Jewish children in the Holocaust

Hidden Hope: How A Toy And A Hero Saved Lives During The Holocaust

During World War II, families all across Europe huddled together in basements, attics, and closets as Nazi soldiers rounded up anyone Jewish. The Star of David, a symbol of faith and pride, became a tool of hate when the Nazis forced Jewish people to carry papers stamped with that star, so that it was clear who to capture. But many brave souls dared to help them. Jewish teenager Jacqueline Gauthier, a member of the French Resistance who had to conceal her identity, was one who risked her life in secret workshops, forging papers with new names and without stars in order to help others escape. But how to get these life saving papers to families in hiding? An ordinary wooden toy duck held the answer, a hidden compartment: hope in a hollow.

Stars Of The Night: The Courageous Children of the Czech Kindertransport

A moving and sensitively told true story of the 669 children who were rescued in Czechoslovakia from Nazi persecution right before the outbreak of World War II. Told from the collective perspective of the children, the story follows them as they journey from foster families during the war in England, to Prague where they have no success with finding their parents, then eventually to their connection with a British former stockbroker, Nicholas Winton, who played a vital part with bringing them to safety.

The Pebble: An Allegory Of The Holocaust

Two best friends, Eitan and Rivka, live in a gated Jewish ghetto, where they have been imprisoned by the Nazis since last Spring. But here they can still experience children laughing, dogs barking and women chatting, all as Eitan plays his violin. Yet no one can leave, and if anyone goes through the gates, they never come back.  Light hearted in appearance only, this picture book presents one of the darkest moments in human history, the Holocaust, by showcasing the complexities of the human condition and how hope can endure, be it the music of a violin, or the sound of laughter and chatting. They may be trapped within walls of a ghetto, but they can still climb to the rooftop.

Impossible Escape: A True Story Of Survival And Heroism In Nazi Europe

It is 1944. A teenager named Rudolf (Rudi) Vrba has made up his mind. After barely surviving nearly two years in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, he knows he must escape. Even if death is more likely. Rudi has learned the terrible secret hidden behind the heavily guarded fences of concentration camps across Nazi occupied Europe: the methodical mass killing of Jewish prisoners. As trains full of people arrive daily, Rudi knows that the murders won’t stop until he reveals the truth to the world and that each day that passes means more lives are lost. Lives like Rudi’s schoolmate Gerta Sidonová. Gerta’s family fled from Slovakia to Hungary, where they live under assumed names to hide their Jewish identity. But Hungary is beginning to cave under pressure from German Nazis. Her chances of survival become slimmer by the day. The clock is ticking. As Gerta inches closer to capture, Rudi and his friend Alfred Wetzler begin their crucial steps towards an impossible escape. This is the true story of one of the most famous whistleblowers in the world, and how his death-defying escape helped save over 100,000 lives.

We Must Not Forget: Holocaust Stories Of Survival And Resistance

As World War II raged, millions of young Jewish people were caught up in the horrors of the Nazis’ Final Solution. Many readers know of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi state’s genocidal campaign against European Jews and others of so-called “inferior” races. Yet so many of the individual stories remain buried in time. Of those who endured the Holocaust, some were caught by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps, some hid right under Hitler’s nose, some were separated from their parents, some chose to fight back. Against all odds, some survived. They all have stories that must be told. They all have stories we must keep safe in our collective memory — by reminding them that heroism begins with the ordinary, everyday feat of showing compassion toward our fellow citizens.

We Had To Be Brave: Escaping The Nazis On The Kindertransport

“Ruth David was growing up in a small village in Germany when Adolf Hitler rose to power in the 1930s. Under the Nazi Party, Jewish families like Ruth’s experienced rising anti-Semitic restrictions and attacks. Just going to school became dangerous. By November 1938, anti-Semitism erupted into Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, and unleashed a wave of violence and forced arrests. Days later, desperate volunteers sprang into action to organize the Kindertransport, a rescue effort to bring Jewish children to England. Young people like Ruth David had to say good-bye to their families, unsure if they’d ever be reunited. Miles from home, the Kindertransport refugees entered unrecognizable lives, where food, clothes — and, for many of them, language and religion — were startlingly new. Meanwhile, the onset of war and the Holocaust visited unimaginable horrors on loved ones left behind. Somehow, these rescued children had to learn to look forward, to hope. Through the moving and often heart-wrenching personal accounts of Kindertransport survivors, critically acclaimed and award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson paints the timely and devastating story of how the rise of Hitler and the Nazis tore apart the lives of so many families and what they were forced to give up in order to save these children”–

The Last Train- A Holocaust Story

The Last Train is the harrowing true story about young brothers Paul and Oscar Arato and their mother, Lenke, surviving the Nazi occupation during the final years of World War II.