The Holocaust Books
Ebury Publishing The Volunteer
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewTotally gripping … A fascinating, revelatory and surreal WWII story of almost incredible courage and unspeakable horror – how a Polish resistance fighter helped reveal the secret of the final solution from inside Auschwitz * Simon Sebag Montefiore *A remarkable book. Fairweather’s account is often harrowing; but it is an important account of the suffering and tragedy in Nazi death camps, told using many previously unpublished sources - and from a new perspective. * Peter Frankopan *Well-researched, well-written and searingly memorable, Jack Fairweather’s book reminds us of the capacity for nobility in the human soul in times of unimaginable peril * Andrew Roberts, bestselling author of ‘Churchill: Walking with Destiny’ *Few books have enthralled, incensed and haunted me as “The Volunteer” has done. There were times I felt compelled to set it aside. There were others when hours of reading passed in what felt like moments … This is a story that has long deserved a robust, faithful telling, and he has delivered it * Wall Street Journal *An extraordinary story * The Times *Superbly written and breathtakingly researched … a story of incalculable value delivered in the most compelling prose I have read in a long time * Sebastian Junger, #1 New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist *What distinguishes The Volunteer is Fairweather’s meticulous attention to accuracy … if it sometimes seems as though there is nothing left to uncover about the Holocaust, Fairweather’s gripping book proves otherwise * The Spectator *Combines the verve of a thriller with the detailed evidence of the sober, hideous truth -- Anne de Courcy * The Telegraph *A searing account … a fitting memorial to one of Poland’s greatest war heroes and a shaming indictment of the western allies’ failure to act * Sunday Times *A forceful narrative with unstoppable reading momentum, Fairweather has created an insightful biography of a covert war hero and an extraordinary contribution to the history of the Holocaust. * Starred booklist review *Witold Pilecki is one of the great—perhaps the greatest—unsung heroes of the second world war ... Jack Fairweather's meticulous and insightful book is likely to be the definitive version of this extraordinary life * Economist *An outstanding achievement ... a harrowing tale, revealing the depths of human depravity, redeemed by the shining courage and nobility of one of humanity's heroes. * Patrick Bishop, bestselling author FIGHTER BOYS *
£11.69
Amberley Publishing Love with No Tomorrow
Book SynopsisNew in paperback - Love with No Tomorrow shares a spark of light by sharing true love stories of the Holocaust. This heart-wrenching book uses hundreds of hours of interviews with survivors and their children to present first-hand accounts of the relationships that blossomed in extermination camps, sparking hope in the darkest of times.Trade Review‘Love With No Tomorrow, through its compelling stories of love and affirmation in the darkest of contexts, relates important history about individual lives. It confirms that there is a strength and power in the human spirit that, even in the most inhuman of circumstances, can animate and ennoble. It is a testament to the exponential power of survival.’ -- DAVID G. MARWELL, PhD, Director Emeritus of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and author of Mengele: Unmasking the ‘Angel of Death’
£10.44
Granta Books The Fatherland and the Jews: Two Pamphlets by
Book SynopsisThe inaugural title in a collaboration between the Wiener Library and Granta Books. These two pamphlets, 'Prelude to Pogroms? Facts for the Thoughtful' and 'German Judaism in Political, Economic and Cultural Terms' mark the first time that Alfred Wiener, the founder of the Wiener Holocaust Library, has been published in English. Together they offer a vital insight into the antisemitic onslaught Germany's Jews were subjected to as the Nazi Party rose to power, and introduce a sharp and sympathetic thinker and speaker to a contemporary audience. Tackling issues such as the planned rise of antisemitism and the scapegoating of minorities, these pamphlets speak as urgently to the contemporary moment as they provide a window on to the past.
£11.69
Cornerstone Surviving the War: based on an incredible true
Book SynopsisAn extraordinary novel based on an incredible true story of love, resilience, survival and hope. Perfect for fans of THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ, THE VOLUNTEER and THE LIBRARIAN OF AUSCHWITZ._______________________________Against all odds, love will lead them home.Shurka, her husband and their two small children never thought the war would reach their remote Polish village. They were wrong. Forced to flee their family home, they find shelter with their fellow Jews in the ghetto - but every night more and more people disappear, taken away on trucks to never be seen again. As terrible rumours of extermination camps swirl, Shurka realises that the longer they stay in the ghetto, the lower their chances of survival.Their best hope is to flee into the Polish forest, where Jewish resistance fighters hold out against Nazi search parties. Their new life is precarious in the extreme - and will test them more than they ever thought possible...Even in the dark, hope can be found._______________________________Surviving The War is the international Amazon bestselling survival and holocaust story, based on an incredible true story and previously published as Surviving The Forest. It has been translated into English from the original Hebrew.
£9.49
John Blake Publishing Ltd The Holocaust Codes
Book Synopsis'Massive, groundbreaking new research that sheds more truth on the Holocaust.' - Helen FryNever told in detail before, this is the account of how, for four years, British and Allied codebreakers decrypted secret SS and Gestapo messages detailing the mass killings of the Holocaust, and how the Germans in turn deployed cryptanalysis to try to conceal their persecution of Europe's Jews. The compelling and fast-paced narrative is told from the perspectives of two central and opposing characters, who never meet.At Bletchley Park, there is the legendary but unsung British codebreaker Nigel de Grey, shy, determined, nicknamed 'the Dormouse' by his colleagues. In Nazi-occupied Poland, SS Major Hermann Höfle, a former taxi driver from Salzburg, and one of the Third Reich's ruthless bureaucrats of mass death, oversees the operations of five concentration camps, including Treblinka.De Grey fought hard to make sure the vital intelligen
£18.70
Vallentine Mitchell Nazi Anatomy Lessons
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£19.00
Quercus Publishing The Daughter of Auschwitz: THE SUNDAY TIMES
Book SynopsisA Sunday Times bestseller (May 2023) - the incredible story of courage, resilience and survival. 'I am a survivor. That comes with a survivor's obligation to represent one and half million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis. They cannot speak. So I must speak on their behalf.' Tova Friedman was one of the youngest people to emerge from Auschwitz. After surviving the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in Central Poland where she lived as a toddler, Tova was four when she and her parents were sent to a Nazi labour camp, and almost six when she and her mother were forced into a packed cattle truck and sent to Auschwitz II, also known as the Birkenau extermination camp, while her father was transported to Dachau. During six months of incarceration in Birkenau, Tova witnessed atrocities that she could never forget, and experienced numerous escapes from death. She is one of a handful of Jews to have entered a gas chamber and lived to tell the tale. As Nazi killing squads roamed Birkenau before abandoning the camp in January 1945, Tova and her mother hid among corpses. After being liberated by the Russians they made their way back to their hometown in Poland. Eventually Tova's father tracked them down and the family was reunited.In The Daughter of Auschwitz, Tova immortalizes what she saw, to keep the story of the Holocaust alive, at a time when it's in danger of fading from memory. She has used those memories that have shaped her life to honour the victims. Written with award-winning former war reporter Malcolm Brabant, this is an extremely important book. Brabant's meticulous research has helped Tova recall her experiences in searing detail. Together they have painstakingly recreated Tova's extraordinary story about the world's worst ever crime.(P) 2022 Quercus Editions LimitedTrade ReviewEvery so often a book arrives that demands to be read. This is such a book. It should be compulsory reading for those who know little of one of humanity's greatest crimes and the awe-inspiring bravery of those like Tova Friedman who survived to tell their story. But also for those who think of the Holocaust as ancient history. It is not. It is an eternal reminder that evil needs only ignorance to flourish. That is the true value of this remarkable book * John Humphrys *Tova Friedman's vividly written and compelling story serves as proof that after suffering unimaginable cruelty and trauma, it is still possible to forge a life. This unforgettable book not only ensures we remember the horrors of the Holocaust, but can see the dangers of anti-semitism and other forms of racism today * Lindsey Hilsum *An unforgettable and deeply moving story. Malcolm Brabant brilliantly evokes the world of the ghetto and of Auschwitz through the eyes of Tova Friedman, a small child who survived the brutality of the Holocaust * Jeremy Bowen *I read this book with gratitude and urgency. Gratitude for the courage Tova Friedman has shown in deciding to share her story. We are all the beneficiaries of such powerful witness. The urgency comes from the knowledge that as time marches on such vivid voices are becoming increasingly rare. Read this book, cherish the lessons. It is a book rooted in the terrible events of another time, but the truths it reveals are eternal * Fergal Keane *Tova Friedman is telling her story for a reason, and that's clear in every page. It is a surprising and moving book which makes you furious, and I suspect that's what she wants -- Krishnan Guru-Murthy * Channel 4 News *[A] harrowing and lyrical memoir * Sunday Independent *An absolutely riveting book - please read it -- Judy Woodruff * PBS Newshour *A truly remarkable book -- Christine Lampard * Lorraine *Heart-breaking and powerful reading * History Revealed *In this vivid account, [Tova's] harrowing memories are brought to life with meticulous research from war reporter Malcolm Brabant. This result is a poignant, extraordinarily powerful book * Woman's Own *The combination [of authors] ... has turned into gold, as Brabant unerringly provides accurate research to support Friedman's callow memories. This is the real thing, the horrors of the Holocaust brought shudderingly to life, and all from the point of view of a small child who could barely read or recognise numbers. * Jewish Chronicle *Friedman is unflinching in choosing to reveal the trauma of her childhood and enlist the reader in her struggle to ensure that it can never be forgotten, and in the hope that it will never happen again. * Church Times *
£7.99
HarperCollins Publishers The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz A Powerful True Story
Book SynopsisWe felt an urge to document what we had witnessed. If we who had experienced it, I reasoned, did not reveal the bitter truth, people simply would not believe the extent of the Nazis' evil. I wanted to share our life, the events and our struggle to survive.'Thomas Geve was just 15 years old when he was liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp on 11 April 1945. It was the third concentration camp he had survived. Upon arrival at Auschwitz- Birkenau, Thomas was separated from his mother and left to fend for himself in the men's camp of Auschwitz I, at the age of 13. During the 22 months he was imprisoned, he was subjected to, and forced to observe first-hand, the inhumane world of Nazi concentration camps.On his eventual release Thomas felt compelled to capture daily life in the death camps in more than eighty profoundly moving drawings. Infamous scenarios synonymous with this dark period of history were portrayed in poignant but simplistic detail with extraordinary accuracy.Despite tTrade Review‘A stunning and profoundly moving book.’James Holland, historian and bestselling author of Normandy ’ 44 ‘His [Thomas’s] powerful voice and the drawings that illuminate his experiences show what can be learned from tragedy, and how the future can be better than the past.’Esther Gilbert, Holocaust historian and Trustee of the Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd Learning from the Germans
Book Synopsis''An ambitious and engrossing investigation of the moral legacies which stubbornly refuse to pass'' Brendan Simms As the western world struggles with its legacies of racism and colonialism, what can we learn from the past in order to move forward?Susan Neiman''s Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings. Neiman, who grew up as a white girl in the American South during the civil rights movement, is a Jewish woman who has spent much of her adult life in Berlin. In clear and gripping prose, she uses this unique perspective to combine philosophical reflection, personal history and conversations with both Americans and Germans who are grappling with the evils of their own national histories.Through focusing on the particularities of those histories, she provides examples for other nations, whether they are facing resurgent nationalism, ongoing debates over reparations or controversies surrounding historical monuments and the contested memories they evoke. It is necessary reading for all those confronting their own troubled pasts.Trade ReviewSusan Neiman relates hard truths from which others shrink. Her audacious work is a refreshing change from those, afraid to offend, who leave unsaid things that seem self-evident. * The Guardian *Growing up in the American south during the civil rights era, and spending much of her adult life in and around Berlin as a Jewish woman, Neiman has a keen ear for discomforts and awkwardnesses and the tics of guilt and avoidance -- Anne McElvoy * The Observer *Ambitious and detailed... ranges from the initial reluctance of German citizens to begin the process of truth and reconciliation to small-town Mississippi, and the shooting of nine African American American churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina * The Guardian *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd The Diary of a Young Girl
Book SynopsisOne of the most famous accounts of living under the Nazi regime of World War II comes from the diary of a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl, Anne Frank. Today, The Diary of a Young Girl has sold over 25 million copies world-wide; this is the definitive edition released to mark the 70th anniversary of the day the diary begins. ''12 June 1942: I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support''The Diary of a Young Girl is one of the most celebrated and enduring books of the last century. Tens of millions have read it since it was first published in 1947 and it remains a deeply admired testament to the indestructible nature of the human spirit.This definitive edition restores thirty per cent if the original manuscript, which was deleted from the original edition. It reveals Anne as a teenage girl who fretted about and tried to cope withTrade ReviewA modern classic . . . Anne's diary tells a story that is true, memorable, important and strongly personalized . . . compelling reading * The Times *Rings down the decades as the most moving testament to the persecution of innocence * Daily Mail *
£17.00
Vintage Publishing Eichmann before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of
