-Kent, 1999 (Age 12+) where Hannah was once more to meet up with Anne. A refugee in 1938, betrayed and arrested in 1944, Eva was 15 years old when she was sent to The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank by Willy Auschwitz – the same age as Anne Frank – only Lindwer, Macmillan, 2000 (Age 14+) now, over 40 years later, has Eva felt able to tell her An account of what happened to Anne between story. her arrest in August 1944 until her death seven months later. This book contains the eyewitness testimony of six Jewish female survivors who describe Anne’s ordeals as she was transported to Westerbork, Auschwitz, and finally, Bergen-Belsen. The Crocus Project – Booklist 3 Other Holocaust Stories When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr , Nazi terror on a Kindertransport, are forced to Collins, 2005 (Age 10+) leave their family behind. After frightening Anna’s father is wanted by the Nazis – dead or experiences and a harrowing journey, they find a alive – and one day he disappears. Then she and her haven at a refugee farm at Millisle, County Down, brother Max are rushed by their mother, in in Northern Ireland. The devastating Belfast Blitz of alarming secrecy, away from everything they knew 1941 provides the climax to this story, which is – home and schoolmates and well-loved toys – based on true events. right out of Germany. Mischling, Second Degree by Ilse Koehn , Puffin Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine , Evans Brothers, Books (Age 11+) 2003 (Age 10+) Ilse Koehn was six years old in 1935 when, unknown In March 2000, a suitcase arrived at a children’s to her, she became a mischling, a second degree Holocaust Education Centre in Tokyo. It belonged to citizen in Nazi Germany because she was Jewish. an orphan girl called Hana Brady. Everyone was desperate to discover the story of Hana – who was Rose Blanche by Ian McEwan, Illustrated by she? What had happened to her? This is her true story. Roberto Innocenti , Red Fox, 2004 (Age 10+) Rose Blanche, (Weiße Rose or White Rose), was the Hitler’s Canary by Sandi Toksvig , Doubleday, name of a group of young German citizens who, at 2005 (Age 10+) their peril, protested against the war. Rose is also This is the story of one of history’s most dramatic the little girl in this picture book, who watches as rescues – smuggling Denmark’s Jewish population the streets of her small German town fill with across the water to Sweden, and safety. Many of soldiers. When she discovers a place where children the characters are based on the author’s own are imprisoned, staring hungrily from behind an family, including her father, Bamse, and the book electric barbed wire fence, she starts bringing them was inspired by the stories he told to her. food. An incredibly powerful visual image of the horrors of the Holocaust. The Good Liar by Gregory Maguire , The O’Brien Press, 2002 (Age 10+) Teaching guide available War Children by Phil Robins , Scholastic, 2005 free on www.obrien.ie/schools (Age 15+) Set in wartime France, this touching novel tells the Using taped interviews from the Imperial War story of Marcel and his brothers Rene and Pierre, Museum’s extensive Sound Archive, Phil Robins has who befriend a German soldier during the life- gathered together this compelling collection of first- changing summer of 1940. Then Uncle Anton hand accounts from people who grew up during the brings a woman and her young daughter to stay Second World War. As well as and suddenly everything changes, as the threat of British children’s stories of the German army looms closer. evacuation and the Blitz, this book also includes Erika’s Story by Ruth Vander Zee, Illustrated by memories Roberto Innocenti , Cape, 2004 (Age 10+) from In a cattle car, on their way to death, Erika’s family survivors of threw her to life. She was thrown from the train and the taken to a woman who risked her life to care for this Holocaust in baby. She gave her a name, a birth date, a home, Europe, and food, clothes and life. This picture book tells Erika’s from German story of survival and courage during World War II. children who witnessed the Faraway Home by Marilyn Taylor , The O’Brien near-total Press, 1999 (Age 10+) Teaching guide available destruction of free on www.obrien.ie/schools their country. Karl and his sister Rosa, young Jews who escape the 4 The Crocus Project – Booklist Surviving Hitler by Andrea Warren , Hodder music with the destructive forces of prejudice (Age 12+) during one of the most troubled periods in It is 1942. Fifteen-year-old Jack Mandelbaum has modern European history. just arrived at a Nazi concentration Camp. Torn from his family, he now faces disease, starvation The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman, and the insane brutality of the Holocaust. The Penguin, 2003 (Graphic Novel) (Age 14+) harrowing true story…as told by Jack himself. The story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, living and surviving in Hitler’s Europe. By One Small Suitcase by Barry Turner , Puffin addressing the horror of the Holocaust through Books (Age 12+) cartoons, the author captures the everyday The true story of the Kindertransport children who reality of fear and is able to explore the guilt, were rescued from Nazi Germany and brought to relief and extraordinary sensation of survival – England to start a new life.