Readings for Holocaust Remembrance Day
Today marks Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, memorializing the 6 million Jews who died in World War II. The Holocaust has been a rich vein for authors to mine -- tales of deceit and terror, rescue and redemption. And it has powerful symbols, including the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear -- Jude in German, Juif in French. Unfortunately, the era has also been tarnished by faked memoirs in recent years. Here are four classics; do you have other recommendations?
Night, Elie Wiesel's autobiographical tale about his survival as a boy in a concentration camp, and his philosophical musings on the Holocaust.
Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally. The story of an industrialist who saved hundreds of Polish Jews from the death camps by keeping them as a work force in his factory.
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. The heart-breaking tale of a Dutch girl who tries to make sense of the world as her family hides from evil in an Amsterdam attic.
Maus by Art Spiegelman. A graphic novel that describes the horrors in terms of evil cats and besieged mice.
The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal. This collection of essays by Holocaust survivor Wiesenthal, the Dalai Lama, Theodore Hesburgh and other religious leaders examines the possibility for forgiveness.
Comments
The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak is an incredible story about a young German girl and her experiences in Nazi Germany. It's marketed for young adults, so many adults may be missing it. It's a story that stays with you long after you've turned the last page.
Posted by: Becca | April 21, 2009 4:24 PM
When I read Anne Frank in, I guess it was, the early 60s, WWII was so recent that everyone knew what had happened to her.
In 1989, when my daughter was 13, I put Anne Frank on her summer reading list. (Yup. Those reading lists were a tailored-to-them-personally response to their insistence on sleeping all day. They started at about 7th or 8th grade, when I couldn't send those kids off to babysitters while I was at work. We discuss the reading every evening. They hated it but they survived and are stronger people today for it.) She really got into what was going on and we had some interesting discussions about the need to hide. Then, one day she called me, puzzled...the book had just stopped abruptly. I had forgotten how the ending went and had to give her the bad news over the phone. I think this was her first book that didn't end Happily Ever After.
Posted by: Eve | April 22, 2009 12:25 PM
"Man's Search for Meaning." I read this a long time ago, but this book -- by Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl -- has stayed with me more than any other book I have ever read.
Posted by: Gail Farrelly | April 22, 2009 1:58 PM