Book SynopsisA New York Times Notable Book of 2014Smuggled out of Europe after the collapse of Germany, Eichmann managed to live a peaceful and active exile in Argentina for years before his capture by the Mossad. Though once widely known by nicknames such as 'Manager of the Holocaust', he was able to portray himself, from the defendant's box in Jerusalem in 1960, as an overworked bureaucrat following orders – no more, he said, than 'just a small cog in Adolf Hitler's extermination machine'.How was this carefully crafted obfuscation possible? How did a principal architect of the Final Solution manage to disappear? How had he occupied himself in hiding?Drawing upon an astounding trove of newly discovered documentation, Stangneth gives us a chilling portrait not of a reclusive, taciturn war criminal on the run, but of a highly skilled social manipulator with an inexhaustible ability to reinvent himself, an unrepentant murderer eager for acolytes to discuss past glories and vigorously planning future goals.Trade ReviewEichmann before Jerusalem is history at its best. Meticulously researched, compellingly argued, engagingly written. Bettina Stangneth confronts Hannah Arendt’s notion of the 'banality of evil' with important new evidence and nuanced insight, permitting a fresh and informed reassessment of this riven debate. Arendt would surely have applauded the Stangneth challenge -- Timothy W. RybackStangneth has mined an extraordinary trove of new documentary material… Meticulous, scholarly and highly readable... A tour de force of historical revision -- Ben Macintyre * The Times *Thanks to this brilliant book, exhaustively researched and convincingly argued, the veil has at last been lifted [on Eichmann's role in the Holocaust] -- Saul David * The Daily Telegraph *Absorbing... Bettina Stangneth's disturbing account of Adolf Eichmann's years in exile reveals the full extent of his cynicism, inhumanity and moral self-deception -- Richard J Evans * Guardian *Eichmann Before Jerusalem is both an unintimidated challenge to Hannah Arendt’s glib notion of Eichmann’s insignificance and a clear analysis of the origins and enduring uses of Holocaust Denial * Times Literary Supplement *
£12.34
Vintage Publishing The Nuremberg Interviews: Conversations with the
Book SynopsisThe Nuremberg Interviews reveals the chilling innermost thoughts of the former Nazi officials under indictment at the famous postwar trial. The architects of one of history's greatest atrocities speak out about their lives, their careers in the Nazi Party and their views on the Holocaust. Their reflections are recorded in a set of interviews conducted by a U.S. Army psychiatrist. Dr Leon Goldensohn was entrusted with monitoring the mental health of the two dozen German leaders charged with carrying out genocide, as well as that of many of the defence and prosecution witnesses. These recorded conversations have gone largely unexamined for more than fifty years.Here are interviews with some of the highest-ranking Nazi officials in the Nuremberg jails, including Hans Frank, Hermann Goering, Ernest Kaltenbrunner, and Joachim von Ribbentrop. Here, too, are interviews with lesser-known officials who were, nonetheless, essential to the workings of the Third Reich. Goldensohn was a particularly astute interviewer, his training as a psychiatrist leading him to probe the motives, the rationales, and the skewing of morality that allowed these men to enact an unfathomable evil. Candid and often shockingly truthful, these interviews are deeply disturbing in their illumination of an ideology gone mad.Each interview is annotated with biographical information and footnotes that place the man and his actions in their historical context and are a profoundly important addition to our understanding of the Nazi mind and mission.Trade ReviewA gripping work of history, a series of oral narratives that drag the reader, almost by force, into the nightmarish mental landscape of the Third Reich -- William Grimes * New York Times *A rare document...striking proof of the banality of evil * Kirkus Reviews *Goldensohn serves as a down-to-earth Dante in these anterooms to hell, getting one damned soul after another to reveal himself in his own words...as Goldensohn made his rounds, he mostly kept his astonishment and dismay under control. It's more than readers will be able to do * Newsweek *Goldensohn's conversations with these men are perturbing because most of the them seem like many of us except for the circumstances that lured them into opportunistic deviance. Goldensohn may not have left a headline-making legacy of belated revelations, but he has complicated further the tapestry of evil * Publishers Weekly *Virtually all the top Nazi officials tried at Nuremberg are interviewed here, and their responses make for fascinating yet chilling reading... Without necessarily intending to do so, these men reveal how easily totalitarian systems can induce acquiescence to or even enthusiastic participation in evil * Booklist *
£21.25
Quercus Publishing Treblinka: A Survivor's Memory
Book SynopsisChil Rajchman, a Polish Jew, was arrested with his younger sister in 1942 and sent to Treblinka, a death camp where more than 750,000 were murdered before it was abandoned by German soldiers. His sister was sent to the gas chambers, but Rajchman escaped execution, working for ten months under incessant threats and beatings as a barber, a clothes-sorter, a corpse-carrier, a puller of teeth from those same bodies. In August 1943, there was an uprising at the camp, and Rajchman was among the handful of men who managed to escape. In 1945, he set down this account, a plain, unembellished and exact record of the raw horror he endured every day. This unique testimony, which has remained in the sole possession of his family ever since, has never before been published in English. For its description of unspeakably cruelty, Treblinka is a memoir that will not be superseded. In addition to Rajchman's account, this volume includes the complete text of Vasily Grossman's 'The Hell of Treblinka', one of the first descriptions of a Nazi extermination camp; a powerful and harrowing piece of journalism written only weeks after the camp was dissolved. Introduction by Samuel Moyn, Professor of History at Columbia University and author of A Holocaust Controversy: The Treblinka Affair in Postwar France.Trade Review'His 96-page memoir, translated from the original Yiddish, has a powerful immediacy' Martin Gilbert, The Times. * The Times *'The small details, both poignant and horrific, leave a mark, which is as it should be' The Irish Examiner. * Irish Examiner *'This is one of the most horrific books I have read, and I found it impossible to put down ... a major addition to the literature of the Holocaust' Mail on Sunday. * Mail on Sunday *'This is an important book that deserves a prominent place in Holocaust literature' Victor Sebestyen, Sunday Times. * Sunday Times *'Rajchman describes the indescribable in this devastating account of surviving Treblinka ... An essential and unforgettable piece of Holocaust testimony' Robert Collins, Sunday Times. * Sunday Times *Table of ContentsPreface by Samuel Moyn. Treblinka. 'The Hell of Treblinka' by Vasily Grossman. Map. Further reading.
£10.44
Orion Publishing Co Final Verdict
Book Synopsis''[A] gripping and fascinating book'' JAMES HOLLAND, DAILY TELEGRAPH, 5* review''A brilliant book . . . timely . . . gripping'' RACHEL COOKE, OBSERVER''A thrilling read '' PHILIPPE SANDS, author of EAST WEST STREET***On 17 October 2019, in Hamburg''s imposing criminal justice building, a trial laden with extraordinary historical weight begins to unfold. Bruno Dey stands accused of being involved in a crime committed over seven decades ago: the murder of at least 5,230 inmates at Stutthof, the Nazi concentration camp in present-day Poland. Only seventeen at the time, Dey was a member of the SS unit responsible for administering the camp. Though he concedes to his role as a guard, he adamantly denies responsibility for the killings. Dey''s trial comes at a poignant moment. As the last members of the war generation - both victims and perpetrators - disappear, so does their first-hand knowledge of the Holocaust''s horrors. Bey
£18.75
Octopus Publishing Group Auschwitz A Mothers Story
Book SynopsisSuddenly there is a blow to my face, I am hurled to one side. 'My child, I have to go with her!' I scream. But Dr Mengel is standing before me, whip raised. 'Maul halten, shut up!' His eyes gleam. Filled with fear I cower down. In 1943, as the Nazi power swept across central Europe, Rosa, her husband Emanuel and their daughter, Judy, were forced into hiding. But after a year and a half of living a terrifying, day-by-day existence, they were betrayed. As they arrived in Auschwitz, Rosa was torn from her husband and her only daughter. Could she dare to hope she would see either of them again? Somehow, Rosa fought the horror and humiliation of the camp, on occasion coming dangerously close to death. In nursing the people trapped beside her, she helped others survive, but tragically she also watched them die - including a mother she had met before, with a similar story and a daughter the very same age. Her name was Edith Frank. Wri
£8.54
Octopus Publishing Group The Stable Boy of Auschwitz: A heartbreaking true
Book SynopsisThe instant Sunday Times and Amazon charts bestseller"I found myself in the Auschwitz stables, and I felt an ember of hope. If I could make myself useful, helping these horses, maybe I could stay alive."In the darkest moment of history, one child found the courage and strength to survive the unimaginable. This is Henry's true story.One hot, humid day in July, 1944, the Gestapo abducted fifteen-year-old Henry and his mother, forcing them onto cramped cattle cars in the Lódz Polish Ghetto. Like so many Jews before them, they had been selected to disappear - they were being sent to Auschwitz. Exhausted after hours of traveling, they finally emerged from the stifling, filth-ridden cattle car. Already devastated at having lost his father to starvation, Henry clutched his mother's frail hand, knowing she was all he had left in the world, and that he was the only one left to protect her. In a flash, he felt them being brutally torn apart. Crying out for her, his heart shuddered as he watched her disappear into a sea of other women. Henry knew that was the last time he would ever see her, and he felt like he had failed her. He was now completely alone in the world.Starving, and close to giving up all hope, Henry volunteered to work in the stables, responsible for breeding horses for the war effort. As he watched other prisoners leave and never return, Henry quickly realised these horses were his only lifeline - because every morning he was sent to the stables, was one more morning he escaped the gas chambers. Before long, caring for the horses became a passion, and their comfort and strength gave Henry a glimmer of life and hope in an ocean of death. Although with every second that passed, Henry knew if he became too weak or made one mistake, he would be mercilessly replaced...This is the heart-wrenching and inspirational true account of a courageous little German boy who, against all odds, after losing almost everything a human being can lose, survived to tell his story.This book was originally published as The Kindness of the Hangman.'Heartbreaking. Eye opening. Tear jerking... kept having to tell myself that this was a real account of the Holocaust.' Amazon Reviewer, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★'Phenomenal... I learned more about the Holocaust than anything I have read in the past... I can't express how much this book affected me.' Amazon Reviewer, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 'Inspiring book - a Must Read!!' Amazon Reviewer, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★'Spellbinding... I could not put this book down. The events are recorded in a human voice, not the history book version. I learned so much that was left out of my history books.' Amazon Reviewer, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★'A truly amazing story.' Amazon Reviewer, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★'A moving and powerful story of survival.'Amazon Reviewer, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★'Brought me to tears.' Amazon Reviewer, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★'An incredible story. Once I started reading, I couldn't put this down.' Amazon Reviewer, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★'Amazing story. One that needs to be told over and over to the next generations.' Amazon Reviewer, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★'Riveting, couldn't put it down. An amazing and heart wrenching recollection of unimaginable events. What an inspiring story of bravery, perseverance and finding the will to go on.' Amazon Reviewer, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★'I could not put the book down... will make you appreciate everything that you have in this world.' Amazon Reviewer, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★'I have never written an amazon review BEFORE finishing a book, but I'm doing it today... it is direct, evocative, and emotionally impossible to deal with all at once. IMO if you want to read about the Holocaust from a survivor, you owe it to yourself to read this book.' Amazon Reviewer, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
£8.09
Faber & Faber Life is Beautiful
Book SynopsisWinner of the Best Picture at the 1998 European Film Awards and the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.''A masterpiece. Romantic, hilarious, and astonishingly moving.'' Chicago Tribune1939: Guido, an Italian Jew, comes to a Tuscan town in search of his fortune. He meets and is smitten by schoolteacher Dora, a gentile; but she is already engaged, to a local Fascisto. Nevertheless, Dora is wooed and won by Guido''s clownish charm. But the shadow of bigotry threatens to fall across their happiness.1945: Guido and Dora are married, with a son, Giosue. For all Guido''s sunny disposition, he cannot ignore the fact that anti-Semitism has become iron law, and he and Giosue are sent to a concentration camp. Begging to be sent with them, Dora is instead confined in an adjoining all-female camp. In the darkest of hours, Guido desperately falls back upon his comedic gift, to try to shield his son from the abysmal fate confronting them. His clowning
£9.99
HarperCollins Publishers Judith Kerrs Creatures A stunning biography of
Book SynopsisA lavishly illustrated retrospective in celebration of 100 years since Judith Kerr's birth, author of The Tiger Who Came to Tea and many other iconic books.Judith Kerr was one of the best-loved authors and illustrators to ever put pencil to paper. The books she created, including The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Mog the Forgetful Cat, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and many many more, have become classics of children's literature, loved by generations of readers.But what of the life behind the iconic characters? Judith's own story is riveting, from her early childhood in Berlin, dramatically cut short by the family having to flee the rising Nazi Party, to her time at the BBC in the 1950s and her long and happy marriage to the celebrated screenwriter Nigel Kneale, creator of British television's first major hit, The Quatermass Experiment.The joy of this very special book is in hearing this story from Judith herself, accompanied by a treasure trove of illustrations and memorabilia. All combine Trade Review“… captures the colourful innocence of the 1950s and 1960s, with its harlequin tights, squat stoves and fathers in hats…Kerr’s world is one in which the small and lost come to be treasured.” – The Times “176 large, beautiful pages of nostalgia for anyone who has been a child in the past half century.” – The Independent
£24.00
Little, Brown Book Group If This is a Woman
Book SynopsisThe compelling story of the only concentration camp for women by the acclaimed author of A Life in Secrets.Trade ReviewCompelling ... [Helm] has painstakingly sought out many survivors and talked to them herself. The results are devastating ...What one is left with at the end of this momentous book is a sense of the power of human nature, both for good and evil Independent on Sunday A profoundly moving chronicle Observer An epic feat of scholarly investigation Spectator Where Helm's history excels is in her refusal to reduce any of the people in her history to stereotypes. Complexity is respected. She pays attention to the specificities of people's lives, including their religious beliefs, political aspirations and dreams. Even when discussing brutal female guards, Helm avoids demonisation -- Joanna Bourke Telegraph Helm has done us all a great service in this compelling, magisterial volume ... Read this book. Be appalled. Be moved. And be angry that so little action was taken to help, or to remember, until it was nearly too late. Read it, and weep Jewish Chronicle A sense of urgency infuses this history, which comes just in time to gather the testimony of the camp's survivors ... meticulous, unblinking ... [Helm's] book comes not a moment too soon The Economist Splendidly researched and tremendously moving ... Helm's book, based in part on interviews with survivors, is a model of sensitivity and seriousness Sunday Times Sarah Helm's momentous uncovering of Ravensbruck -- Rachel Holmes Guardian A groundbreaking chronicle -- Nicholas Shakespeare Telegraph It not only fills a gap in Holocaust history but it is an utterly compelling read -- Taylor Downing History Today
£12.34
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Hitlers Death Trains The Role of the Reichsbahn
Book SynopsisAn aspect of the Holocaust not previously covered.
£13.49
John Murray Press A Century of Wisdom
Book SynopsisAlice Herz-Sommer, 1903-2014The pianist Alice Herz-Sommer survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp, attended Eichmann''s trial in Jerusalem, and along the way befriended some of the most fascinating historical figures of our time, from Franz Kafka to Gustav Mahler, Leonard Bernstein and Golda Meir. A Century of Wisdom is her story: a testament to the bonds of friendship, the power of music and the importance of leading a life of maternal simplicity, intellectual curiosity, and never-ending optimism.Trade ReviewA Century of Wisdom is a stately and elegant book about an artist who found deliverance in her passion for music. Caroline Stoessinger writes with a special purity, as though she were arranging pearls on a string of silk * Pat Conroy *I have rarely read a Holocaust survivor's memoir as enriching and meaningful. Get Caroline Stoessinger's book, A Century of Wisdom, telling Alice Herz-Sommer's tale of her struggles and triumphs. You will feel rewarded * Elie Wiesel *As one of millions who fell in love with Alice on YouTube, a 107-year-old Holocaust survivor who plays the piano and greets each day with no hint of bitterness, I'm grateful to Caroline Stoessinger for writing a book that explains this mystery. You will be inspired by the story of Alice Herz-Sommer, who lived to teach us * Gloria Steinem *I'd walked on the cobblestones in Prague for thirty years wondering who might have walked on them before me: Kafka, Freud, Mahler. It feels like a miracle to have encountered, in Caroline Stoessinger's wonderful book, Alice Herz-Sommer, who walked with them all - with a heart full of music * Peter Sis *Caroline Stoessinger's celebration of music and life, the meaning and legacy of Alice Herz-Sommer's remarkable love-filled journey across the bitter hate-filled years of 20th-century madness is lyrical, compelling, and profoundly moving. This is an extraordinary, enchanting, entirely inspiring book - most timely and needed now. * Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt *A sweetly affecting collection * Kirkus *From countless hours and interviews conducted over the course of several years, she has mined a treasure trove of insight and reflection. Herz-Sommer's life is a tribute to the purity of artistic endeavor under the most devastating circumstances, and her refusal to be bitterly defined or essentially reshaped by tragedy is a testament to moral and spiritual courage. As the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, it becomes increasingly important to capture and communicate their individual stories. * Booklist *A Century of Wisdom is universal and will enrich readers for generations to come * Itzhak Perlman *'A Century of Wisdom is a stately and elegant book about an artist who found deliverance in her passion for music. Caroline Stoessinger writes with a special purity, as though she were arranging pearls on a string of silk.' * Pat Conroy *'I have rarely read a Holocaust survivor's memoir as enriching and meaningful. Get Caroline Stoessinger's book, A Century of Wisdom, telling Alice Herz-Sommer's tale of her struggles and triumphs. You will feel rewarded.' * Elie Wiesel *'As one of millions who fell in love with Alice on YouTube, a 107-year-old Holocaust survivor who plays the piano and greets each day with no hint of bitterness, I'm grateful to Caroline Stoessinger for writing a book that explains this mystery. You will be inspired by the story of Alice Herz-Sommer, who lived to teach us.' * Gloria Steinem *'I'd walked on the cobblestones in Prague for thirty years wondering who might have walked on them before me: Kafka, Freud, Mahler. It feels like a miracle to have encountered, in Caroline Stoessinger's wonderful book, Alice Herz-Sommer, who walked with them all - with a heart full of music.' * Peter Sis *'Caroline Stoessinger's celebration of music and life, the meaning and legacy of Alice Herz-Sommer's remarkable love-filled journey across the bitter hate-filled years of 20th-century madness is lyrical, compelling, and profoundly moving. This is an extraordinary, enchanting, entirely inspiring book - most timely and needed now.' * Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt *A sweetly affecting collection * Kirkus *'From countless hours and interviews conducted over the course of several years, she has mined a treasure trove of insight and reflection. Herz-Sommer's life is a tribute to the purity of artistic endeavor under the most devastating circumstances, and her refusal to be bitterly defined or essentially reshaped by tragedy is a testament to moral and spiritual courage. As the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, it becomes increasingly important to capture and communicate their individual stories.' * Booklist *'A Century of Wisdom is universal and will enrich readers for generations to come' * Itzhak Perlman *
£10.44
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Survivor: How I Survived Six Concentration
Book Synopsis**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**'A riveting, compelling, mesmerizing journey. Josef Lewkowicz is a hero in every sense of the word. The Survivor both terrifies us and inspires us. It's a must read.'Tova Friedman, author of The Daughter of Auschwitz.One of the last great untold stories of the Holocaust, The Survivor is an astonishing account of one man's unbreakable spirit, unshakeable faith, and extraordinary courage in the face of evil.At only sixteen years old, Josef Lewkowicz became a number, prisoner 85314. Following the Nazi invasion of Poland, he and his father were separated from their family and herded to the Kraków-Plaszów concentration camp. Forced to carry out hard labour in brutal conditions, and to live under the constant threat of extreme violence and sudden death, before the war was over Josef would witness the unique horrors of six of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Mauthausen and Ebensee.From salt mines to forced marches, summary executions to Amstetten, where prisoners were used as human shields in Allied bombing, Josef lived under the spectre of death for many years. When he was liberated from Ebensee at the end of the war, conditions were amongst the worst witnessed by allied forces.With his freedom, Josef returned home to find that he was the only one left alive in an extended family of 150. Compelled by the need to do something to avenge that loss, he joined the Jewish police while still in a displaced persons' camp, and was recruited as an intelligence officer for the US Army who gave him a team to search for Nazis in hiding.Whilst rounding up SS leaders, he played a critical role in identifying and bringing to justice his greatest tormentor, the Butcher of Plaszow, Amon Göth, played by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List. He then committed his life to helping the orphaned children of the Holocaust rebuild their lives.The Survivor is Josef's extraordinary testimony.Trade ReviewA remarkable story of fortitude and hope. Extraordinary.The Times * . *An incredibly powerful book.Good Morning Britain * . *A riveting, compelling, mesmerizing journey. Josef Lewkowicz is a hero in every sense of the word. The Survivor both terrifies us and inspires us. It's a must read.Tova Friedman,author of The Daughter of Auschwitz * . *A sickening personal tale of the depths of Nazi brutality. HarrowingAnne de Courcy, The Telegraph * . *Josef Lewkowicz's account of his journey through six concentration camps as a teenager makes for horrific reading. But what grips the mind is his Nazi hunting and capture of the despicable Amon Goeth, followed by his determination only to do, and see, good in people. His spiritual voice emerges from a history of pain and loss with a rare and admirable clarity.Baroness Julia Neuberger * . *One of the most miraculous and uplifting stories of the Holocaust.The Daily Express * . *A truly harrowing account, humanely told in fast-paced, affecting prose. You won't be able to put it down - even in those moments where the truth feels too hard to read.Sophy Roberts, author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia * . *Heartbreaking and inspiring. Josef Lewkowicz's journey to freedom did not end with his liberation from the Nazi death camps. He witnessed the inhumanity of men who, when given the power, can be so evil as to choose who shall live and who shall die. With captivating realism, Lewkowicz recounts reuniting hundreds of displaced and abandoned Jewish children with their families, an enormous task. If that wasn't enough, he became a Nazi hunter and helped bring some of the worst men in Jewish history to justice. This is a profound and courageous book.Maxwell Smart, author of The Boy in the Woods -- Maxwell Smart * author of The Boy in the Woods *Josef's story is an account of his unbreakable spirit, unshakable faith and courage in the face of evil.The Jewish Telegraph * . *[A] story of survival and pursuit of justice. Remarkable.Jewish Tribune * . *'No wonder this book is attracting global acclaim. Every sentence is unforgettable.'Paul Hayward * . *'A record of remarkable endurance.' * TLS *A book that you simply have to read. * Inside History *
£8.99
Biteback Publishing The Diary That Changed the World: The Remarkable
Book SynopsisWhen Otto Frank unwrapped his daughter's diary with trembling hands and began to read the first pages, he discovered a side to Anne that was as much a revelation to him as it would be to the rest of the world. Little did Otto know he was about to create an icon recognised the world over for her bravery, sometimes brutal teenage honesty and determination to see beauty even where its light was most hidden. Nor did he realise that publication would spark a bitter battle that would embroil him in years of legal contest and eventually drive him to a nervous breakdown and a new life in Switzerland. Today, more than seventy-five years after Anne's death, the diary is at the centre of a multi-million-pound industry, with competing foundations, cultural critics and former friends and relatives fighting for the right to control it. In this insightful and wide-ranging account, Karen Bartlett tells the full story of The Diary of Anne Frank, the highly controversial part it played in twentieth-century history, and its fundamental role in shaping our understanding of the Holocaust. At the same time, she sheds new light on the life and character of Otto Frank, the complex, driven and deeply human figure who lived in the shadows of the terrible events that robbed him of his family, while he painstakingly crafted and controlled his daughter's story.
£17.00
Ebury Publishing Yes To Life In Spite of Everything
Book Synopsis'Viktor Frankl gives us the gift of looking at everything in life as an opportunity' Edith Eger, bestselling author of The Choice'Offers a path to finding hope even in these dark times' The New York Times A rediscovered masterpiece by the 16 million copy bestselling author of Man’s Search For MeaningJust months after his liberation from Auschwitz renowned psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl delivered a series of talks revealing the foundations of his life-affirming philosophy. The psychologist, who would soon become world famous, explained his central thoughts on meaning, resilience and his conviction that every crisis contains opportunity. Published here for the very first time in English, Frankl's words resonate as strongly today as they did in 1946. Despite the unspeakable horrors in the camp, Frankl learnt from his fellow inmates that it is always possible to say ‘yes to life’ – a profound and timeless lesson for us all.With an introduction by Daniel Goleman.'Frankl’s is a voice that seems as necessary now as it was in the shadow of the Holocaust' Guardian Trade ReviewOffers a path to finding hope even in these dark times * The New York Times *Frankl’s is a voice that seems as necessary now as it was in the shadow of the Holocaust * Guardian *An unmissable opportunity to understand the man and his work more deeply * The Jewish Chronicle *The case studies are relatable and the overall viewpoint convincing. More than 70 years later, Frankl’s philosophy still inspires * Kirkus *This slim, powerful collection from Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning) attests to life’s meaning, even in desperate circumstances. . . . This lovely work transcends its original context, offering wisdom and guidance * Publishers Weekly *
£13.49
Biteback Publishing Giants: The Dwarfs of Auschwitz
Book Synopsis'Through thick and thin, never separate. Stick together, guard each other, and live for one another.' As Hitler's war intensified, the Ovitz family would have good reason to stand by their mother's mantra. Descending from the cattle train into the death camp of Auschwitz, all twelve emerged in 1945 as survivors - the largest family to survive intact. What saved them? Ironically, the fact that they were sought out by the 'Angel of Death' himself - Dr Joseph Mengele. For seven of the Ovitzes were dwarfs - and not just any dwarfs, but a beloved and highly successful vaudeville act known as the Lilliput Troupe. Together, they were the only all-dwarf ensemble with a full show of their own in the history of entertainment. The Ovitzes intrigued Mengele, and amongst the thousands on whom he performed his loathsome experiments, they became his prize 'patients': 'You're something special, not like the rest of them.' It was this disturbing affection that saved their lives. After being plunged into the darkest moments in modern history, this remarkable troupe emerged with spirits undimmed, and went on to light up Europe and Israel, which offered them a new home, with their unique performances. Giants reveals their moving and inspirational story.Trade Review"An astonishing story: both wretchedly sad and oddly uplifting - Giants can scarcely fail to stay with you." Mail on Sunday '[An] amazing story sympathetically and eloquently told ... The authors show great respect and affection for the Ovitzes ... Theirs was a life worth living and a story very worth telling.' New York Review of Books "Their remarkable story, extensively researched, is so beautifully and sympathetically written that it fully deserves to appeal far beyond its core audience." BBC History Magazine
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen
Book SynopsisTadeusz Borowski's concentration camp stories were based on his own experiences surviving Auschwitz and Dachau. In spare, brutal prose he describes a world where where the will to survive overrides compassion and prisoners eat, work and sleep a few yards from where others are murdered; where the difference between human beings is reduced to a second bowl of soup, an extra blanket or the luxury of a pair of shoes with thick soles; and where the line between normality and abnormality vanishes. Published in Poland after the Second World War, these stories constitute a masterwork of world literature.
£11.69
Pan Macmillan A Little Girl in Auschwitz: A heart-wrenching
Book SynopsisThe No. 1 international bestseller, with a foreword by His Holiness Pope Francis, who made headlines in 2021 when he kissed Lidia's Auschwitz identification tattoo.The unforgettable, moving true story of the little girl who survived Auschwitz's 'Angel of Death', Dr Mengele. Lidia was just three years old when she arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau with her mother, a member of the partisan resistance from Belarus. The bewildered little girl was picked out by Dr Josef Mengele for his sadistic experiments and sent to the infamous children’s block, where every day was a fight for survival. In eighteen months of hell she came close to death more than once.Her mother, who risked her life to visit Lidia, gave her strength. But when the camp was liberated, her mother was gone, presumed dead. Lidia, by now deeply traumatised, was adopted by a Polish woman. But then, in 1962, she discovered that her birth parents were still alive in the USSR, and Lidia was faced with an agonising choice . . .Lidia’s extraordinary story has touched hearts around the world, and she has made it her mission to bear witness to the Holocaust so that the truth may never be forgotten. This is a powerful and ultimately hopeful account by a remarkable woman who refuses to hate those who hurt her. She says, ‘Hate only brings more hate. Love, on the other hand, has the power to redeem.’'Unforgettable' - Daily MailPreviously published as The Little Girl Who Could Not Cry.Trade ReviewUnforgettable * Daily Mail *
£9.49
Ad Lib Publishers Ltd Irena's Gift: An epic World War II memoir of
Book SynopsisIf we seal off the past, how will we ever know the truth? In 1942, in Nazi-occupied Poland, a Jewish child was smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto in a backpack. That child was Karen Kirsten’s mother, but she knew nothing about this extraordinary event until one day a letter arrived from a stranger. After Karen eventually discovered the grandparents she loved dearly were in fact not her biological grandparents, she travelled the globe to uncover her family’s past and to find the answers to baffling questions: why did her adoptive grandmother treat Karen’s mother so unkindly? Why did she hide the truth that she was her mother’s aunt? And why, if she appeared to dislike Karen’s mother, did she risk her life to save her and bring her to Australia? Irena’s Gift weaves together a mystery, history and memoir to tell the story of a family torn apart by war. From the glittering concert halls of interbellum Warsaw to the vermin-infested prison where a Jewish woman negotiates with an SS officer to save her sister’s child, Irena’s Gift is about the lies we tell to survive and what happens when those lies unravel. It is about the extraordinary resilience of three generations of women, and the sacrifices made for love. Trade Review'Deeply moving and beautifully written, Irena's Gift is a powerful unravelling of mysteries and memory. The journey of reconstruction and reconnection brilliantly evokes a lost era full of pain and love, as well as laying out the intricacies of intergenerational trauma. In addition to its value as Holocaust history, Irena's Gift deserves to become a classic of the memoir genre.' * Lucy Adlington, author of 'The Dressmakers of Auschwitz - the True Story of the Women who Sewed to Survive' *'Karen Kirsten’s debut is a harrowing family drama that spans the globe — from Jewish ghettos patrolled by Nazis to Melbourne suburbs of poodles, kookaburras, and refugees. Kirsten goes on a quest to piece together her family’s secrets and finds much more than a tale of survival from history’s nightmare. She tells a story of disillusionment and faith. She reminds us that sometimes heroes can be repulsive, and sometimes lies keep families together. Irena's Gift is beautifully written, deeply researched and deeply felt.' * Kevin Birmingham, NYT Bestselling author of 'The Sinner and the Saint' and 'The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce's Ulysses' *'With extremism and fascism again threatening democracies, 'Irena's Gift' is a must-read for our times. Stunningly researched, it explores themes of identity, secrets, grief and forgiveness. The author addresses the importance of naming our history and wrestles with the complexity of human nature - why a Nazi officer saved her mother.' * Michelle Bowdler, author of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2020: 'Is Rape A Crime?' *'A family story as unique as a fingerprint. Enchanting.' * Thomas Keneally, author of Booker Prize-winning 'Schindler’s List' *'As Karen Kirsten sets out to solve the mystery of her mother’s past she takes us on a very personal journey of discovery. Skilfully, she unearths a thrilling story of war and survival against all odds. A keen researcher and sleuth, Karen uncovers a truth both astonishing and heartbreaking. Irena’s Gift is a beautiful, insightful, heartfelt and nuanced book. Masterfully crafted, it is both history and a memoir, but also so much more. Essential reading for anyone interested in WWII, trauma or family histories, this is one of the best second generation holocaust books ever published. I loved it and couldn’t put it down.' * Ariana Neumann, author of When Time Stopped. Winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, US National Jewish Book Award for Best Memoir. *'An epic story and an epic search for the truth that is beautifully written and meticulously weaved together, in a page-turning read I couldn’t put down. Karen Kirsten has captured her remarkable odyssey to place the final pieces of her family jigsaw in place, with moving and at times gut-wrenching detail. Alicja’s poignant words, "you think someone will want to know all of this?" will ring in your ears with every twist and turn that Kirsten’s journey takes to find the truth of who her family really are and how they were saved. Compulsive enough to read in a single-sitting, this is ultimately a story of love, healing, hope and humanity that will tug at your heartstrings. Irena’s Gift offers a prescient reminder, as Alicja says, that "we should never forget what happened".' * Sue Smethurst, author of The Freedom Circus *'An extraordinary story of how secrets and lies can tear a family apart.' * Maya Lee, author of The Nazis Knew My Name *‘Since I first learned about my Opa escaping the Nazis in occupied Holland, I have been taken with the heroic stories of everyday people during WWII. With author and refugee advocate Karen Kirsten, I find a kindred spirit. In Irena’s Gift, Kirsten brings to life the true and remarkable story of her family, including her mother and her grandmother, who like my Opa, sabotaged munitions at an armaments factory. This is a story of extraordinary women, survival and sacrifice. A must read.’ * Tara Moss, human rights and disability advocate, and author of The War Widow and The Ghosts of Paris *
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers The Gallery of Miracles and Madness Insanity Art
Book SynopsisA riveting tale, brilliantly told'' Philippe SandsThe little-known story of Hitler's war on modern art and the mentally ill.In the first years of the Weimar Republic, the German psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn gathered a remarkable collection of works byschizophrenic patients that would astonish and delight the world.The Prinzhorn collection, as it was called, inspired a new generation of artists, including Paul Klee, Max Ernst and Salvador Dali. What the doctor could not have known, however, was that these works would later be used to prepare the ground for mass-murder.Soon after his rise to power, Hitlera failed artist of the old schooldeclared war on modern art. The Nazis staged giant Degenerate Art' shows to ridicule the avant-garde, and seized and destroyed the cream of Germany''s modern art collections. This action was mere preparation, however, for the even more sinister campaign Hitler would later wage against so-called degenerate people, and Prinzhorn''s artists were caught upin bTrade Review‘A superbly told story of worlds colliding …There’s so much that’s wonderful about this book; it’s hard to know where to start heaping praise. It is by turns intriguing, tragic, horrifying and occasionally funny’The Times ‘English has written a terrific book, taut and thematic … As beautiful as it is bleak’Guardian ‘Engrossing …The work of these artists, much of which miraculously survived the war, lives on as testament to the variety of human experience, and of ways to communicate what it feels like to be alive’Economist ‘Compelling … The twin strands of Hitler’s thinking on art and racial purity draw remorselessly together … Memorable’Literary Review ‘A riveting tale, brilliantly told'Philippe Sands ‘A fascinating new book’Daily Mail ‘Fascinating … Journalist English unpacks Hitler’s mad campaign against mentally ill artists … English’s story feels strikingly relevant. While shedding new light on this piece of history, English also provides a cautionary tale for the future’Publishers Weekly ‘An extraordinary, deeply researched work which is a testament to the Prinzhorn artists’The Tablet ‘Perhaps only in 1920s Weimar Germany where expressionism and dadaism were exploring the dark sides of sex and fantasy could the art of the mentally ill first get its due. And perhaps only in Germany could the story Charlie English tells so well have ended in such horror. English takes us through uncharted artistic waters in a narrative of great humanity: a gripping journey into art, madness and modern history’Jonathan Jones, author of Sensations ‘Dazzling … This poignant narrative centres on the complicated psychiatrist Hans Prizhorn and the eccentric patient artists whose work helped usher in a new epoch of the modernist avant-garde only to become fodder for Hitler's hateful ideology of “degeneration”. Richly wrought, and deeply researched’Susannah Cahalan, author of Brain on Fire
£17.00
HarperCollins Publishers The Art of Resistance My Four Years in the French
Book SynopsisA gripping memoir written by a 96-year-old Jewish Holocaust survivor about his escape from Nazi-occupied Poland in the 1930''s and his adventures with the French Resistance during World War IIIn 1937, as the Nazi Party tightened its grip on the city of Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland), Justus Rosenberg's parents made the wrenching decision to send their son to Paris, where he would have the hope of finishing high school and going on to university in safety. He was sixteen years old, and he would not see his family again for sixteen years more.Even after war broke out in 1939, life in France was peaceful for a timebut when the Nazis pushed toward Paris in the spring of 1940, Justus was forced to flee south to Toulouse. There, a chance meeting put Justus in contact with Varian Fry, the American journalist who ran a refugee network that aided several thousand Jews in escaping Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. With his German background, understanding of French cultural, and fluency in several laTrade Review‘A natural raconteur, with a pleasing conversational style. What shines through this engaging book is his evident desire to be helpful and responsible and his acute consciousness of how extraordinarily lucky he was’ Times ‘Gripping … Fearless … Recalls imprisonments, escapes from confinement, and successful missions against the Nazis … A welcome addition to the World War II memoir shelf.’ Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
£9.49
Oxford University Press Hitlers Personal Prisoner
Book SynopsisThis is the first fully researched biography of Martin Niemöller (1892-1984). It charts his life from his service in the Imperial German Navy, his work for the Inner Mission and as a Protestant pastor in the Berlin suburb of Dahlem from 1931. Niemöller''s work as a leading figure of the Confessing Church and his contribution to the conflicts over church policy during the Third Reich are analysed and contextualised. Chapters on the post-war period chart Niemöller''s contribution to ecumenism, anti-nuclear pacifism, and his role in rebuilding the West German Protestant Churches.From 1938 to 1945, Martin Niemöller was detained as ''Hitler''s Personal Prisoner'' in Nazi concentration camps. Liberated in April 1945, Niemöller was widely hailed as an icon of Christian resistance against the Nazi dictatorship. For many years, the Niemöller legend masked the problematic aspects of his life: his persistent antisemitism, on display even in the post-war period; his nationalism and support of the German war effort even whilst in concentration camp detention; and his disdain for parliamentary democracy. In his biography of the most important twentieth-century German Protestant, Benjamin Ziemann uncovers the ''historical'' Niemöller behind the legend of the resistance hero. Carefully situating Niemöller''s personal trajectory in his wider social milieu -- from the Imperial Navy to the West German peace movement -- Ziemann probes into core themes of twentieth century German history: militarism, National Socialism, German guilt, and moral reconstruction post-1945.Trade ReviewZiemann has written the definitive biography of Martin Niemöller. He replaces the post-war image of an iconic figure of resistance to Nazism with a compelling, far less flattering, interpretation. This emphasises the fervently held form of nationalist Protestantism, cultural antisemitism and rejection of liberal democracy that provided consistency to the seeming contradictions in Niemöller's thought and actions until well after 1945. * Ian Kershaw, Author of Personality and Power: Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe *This book is a brilliant reexamination of one of the most obdurate of sacred cows, the myth of Martin Niemöller. Ziemann has done prodigious work in pushing past the postwar narrative so carefully curated by Niemöller's circle of confidants, to do what historians are supposed to do: get to the truth. By deploying a fact-driven methodology concerned with scrutinizing old truth-claims, Ziemann delivers the kind of probing reevaluation of Niemöller that we have waited literally decades to read. * Richard Steigmann-Gall, Author of The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945 *
£35.00
Penguin Books Ltd Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death Reflections
Book SynopsisOtto Dov Kulka''s memoir of a childhood spent in Auschwitz is a literary feat of astounding emotional power, exploring the permanent and indelible marks left by the HolocaustWinner of the JEWISH QUARTERLY-WINGATE PRIZE 2014As a child, the distinguished historian Otto Dov Kulka was sent first to the ghetto of Theresienstadt and then to Auschwitz. As one of the few survivors he has spent much of his life studying Nazism and the Holocaust, but always as a discipline requiring the greatest coldness and objectivity, with his personal story set to one side. But he has remained haunted by specific memories and images, thoughts he has been unable to shake off.Translated by Ralph Mandel.''The greatest book on Auschwitz since Primo Levi ... Kulka has achieved the impossible'' - the panel of Judges, Jewish Quarterly-Wingate PrizeTrade ReviewThe greatest book on Auschwitz since Primo Levi ... Kulka has achieved the impossible: a mythological and strangely beautiful new language for living with Auschwitz ... a book as mighty as it is modestOf the many accounts of survival in the Nazi concentration camps - Jewish and non-Jewish - few approach Otto Dov Kulka's for the quality of its writing and attempt to understand the nature of contemporary barbarism ... one of the essential books of our age; not since Primo Levi's The Periodic Table has there been such a powerful holocaust memoir ... the writing, at times trance-like, creates an extraordinary sense of communion and intimacy with the reader ... in pained but lucid prose Kulka seeks to understand how his memory processed the trauma of Auschwitz * Telegraph *'A poetic masterpiece unlike anything else written on the subject' * Telegraph BOOKS OF THE YEAR *This is one of the most remarkable testimonies to inhumanity that I know. The deeply moving recollections of Dov Kulka's boyhood years in Auschwitz, interwoven with reflections of elegiac, poetic quality, vividly convey the horror of the death-camp, the trauma of family and friends, and the indelible imprint left on the memory of a young boy who became a distinguished historian of the Holocaust. An extraordinarily important work which needs to be readAstonishing ... [Landscapes] is, quite simply, extraordinary ... a sort of Modernist precipitate of a historical work, something strange and powerful formed from, but separate to, the solution of history ... I can't see how this book could be bettered * Times Higher Education *Almost unclassifiable ... Nothing else I have read comes close to this profound examination of what the Holocaust means ... [Kulka's] journey strikes me as a quest similar to the attempt to describe the face of God or the structure of the universe. They are too vast and too mysterious. Not that this stops us, or this author, from trying * New Statesman *Primo Levi's testimony, it is often said, is that of a chemist: clear, cool, precise, distant. So with Kulka's work: this is the product of a master historian - ironic, probing, present in the past, able to connect the particular with the cosmic. His memory is in the service of deep historical understanding, rendered in evocative prose that is here eloquently translated from Hebrew * Guardian *Beautiful, startling ... This is a great book: read it. And be grateful - its publication is, in every possible sense, a miracle ... It is the strange and shocking paradox, this child's world constructed in such proximity to death, that makes the book so startling and so beautiful. Every incident is, in effect, seen twice: through the eyes of the historian and the eyes of a boy ... This is not history, it is something else... his words enter the wider sphere of literature * Sunday Times *Kulka's reflections have an unsettling rawness ... yet even in Auschwitz, there are moments of protest, black humour and beauty ... This is a grave, poetic and horrifying account of the Holocaust which does not so much revisit the Auschwitz of the past, but the Auschwitz of Kulka's inner world * Independent *This is not so much a book about Auschwitz as one about coming to terms with the shock of survival ... Amid fragmentary, digressive impressions are images of terrible poetic concreteness ... What, ultimately, makes Kulka's book unlike any other first-hand account written about the camps is the authenticity of its vision of an 11-year-old boy... He has done the rest of us - and the world - so great a kindness by writing his book ... offer[ing] the barest glint of sunlight amid a thunderous darkness * Financial Times *A book of moments, hauntings and dreams ... it is unremitting and touches us all [with] a hallucinatory power * The Times *Otto Dov Kulka's brief, beautiful and unsettling Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death brings together childhood memories of Auschwitz with the reflections of a historian who has spent his life working on the Holocaust: a masterly interrogation of memory and the limitations of historical detachment * Times Literary Supplement BOOKS OF THE YEAR *A historian's memoir of Auschwitz, without sentimentality and almost without outrage, since it is an examination of a place where all human reactions are inadequate ... an overwhelming testimony to the human love of truth * Guardian *For the first time, [Kulka] has turned his academic eye inward to explore as unflinchingly as possible the ways in which his childhood encounter with Auschwitz has affected him. Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death makes for deeply disturbing but ultimately very rewarding reading, and is unlike any Holocaust memoir I have ever come across ... The book is not a memoir in the conventional sense, but an extraordinary collection of some of the memories, ideas and dreams that make up Kulka's internal landscape * Telegraph *In this short, powerful memoir, every word tells its story * Daily Mail *The term memoir barely seems adequate to the introspective, often poetic, sometimes hallucinatory moments that [Landscapes] captures ... such an important contribution to the literature on the Holocaust ... [it] unsettles presuppositions about the camp and its lasting psychological effects so thoroughly that even a reader steeped in the Holocaust canon is likely to experience a sense of defamiliarisation * Sydney Review of Books *Otto Dov Kulka's name should be as well known as Primo Levi's as a supreme writer of personal experience of the hell of Auschwitz. But his Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death is unlike any other Holocaust writing because it faithfully reproduces the sensibility of the eleven year old boy that Kulka was at the time. So, unnervingly there are blue skies and daring games and actual school classes along with the smell of the smoke of incinerated bodies. More than other writing except Levi's Kulka's book, excavated with great pain via his attempted therapy of memory, sets you, the reader there. It is an imperishable achievement born of strength of mind and body and a kind of glowing inner vitality that I was lucky enough to encounter when I met him a few years ago. Profound scholar, extraordinary writer some part of him remained miraculously boyish in his warm vitality. -- Simon Schama
£10.44
Headline Publishing Group The Holocaust
Book SynopsisApproximately 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust. No one will ever know the exact figure. Of those, some six million were Jewish, including one million children. The remainder comprised numerous ethnic and social groups deemed the Untermenschen, the subhuman species that, according to the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler and the ruling Nazis, were not fit to live.When the implementation of the Final Solution - Reinhard Heydrich''s plan to exterminate the remaining Jewish population in Nazi occupied Europe - began in 1942, it was but the height of a brutally executed, systematic plan to rid the world of these unwanted peoples. But how did the Holocaust begin? How did it develop? And who was responsible?The Holocaust explores the background to this most barbaric of crimes and contains several reproductions of moving and important documents, including a child''s drawing from the Warsaw Ghetto, the plans of the Theresienstadt concentration camp, and the Wannsee Protocol, the blueprint for the Holocaust itself.There are 15 documents reproduced on the page, including:Letter describing Kristallnacht and a diary extract about life in the ghettoList of Jews to be transported, including place of departure and destinationDrawings by a child incarcerated at Theresienstadt concentration camp
£24.00
Bloomsbury Academic The Holocaust in 100 Histories
Book SynopsisThis chronologically-arranged collection of articles demonstrates the complex and multifaceted nature of the Holocaust. From January 1933 and the ascent to office of Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany, through to October 1945 and the opening of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, The Holocaust in 100 Histories takes an episodic approach to consider some of the people, ideas, groups, and events that characterized the genocide which unfolded against the backdrop of the Nazi period and the Second World War.Paul R. Bartrop shines a light on Nazi perpetrators, Righteous Gentiles who helped save Jews during the Holocaust, Jewish resisters, as well as movements, events, and developments during the Third Reich and the war years. The 100 entries included in the book provide both a series of snapshots and a pathway to understanding how the Holocaust was manifestedor defied during the years between 1933 and 1945. Its structure enables readers to access the Holocaust
£20.89
Simon & Schuster Ltd The Last Secret of the Secret Annex
Book SynopsisThe extraordinary, never-before-told story of Bep Voskuijl, Anne Frank’s closest friend during the 761 days she spent in the Secret Annex. Bep was just twenty-three when the Franks went into hiding and she risked her life to protect them, plunging into Amsterdam’s black market under the noses of German soldiers and Dutch spies to source food and medicine for the Annex. In those cramped quarters, Bep and Anne’s friendship blossomed. As this book reveals, while she was sharing meals with Anne Frank, Bep’s sister Nelly – whose name was scrubbed from Anne’s published diary – was collaborating with the Nazis.Written by Bep’s own son, The Last Secret of the Secret Annex interweaves her story with Anne Frank’s and Nelly’s to show us the Secret Annex as we’ve never seen it before. We follow Bep after the war as she struggles to build a life in the shadow of her past, unable to get oveTrade Review‘Fascinating . . . not only conveys the quiet heroism of what his mother contributed to Anne Frank’s story, but a sad playing-out of a family’s dysfunction, of the pain of survival, of the ripples of trauma flowing into succeeding generations’ * Daily Telegraph *'Devastating, compelling' * Daily Mail *‘This gripping account adds a missing human dimension to the story of the young girl hidden in an attic during the Nazi occupation of Holland—and those who helped and those who betrayed her. I read it in one gulp—as will you’ -- Kati Marton, author of 'The Chancellor'‘As much a work of painful family therapy as painstaking historical analysis . . . A riveting read’ -- Peter Hayes, author of 'Why? Explaining the Holocaust' 'A superbly well-written, intimate, engrossing, and heartrending reckoning with the endless damage done by genocide' * Booklist (Starred) *‘An important contribution to the literature on Anne Frank’ * Kirkus *‘For long, the story of Bep Voskuijl, one of Anne Frank’s courageous helpers, has been mostly kept in the dark. This captivating book tells her moving and tragic story, her wartime assistance in the Secret Annex, and the long shadows of the war on her life and her family’s’ -- Dr Bart Wallet, professor of early modern and modern Jewish history at the University of Amsterdam‘Part biography and part whodunit, The Last Secret of the Secret Annex is, above all, a bereaved son’s cri de coeur, simultaneously mourning and celebrating the mother he lost even before she died’ * Wall Street Journal *‘This powerful story brings to life Bep’s heroism and illuminates generations of a Dutch family, its secrets, and the trauma the Nazi occupation bequeathed to the future’ -- Pamela S. Nadell, author of 'America’s Jewish Women'‘Provides a poignant account of the poison left by Dutch collaboration . . . [and] the devastating effect that Bep’s lifelong secretiveness had on her family. It is for their own stories that these books should be read, not for the extraordinary fame of Anne Frank’ * TLS *
£18.00
Orion Publishing Co Borderland
Book SynopsisFULLY UPDATED''A fascinating and often violent odyssey, spanning more than 1,000 years of conflict and culture''INDEPENDENTFlat, fertile, and fatally tempting to invaders, for centuries Ukraine was fought over by more powerful neighbours. Though its modern national movement dates back to the early nineteenth century, it did not win real independence until 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union.Since then, Ukrainians have proved themselves one of the world''s most remarkable nations. In 2014 mass demonstrations forced out a corrupt pro-Russian president. Russia responded by invading, first seizing Crimea and the eastern Donbass, and then in February 2022 marching on Kyiv. With Western help, Ukraine is fighting back. But in what form it will emerge from the war - the bloodiest in Europe since 1945 - remains to be seen.For this fourth edition of her classic history, Anna Reid returns to the scene. Talking to refugees, politicians and victTrade ReviewBeautifully written and lovingly researched ... This book brims with colourful historical personalities ... The mixture of travelogue, history, political analysis and anecdote makes Anna Reid's account a highly digestible popular introduction to the tragic plight of a country whose very name means "Borderland". "The West ... had difficulty taking Ukraine seriously at all," she writes. Her first (and I hope not her last) book is a noble and praiseworthy attempt to correct this gross historical injustice * Daily Telegraph *Gripping history ... [Reid] writers with authority having lived for three years in Kiev as a reporter ... [she] is remarkably clear-headed about the many competing versions of Ukraine's history and its mostly invented heroes. A wise and generous government in Kiev would give her a medal * The Times *A beautifully written evocation of Ukraine's brutal past and its shaky efforts to construct a better future ... Reid succeeds in vividly conjuring up dozens of little-know heroes and villains of Ukrainian history ... Reid summons up the rogues and poets of Ukraine's past with a deft touch, but her real theme is the tragedy which has been Ukraine's lot for much of its history ... Borderland is a tapestry woven of the stories of all its inhabitants, recording their triumphs and their conflicts with the fairness of a compassionate outsider * Financial Times *This book takes the reader on a fascinating and often violent odyssey, spanning more than 1,000 years of conflict and culture. Reid covers events from the coming of the Vikings, to Stalin's purges and beyond to the independence celebrations of 19991. She translates her obvious mastery of her subject into an accessible work, which should enrich the experience of any traveller to this new country * Independent on Sunday *Anne Reid ... has sharp vision and an enquiring mind which launched her on a journey through the country's history to help her make sense of what she saw. Often controversial but never stuffy, she takes her reader at the same time on a tour of Ukraine, relating past events to a modern context ... [she] proves herself an astute observer of the Ukrainian scene * TLS *A compelling and improbably enjoyable read ... Despite its problems [Reid] says, the country has the potential to be one of Europe's greatest states * The Scotsman *
£10.44
Amberley Publishing Womens Experiences in the Holocaust
Book SynopsisNew paperback edition - A moving and detailed portrait of women in the most terrible circumstances, by a respected author and Holocaust survivor.Trade Review‘Agnes Grunwald-Spier examines comprehensively the experiences and contributions of women in the many roles and guises in which they acted. Her book preserves a record of suffering, endurance, courage and achievement without which no-one can hope to understand the totality of the Holocaust as a historical reality.’ -- Ben Barkow, Director of the Wiener Library‘In recent years we have seen many fine books on the Holocaust, among them works from Agnes Grunwald-Spier. Few have looked at the experience of women. As a writer and a doughty campaigner Agnes’s clear eye and wonderful prose have made the Holocaust accessible to a new generation. This new book will, I am certain, give a neglected part of the most shameful act of the twentieth century the scrutiny it deserves.’ -- Rt Hon Sir Eric Pickles, UK Special Envoy On Post-Holocaust Issues‘Agnes Grunwald-Spier's books are always very well researched and her convincing arguments are deployed against the background of her own history as a child survivor. What is more, her books are very well written and make fantastic reading.’ -- Sascha Feuchert, Professor of Holocaust Literature at Giessen University, Hesse, Germany‘A woman protects her children. Now that is true for any woman anywhere. She pushes others, she fights for them. This is not specific to Jews. But in this extreme circumstance it changes a Jewish tradition. She draws strength from certain types of Jewish traditions, and opposes others in order to fight. Jewish women (for the first time for thousands of years in Jewish communities) assumed leadership positions. Politically, Jewish women had always been disenfranchised, but in the Holocaust, there was no room for this disenfranchisement. They became leaders of political and social groups in France, Holland, Bohemia and Slovakia, as well as the underground groups in Eastern Europe.’ -- Professor Yehuda Bauer
£12.34
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Come to This Court and Cry: Secrets and Survival
Book SynopsisA TABLET AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BOOK OF THE YEAR Shortlisted for the Wingate Literary Prize ‘A tremendous feat of storytelling, propelled by numerous twists and revelations, yet anchored by a deep moral seriousness . . . Enthralling‘ Guardian Across the world the last Nazi trials are winding their way through the courts. Nearly a century on from the Holocaust, survivors are still asked to give proof – and, in an era of rising revisionism and denialism, have their stories questioned. In this spellbinding debut, Linda Kinstler investigates both her family story and the archives of ten nations to ask: what does it take to prove history in our uncertain century? 'Reminds us of the dangerous instability of truth and testimony' Anne Applebaum 'Such a brilliant book – I couldn't put it down‘ Lea Ypi, author of Free 'Outstanding' Philippe Sands, author of East West Street ‘Astonishing‘ Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of PainTrade ReviewVictims and perpetrators meet in Kinstler’s bloodline, but family history is only one strand of a remarkable book that braids together her own rigorously reported investigations in 10 countries with the survivors’ eight-decade quest for justice and poetic meditations on such subjects as history, law, Latvian identity, Franz Kafka and the politics of remembrance. This is a tremendous feat of storytelling, propelled by numerous twists and revelations, yet anchored by a deep moral seriousness * Guardian *Combines meticulous historical research with philosophical inquiries into nationalism, holocaust denial, guilt and the burden of proof. This is an invaluable and highly readable account of not only one family’s story, but also of a period on the cusp of passing from living memory * New Internationalist *[A] remarkable new book . . . There is a complex and powerful family story here . . . Asks large questions about the capacity of historical and legal practice to encompass the moral horror of the Holocaust, and about what justice is, or has ever been, possible * The Critic *Linda Kinstler has achieved something truly unusual: a book that captures the paradoxes and nuances of memory politics in contemporary Eastern Europe, while at the same time invoking the trauma that past tragedies leave on individuals and families. Using rigorous, evocative prose, she reminds us of the dangerous instability of truth and testimony, and the urgent need, in the 21st century, to keep telling the history of the 20th -- Anne ApplebaumObviously a masterpiece. A book that makes the Holocaust fresh, slipping seamlessly between story, thinking, politics, poetry and the personal -- Peter Pomerantsev, author of THIS IS NOT PROPAGANDABefore reading (devouring) Come to This Court and Cry, I wouldn't have thought a book like this was even possible. A moving family portrait on top of a sensational whodunit murder on top of a brilliant mediation on memory, the law, and identity? And yet here it is. Linda Kinstler has threaded the needle. This book is many things, and yet it fits together perfectly . . . It's a marvel -- Menachem Kaiser, author of PLUNDERFirst I was moved, then I was gripped and now I am haunted by Linda Kinstler's astonishing new book -- Ben Judah, author of THIS IS LONDONThe atrocities of the twentieth century have still not passed, still less the effects of the period’s most pernicious secrets. Now a new generation is reckoning with the crimes of the Holocaust and the dark shadows of the Cold War. In this brilliant and compelling book, Linda Kinstler takes us back to Latvia, to her family history, and to a question which – in our new age of fascist-tolerance – is more urgent still: what is justice? -- Lyndsey StonebridgeImplicit in Kinstler’s heart-breaking narrative is a key question. How, when the victims of these hideous crimes are all gone, can we uphold the truth and deny the deniers? -- Julia Boyd, author of TRAVELLERS IN THE THIRD REICHIn this searching and powerful book, Linda Kinstler sets out to solve the mystery of her grandfather's role in the genocide of Latvia’s Jews during World War II. But the questions she ends up confronting – about national pride, the need for heroes and the elusiveness of the past – couldn't be more relevant in the 21st century. Come to the Court and Cry is an exemplary work of investigative journalism and historical research, showing why writers like Kinstler are needed now more than ever -- Adam KirschIn her completely absorbing and profound debut, Linda Kinstler sets out to solve a mystery – journeying from a murder scene in Uruguay to the former killing fields of Europe to unravel a family secret about her late grandfather – and in the process unearths vexing questions about the past and how we understand it. Part detective story, part family history, part probing inquiry into how best to reckon with the horrors of a previous century, Come To This Court and Cry is bracingly original, beautifully written, and haunting. An astonishing book -- Patrick Radden KeefeA powerful and very moving account of the aftermath of the Holocaust in Latvia, & the value and meaning of different kinds of evidence, by [Linda Kinstler]. Highly recommended. -- Richard OvendenCome to This Court and Cry is a reminder that memory is fallible, that the desire for forgetting is strong and that, when it comes to a subject so bitterly contested for so long, truth is all the more unstable -- Caroline Moorehead * Literary Review *Exploring the tension between the justice of the courtroom and the retribution of assassination, the logic of the law and the frailty of memory, Linda Kinstler’s intelligent and thoughtful study Come to This Court and Cry utilises the story of Latvia’s wartime experience to meditate on the limits of the postwar reckoning with the Final Solution -- Mark Mazower * Times Literary Supplement *The book, Ms. Kinstler’s first, is an exquisite exploration into ‘how the memory of the Holocaust extends into the present and acts upon it’ -- Tunku Varadarajan * Wall Street Journal *In this gripping book, author Kinstler asks: was my grandfather a war criminal? … Kinstler chronicles her tireless investigation into anything she can glean about the life (and death) of grandfather Boris. At times, it acquires the qualities of an Agatha Christie spy novel. But she also raises fundamental philosophical issues … the gripping volume ends with more questions than answers -- Daniel Snowman * Jewish Chronicle *There has never been a better time to read a book such as this…As a historian, she is engaged in neither flight nor fight. She skillfully invites readers into the complexity of her craft * Sydney Morning Herald *Avoiding any simplistic or definitive conclusions, Kinstler provides a model of deep historical research and fluid, engaging narrative * New York Journal of Books *[A]n exquisite exploration * Wall Street Journal *She traces its twists and turns with patience, care, and a burning sense of integrity, bringing the reader into an answerless place between conflicting witness testimonies, between history and literary narratives, and between what is recorded as evidence and what is otherwise passed down or felt * Jewish Currents *[A] gripping debut … a deeply researched, engrossing and important look at how Holocaust stories have been passed down and altered * Washington Post *
£10.44
PublicAffairs,U.S. Cashing Out: The Flight of Nazi Treasure,
Book SynopsisBy the end of January 1945, it was clear to Germany that the war was lost. The Third Reich was in freefall, and its leaders, apart from those clustered around Hitler in his Berlin bunker, sought to abscond before they were besieged. But they wanted to take their wealth with them.Their escape routes were diverse: Sweden and Switzerland boasted proximity, banking, and industrial closeness, while Spain and Portugal offered an inviting Atlantic coastline and shipping routes to South America. And in various ways, each of these so-called neutral nations welcomed the Nazi escapees, along with the clandestine wealth they carried.Cashing Out tells the riveting history of the race to intercept the stolen assets before they disappeared, and before the will to punish Germany was replaced by the political considerations of the fast-approaching Cold War. Bestselling author Neill Lochery here brilliantly recounts the flight of the Nazi-looted riches-the last great escape of World War II-and the Allied quest for justice.
£22.50
Regnery Publishing Inc The Unanswered Letter: One Holocaust Family's
Book SynopsisIn 1939, as the Nazis closed in, Alfred Berger mailed a desperate letter to an American stranger who happened to share his last name. He and his wife, Viennese Jews, had found escape routes for their daughters. But now their money, connections, and emotional energy were nearly exhausted. Alfred begged the American recipient of the letter, “You are surely informed about the situation of all Jews in Central Europe.... By pure chance I got your address.... My daughter and her husband will go... to America.... Help us to follow our children.... It is our last and only hope....” After languishing in a California attic for decades, Alfred’s letter ended up in the hands of Faris Cassell, a journalist who couldn’t rest until she discovered the ending of the story. Traveling across the United States as well as to Austria, the Czech Republic, Belarus, and Israel, she uncovered an extraordinary story of heart-wrenching loss and unforgettable love that endures to this day. Did the Bergers’ desperate letter find a response? Did they—and their daughters—survive? Did they leave living descendants? You will find the answers here. A story that will move any reader, The Unanswered Letter is a poignant reminder that love and hope never die.
£11.69
Orion Publishing Co Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived,
Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE FRANCO-BRITISH SOCIETY BOOK PRIZE 2016June, 1940. German troops enter Paris and hoist the swastika over the Arc de Triomphe. The dark days of Occupation begin. How would you have survived? By collaborating with the Nazis, or risking the lives of you and your loved ones to resist? The women of Paris faced this dilemma every day - whether choosing between rations and the black market, or travelling on the Metro, where a German soldier had priority for a seat. Between the extremes of defiance and collusion was a vast moral grey area which all Parisiennes had to navigate in order to survive.Anne Sebba has sought out and interviewed scores of women, and brings us their unforgettable testimonies. Her fascinating cast includes both native Parisiennes and temporary residents: American women and Nazi wives; spies, mothers, mistresses, artists, fashion designers and aristocrats. The result is an enthralling account of life during the Second World War and in the years of recovery and recrimination that followed the Liberation of Paris in 1944. It is a story of fear, deprivation and secrets - and, as ever in the French capital, glamour and determination.Trade ReviewWonderfully researched, this is an important retelling of Les Années Noires in Paris which puts women's stories, and the complications of their lives under Occupation, centre stage. Sebba reminds us that we should listen and put ourselves in their shoes, before leaping immediately to judgement, and backs this up with testimonies from many women whose voices have remained unheard -- Kate Mosse, author of LABYRINTH and CITADEL'Anne Sebba's fascinating and beautifully written study gives voice to a myriad of narratives belonging to the Parisian women who resisted, collaborated, flourished, suffered, died or survived through a mixture of defiance and compromise . . . Sebba skilfully weaves the history of 1940s Paris through the remarkable stories of women from all walks of life' -- Clare Mulley * SPECTATOR *This is a fascinating book I couldn't stop reading. Anne Sebba knows everything about Paris during the war and she relates the end of all the whispered stories I've been hearing all my life. She understands everything about the chic, loathsome collaborators and the Holocaust victims, and their stories are told in an irresistible narrative flood -- Edmund White, author of THE FL NEUR'As Anne Sebba shows, life for a Parisian woman was a deeply ambiguous affair. Their experiences, like a kaleidoscope can be 'turned any number of ways to produce a different image'. Sebba's book, with its phenomenal amount of detailed research and its vast cast of characters, is rich in stories about the tricks of life under Occupation, the heroism of those who carried out acts of defiance, the slipperiness of collusion and the vast profits made by fixers, contacts, middlemen and entrepreneurs. She is particularly good on the fashion world and the scheming, equivocating social luminaries' -- Caroline Moorehead * LITERARY REVIEW *Anne Sebba has the nearly miraculous gift of combining the vivid intimacy of the lives of women during the Occupation with the history of the time. This is a remarkable book -- Edmund de Waal, author of THE HARE WITH AMBER EYESAs Anne Sebba makes clear in her fascinating book Les Parisiennes, there was no Hollywood clarity about life in the City of Light . . . there were very many reasons not to resist ... Sebba has interviewed women who, remarkably, are talking about their experiences for the first time. This is a valuable book . . . Although Sebba salutes the bravery of Les Parisiennes, she is careful not to condemn the ones who chose simply to survive . . . To read this book is to admire female bravery and resilience, but also to understand why the scars left by the Second World War still run so deep -- Daisy Goodwin * THE TIMES *The debate over the extent of collaboration versus the extent of resistance during the occupation is not new, but Sebba has found an enthralling way of looking at the story by focusing on how the choice was made by French women, and, in particular, by the women of Paris . . . Sebba doesn't offer an explanation as to why some women chose one course, others another, rightly letting their actions, compelling life stories - and the physiognomy of the wonderful selection of photographs - speak for themselves -- Sarah Helm * OBSERVER *'One of the distinctive features of Anne Sebba's richly intelligent history is her evocation of sound. Sebba has deliberately eschewed a focus on well-known primary documentation for her history of Parisian women during the Second World War, choosing instead to alert her readers to a 'quieter and frequently less well-known' set of voices. Those voices, belonging to women of all classes, ages and educational backgrounds, weep and sing through this extraordinary book . . . Sebba is adept at explaining the changing political climate of Paris as the war progressed, but she never allows politics to overshadow her subjects' voices. This book does not judge - instead, in the breadth of its humanity, it achieves some of the recognition that the Parisiennes' own heroic modesty often denied them' -- Lisa Hilton * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *'The book takes an unflinching and sympathetic look at the roles women were asked to play in the war, and those they wrote for themselves . . . Sebba interviewed many of the surviving women, and tells their stories here, many for the first time . . . Les Parisiennes insists on the moral incertitude of wartime, 'especially through the eyes of women'. Perhaps because their lives were so complicated and roles so divided, they were more able to perceive, and be at home with, ambiguity . . . I am filled with admiration not only for the women themselves, but for Sebba's heroic research, for her meticulous tracking of these people and their exploits, of their fragility and their strength. This book is an important reminder of the fact that fully half of the story of the second world war is buried in memory and the archive, and has only recently been unearthed' -- Lauren Elkin * GUARDIAN *'This is an elegant, enthralling and richly illustrated account of how the female residents of the French capital survived the Second World War and its aftermath with Parisian panache' -- Caroline Sanderson * SUNDAY EXPRESS *'In the inter-war years women, who were yet to win the vote, had been encouraged to remain at home with motherhood vaunted as the ideal of womanhood. The reality of war propelled women into very different and often dangerous roles and it is these roles that Sebba explores in this powerful and moving book . . . Sebba's researches have been exhaustive: she has interviewed survivors and read countless documents' -- Vanessa Berridge * DAILY EXPRESS *'Anne Sebba's tour de force of research and reflection, Les Parisiennes, is a testament of silk and sacrifice; of choices to resist or collaborate with the Nazis; of dalliance, defiance, and survival that turned on a concierge's random kindness or a stick of gelignite strapped to the chest . . . Sebba sources first-time stories of wartime women and records tales of collaboration horizontale with real sensitivity for the 'moral ambiguity' of those who exchanged sexual favours for privileges - or survival . . . extraordinary and evocative' -- Madeleine Kingsley * JEWISH CHRONICLE *
£10.99
Bonnier Books Ltd A Brilliant Life: An Unforgettable Memoir of
Book Synopsis'A delicate, evocative story of strength and survival that turns on one of the most powerful forces in the known universe: a mother's love.' - Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist A powerful, true story of a Holocaust survivor told by her daughter - a tale that reminds us of the resilience of the soul and the ability of the heart to heal.Born in Czechoslovakia, Mira was only 12 years old when World War II broke out and 17 when the Nazis finally caught up with her. Torn apart from her family, she went on to survive four concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and a Death March when she was too weak to walk. She lived when almost everyone she knew did not.At 88, living in Australia, Mira is diagnosed with cancer and her daughter, a journalist, decides to interview her to distract her from her illness. As Mira gives her testimony Rachelle comes to understand how Mira's unique perspective - seeing her experiences through the lens of the goodness of the people who helped her - protected her from the depths of humanity's cruelty, and enabled her to go on to live a full and brilliant life.Rachelle also fits together the jigsaw pieces of her own life as a child of a survivor. She comes to understand that however different their lives have been, she and her mother are uniquely united by a fierce inner strength to live, and a mystery of strange things that always seem to happen around them.A beautiful story of love, loss, wonder and the deepest kind of trust in life, A Brilliant Life questions the role that fate, chance and destiny play. It is a tribute to family, a story of incredible resilience, and a chronicle of the deep connection between a mother and a child which not even death can destroy.Trade ReviewA delicate, evocative story of strength and survival that turns on one of the most powerful forces in the known universe: a mother's love. * Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist *This is a loving and tender book. It has a great simplicity of heart and openness of spirit ... it models the skill of restoration, of building a new life without the need for retribution. The world is currently in deep trauma. Somewhere the pain must end. Indirectly, this book suggests that such an ending is possible ... Mira's story presents a key to the future of humanity. * Sydney Morning Herald *an affirmation of the miraculous nature of the human mind to make sense of humanity's worst inclinations, not just survive them * Rachel Griffiths *If A Brilliant Life were a painting, it would be hanging in a Palazzo in Italy among the classic chiaroscuro paintings of Caravaggio - a technique from the Renaissance era where the contrast of light and dark brushstrokes tells the whole story with some melancholy shades. Unreich has cleverly painted her mother's story in all its shades of glory and despair; a woman who stepped into the canvas of life and painted her own bright fulfilling future. * Harper's Bazaar *
£15.29
Bonnier Books Ltd Always Remember Your Name: ‘Heartbreaking and
Book Synopsis'These two sisters might be some of our final living first-hand witnesses to the horrors of the Holocaust. With this book, they break the silence and give us the immeasurable gift of their story.' Gwen Strauss, author of The NineOn 28 March 1944, Italian sisters Tati (six) and Andra (four) were roused from their sleep and taken to Auschwitz, to the infamous Kinder Block presided over by Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death. By the time Auschwitz was liberated, 230,000 children had been murdered, and the sisters were among only 70 child survivors.Throughout their ordeal in the camp and the liberation of Auschwitz, their long journey from Poland to Czechoslovakia and finally to Lingfield House in Britain, they hung on to their promise to their mother to 'always remember your name'. They never forgot they were Tati and Andra Bucci, and it was this connection to their heritage that brought them miraculously back to their parents, years later and many countries away. The sisters overcame their trauma to live long lives, bearing witness as survivors of the Holocaust.'Always Remember Your Name is heart-breaking and yet utterly uplifting, with the fierce bond of two sisters at its heart, who survived the Holocaust to bear witness, so that none of us will ever forget.' Heather Morris, international bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz'A valuable record of what was suffered by surely some of our youngest survivors. Insightful and illuminating, the road to recovery - with its silences, loyalties, and self examinations - is never what we might suppose.' Esther Freud, bestselling author of Hideous Kinky
£9.49
Bonnier Books UK I Will Come Back for You
Book Synopsis
£9.49
John Murray Press A Good Place to Hide: How One Community Saved
Book SynopsisDuring the occupation of France in WWII the villages around Le Chambon-sur-Lignon pulled off an astonishing and largely unknown feat. Risking everything, they underwent a long-running battle of nerves and daring to hide 5,000 men, women and children, 3,500 of them Jews, from the Nazis and their Vichy stooges. Despite the danger, a whole community rallied together, from the pacifist pastor who defied orders to the glamorous female agent with a wooden leg, from the 18-year-old master forger to the schoolgirl who ran suitcases stuffed with money for the Resistance.Told using first-hand testimonies of many of the survivors and face-to-face interviews conducted by the author, A Good Place to Hide is the thrilling story of ordinary people who thwarted the Nazis and sheltered strangers in desperate need.Trade ReviewA story resonant in our days, the age of refugees, and a grand narrative in its own right, all told with absorbing skill. Peter Grose's tale of the astounding rescue village of Chambon is a tale of the practical deliverance of the hunted from the Nazis. A book to cherish and recommend! -- Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's ArkIncredibly moving... Ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the most extraordinary circumstances. A book full of love for the region. Grose underlines underlines the role played by the brilliant forger, Oscar Rosowsky. A reminder of the best that humans are capable of, but also an inspiration. * Times Literary Supplement *Peter Grose's book stands out as a complete story about life on the Plateau during World War II. Peter uses only facts to tell us a true story. He is one of those rare raconteurs who can write a history book that reads like a novel. -- Nelly Trocmé, eyewitness and daughter of André and Magda TrocméA fine book and a captivating and heartening story. * Scotsman *Grose has written …ambitious book that covers, among other things, the history of French Protestantism and the policy of the Vichy government, It is, however, the individual stories that stand out. Some striking characters cross their pages. Albert Camus came to the plateau, hoping that the air would be good for his tuberculosis, and wrote the first draft of La Peste there. Virginia Hall, an American adventuress so hard-bitten that she would have made Ernest Hemingway look like Marcel Proust, was sent to contact the local Maquis. She received packets of tea with parachute drops of weapons and refused to accept that having a wooden leg and an atrocious accent might make her an unsuitable guerrilla leader. Above all, this book depicts the mosaic of little tragedies behind the collective tragedy of death and deportation. * Evening Standard *Extraordinary. * Daily Mirror *Fabulous. A page-turning account, told with the full cooperation of many of the survivors. Meticulous and dogged research. Compelling. -- Caroline Sanderson * The Bookseller, 'Ones to Watch' *Well written in a pleasant style and easy to read... A fascinating and inspiring story. * The Association of Jewish Refugees Journal *A compelling story of wartime bravery and the plight of refugees. * France *
£10.44
Holland House Books Lili: Lili Stern-Pohlmann in conversation with
Book SynopsisThe story of Lili Pohlmann's childhood and survival. During the Second World War she was helped by many people, including a German woman working for the Nazi occupying forces in Lemberg, and a Greek Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop. After the war Lili came to London in the first transport of Jewish children from Poland.
£11.69
Otter-Barry Books Ltd Peter in Peril: Courage and Hope in World War Two
Book SynopsisPeter is just an ordinary boy, who loves playing football with his friends and eating cake – until war comes to his city and the whole family have to go into hiding. This powerful graphic novel is based on a true story. “Engrossing, and superbly told in graphic format” – Books for Keeps “Told with amazing depth in a simple and effective way” – Angels and Urchins “This is a book that is needed now more than ever” – Read It, Daddy A United States Board on Books for Youth (USBBY) 2018 Outstanding International Book Trade Review"A well as the historical aspect, the book is very relevant to the situation in many countries today - we need to learn from the past, and books like this are excellent in helping the younger generation to understand these issues. It's emotional and dramatic, drawing the reader in superbly, and is accessible even for reluctant readers." * Parents in Touch *"Illustrated in graphic novel style, with the story told through a series of images and dialogue with short bursts of text. Although the events are horrific, there is always a sense of hope and the reader feels the courage of the Jewish families. It is even more poignant as at the end of the book we meet Peter and his family as they are now." * Books for Topics *"Because it is told from a young person’s perspective, there is an ignorance to what is actually happening around him – but from the action the reader will understand that Peter survived round-ups of Jewish people by moving hiding places several times, the only constant being a colouring book; he frequently faces hunger and cold. Despite the removal of the more harrowing elements of the Holocaust, the reader will understand that this was a horrific time, challenging and frightening for even the luckiest child." * Minerva Reads *"Moving, accessible and offering a less well-known perspective on WW11 and the Holocaust, with its skilful balance of illustration and text, this is definitely a book to include in a primary school KS2 collection." * Red Reading Hub *"Moving and vividly told." -- Fiona Noble * The Bookseller *"As Budapest crumbles around him, and Nazis search, seize, and deport friends and family, Peter and a cousin are moved to several hideouts in this biographical graphic novel. Juxtaposing the mundane aspects of life in hiding with the horror of why they have to hide gives this book its impact." * School Library Journal *"The warmth of humanity shines through the story. There are many great books retelling the experience of WW2 and this is special because of its graphic format which will capture some who might find continual text off-putting." * School Librarian *"This book, which establishes 'the right to life and to live in freedom and safety' could not be more pertinent for the current political climate, not only here in the UK, but also further afield." * IBBY Link *"Even young children will get a sense of what it means to become the custodian of a memory." * Jewish Chronicle *"An engrossing true story...superbly told in graphic format. Words and pictures are skillfully combined and from the start of this first person narrative, young readers will identify with Peter." * Books for Keeps 5 star review *"Helen's graphic illustrations are just right for this kind of book, and should go down well with quite young readers. Let's hope, too, that they can see the similiarities with what's happening today in far too many places. If it was wrong then, it's wrong now." * Bookwitch *"A true story about a young Jewish boy...told with amazing depth in a simpler and effective way. Our teen reviewer was very moved." * Angels and Urchins *"Learn, in an accessible way, more about the second world war...a moving and true story that will make readers think and help them to understand more about the experience of the war for children of their own age." * Armadillo *"Without a doubt, this is the sort of book that is needed now more than ever, to educate children about the terrible atrocities of war, and how ordinary children like themselves became caught up in the conflict, taken far away from their homes and everything they knew and loved. At times it's quite a tough read, certainly a title for older children but it imparts its story with sensitivity and thought. This is the sort of book we'd truly love to see championed in schools and libraries." * Read It, Daddy *"This moving, true story of the Second World War tells Peter's story in his own words, accompanied by excellent illustrations which really convey the sombre feel of the story. Moving and very effective." * Parents in Touch *"This début graphic novel delicately balances the horror of those war years with a child’s eye view of events, allowing young (and older) readers to gently explore some of the aspects of the Holocaust without it becoming overwhelming. There’s a great deal of humour, and a real sense that children will always be children, however bad things get, finding ways to make new friends and creating new games to play even in the darkest hours, thereby giving us hope for better things to come….Peter’s story is moving but also funny, horribly sad and sometimes frightening, before a page turn makes you smile. It is peppered with moments of laughter and is pitched just right for, say, upper Primary school aged kids." * Playing by the Book *"This is definitely a worthy entry to the non-fiction shelves for the very young… It's a non-scary but still evocative primer for the fact that you didn't have to live in Germany to suffer at the hands of Nazis." * The Book Bag *"This moving graphic novel is published in September 2016 and well worth pre-ordering. Peter is just an ordinary boy, who loves playing football with his friends and eating cake - until war comes to his city and the whole family have to go into hiding.." -- Sita Brahmachari * The Guardian *
£8.54
Scribe Publications Questions I Am Asked About The Holocaust: young
Book SynopsisA young readers’ edition of the bestselling book from Auschwitz survivor Hédi Fried that answers lasting questions about the Holocaust. Hédi Fried was nineteen when the Nazis arrested her family and transported them to Auschwitz. While there, apart from enduring the daily terror at the camp, she and her sister were forced into hard labour before being released at the end of the war. After settling in Sweden, Hédi devoted her life to educating young people about the Holocaust. In her 90s, she decided to take the most common questions, and her answers, and turn them into a book so that children all over the world could understand what had happened. This is a deeply human book that urges us never to forget and never to repeat. ‘Timeless lessons taught with simple eloquence.’ Kirkus ReviewsTrade Review‘It is the telling detail that gives her testimony its particular power … This little book, with its reminder “there are no stupid questions, nor any forbidden ones, but there are some … that have no answer”, is a moving record of one woman’s experience.’ -- Nick Rennison * The Sunday Times *‘Fried was 19 when she and her family were sent from Hungary to Auschwitz. Her parents were murdered, but she and her sister survived. They both made a home in Sweden and, ever since, Fried, now 94, has talked to students about her experiences. This slim but powerful volume, sensitively translated by Alice Olsson, comprises answers to the questions she is most frequently asked, such as: “Why did you not fight back?” and “What helped you to survive?”, “Are you able to forgive?” Fried answers with humanity, candour, and thoughtfulness in a book that should be required reading for all young people.’ -- Hannah Beckerman * The Guardian *‘Something like what Anne Frank might have written had she survived … Timeless lessons taught with simple eloquence.’ * Kirkus Reviews *‘While many authors have produced great works about the Holocaust, this sort of first-person narrative is the best source of true information. Every library should add this book to its collection. Social studies teachers would find this a highly valuable source for discussions on the Holocaust (Fried herself even provides a list of discussion questions in the text). I highly recommend the purchase of this book.’ * School Library Connection *‘This is terrific in that I was utterly engrossed in not only what questions are asked of Hedi but the astute and depthful way she answers them. I began to read the other evening and went all the way to the end before putting this book down. It’s also potent in the ways our author touches on current issues with how we treat “others” as to how we become divided and in worst case hurtful to those unlike ourselves. a big thumbs up and NOT just for the younger generation!’ -- Sheryl Cotleur * Copperfield’s Books *‘Through questions she has been asked most, Questions I Am Asked About The Holocaust is a stoically raw and deeply human account of the author’s experiences throughout the Holocaust and surviving Auschwitz. An important, wise, and extremely powerful book.’ -- Amanda Zirn Hudson, Bethany Beach Books‘While Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust is very easy to read, the questions it raises are very hard to answer. Fried, in simple, straightforward prose, answers questions that children have asked her about her experiences. A must-have for parents, but be prepared to answer some hard questions yourself.’ -- Lee Virden Geurkink, Monkey and Dog Books‘Reminds us all why we need to heed the lessons of the past.’ * Big Issue (London) *‘[S]ince these questions come from children, they quickly reach a level of intimacy that most adults would be afraid to venture into … Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust is a collection of Hédi's gentle, honest answers to these questions over the years. With sensitivity and complete candour, Fried answers these questions and more in this deeply human book that urges us never to forget and never to repeat.’ * The Jewish Standard, Ontario *‘Now 94, Fried’s largeness of spirit emanates from every considered response to even the most confronting questions asked of her. One senses that her replies are not only educative but therapeutic, especially for young people grappling with their own questions about the meaning of life. While most of her experiences of this period are inescapably dark, there were moments of light that assumed enormous significance.’ -- Fiona Capp * The Saturday Age *‘Hédi Fried is a remarkable woman and her writing offers important insights into truly terrible events and the slow, insidious way in which hatred can be fostered. Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust is an easy to read account of things that are almost too horrible to comprehend. The essays represent an individual’s reflections on matters that touch the whole of humanity and, as Fried hopes, the lessons she has to teach about the past should serve as a warning for the future.’ -- Erin Britton * New Books Magazine, five stars *‘It’s the straightforwardness of the book — and the fact that Fried is so candid in her answers — that makes this book so important.’ -- Shelly Gare * The Sydney Institute *‘Anyone who can remember that time, anyone who can remember someone who could remember, or anyone who feels the instinctive urge to be one with the humanity of memory, and the memory of humanity, cannot but be moved deeply and quite actively by Fried’s book.’ * Bookanista *‘Candid and unflinching, deeply personal and sensitive, this is the perfect book for anyone, young or old, wanting to learn more about the Holocaust and why we must never forget — especially as the last surviving witnesses are lost to us.’ -- Leanne Edimistone * Courier Mail *‘Honest and insightful.’ -- Ellen Langmead * History Teachers’ Association of Victoria *‘Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust defies genre … a deeply personal account of her past, told in simple, straightforward language that most preteens can understand … Since the book is intended for younger readers, Fried is free to be didactic. Everything is a lesson … Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust is an invaluable means of introducing students to the complexities of the Holocaust. And it will do for Fried what she seeks to do for her parents: to keep her memory and name alive.’ -- Rabbi Marc Katz * Jewish Book Council *‘Fried's straightforward, candid answers are as informative as they are moving. This book should be required school reading.’ -- Kylie Northover * The Age *‘Sheds light on a devastating topic with empathy, sensitivity, and honesty.’ * Kirkus Reviews *‘Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust is nothing short of remarkable … Hedi’s answers to the questions posed are so personal, genuine, and heartfelt, you feel like you are sitting in the seat beside her … Even the most knowledgeable person on the topic of World War II and the Holocaust will learn something from this book … Librarians should purchase this so it is available to all students from middle school up. Teachers for all ages should also have a classroom copy … [T]his young readers edition ends with a huge amount of reading guides, teacher lessons, and even potential student activities. A one stop shop for learning. Should we (librarians/readers) put this on the top of our ‘to read’ piles? Absolutely. It should be the first book that you purchase.’ -- Youth Services Book Review, starred review‘While many authors have produced great works about the Holocaust, this sort of first-person narrative is the best source of true information. Every library should add this book to its collection. Social studies teachers would find this a highly valuable source for discussions on the Holocaust (Fried herself even provides a list of discussion questions in the text). I highly recommend the purchase of this book.’ -- School Library Connection, highly recommended‘An essential addition for those learning about the Holocaust, refugees, and the complexities of WWII.’ -- Meg Barclay * The School Librarian *Praise for The Road to Auschwitz: ‘Fried’s tale is not solely one of suffering. She is a survivor, and this is a testimony to the ingenuity and luck that contributed to her survival and that of her sister and friends. As Fried reminds us: “We must tell of this inhuman thing that was done in the twentieth century. It must not be forgotten.”’ —Publishers Weekly ‘[Fried’s] grim struggle to survive death and labour camps and the start of her brave efforts to create a meaningful life in Sweden are recounted with vivid and deeply moving simplicity.’ —Jewish Chronicle
£11.69
