Holocaust Remembrance Day : Young Adult Books


  • Leyson, Leon
    The boy on the wooden box : how the impossible became possible…on Schindler’s list
    Summary:The biography of Leon Leyson, the only memoir published by a former Schindler’s List child.


  • Freedman, Russell
    We will not be silent : the White Rose student resistance movement that defied Adolf Hitler
    Summary:"In his signature eloquent prose, backed up by thorough research, Russell Freedman tells the story of Austrian-born Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie. They belonged to Hitler Youth as young children, but began to doubt the Nazi regime. As older students, the Scholls and a few friends formed the White Rose, a campaign of active resistance to Hitler and the Nazis. Risking imprisonment or even execution, the White Rose members distributed leaflets urging Germans to defy the Nazi government. Their belief that freedom was worth dying for will inspire young readers to stand up for what they believe in. Archival photographs and prints, source notes, bibliography, index. "–,"The true story of the White Rose, a group of students in Nazi Germany who were active undercover agents of the resistance movement against Hitler and his regime."


  • Hoose, Phillip M.
    The boys who challenged Hitler : Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club
    Summary:"At the outset of World War II, Denmark did not resist German occupation. Deeply ashamed of his nation’s leaders, fifteen-year-old Knud Pedersen resolved with his brother and a handful of schoolmates to take action against the Nazis if the adults would not. Naming their secret club after the fiery British leader, the young patriots in the Churchill Club committed countless acts of sabotage, infuriating the Germans, who eventually had the boys tracked down and arrested. But their efforts were not in vain: the boys’ exploits and eventual imprisonment helped spark a full-blown Danish resistance. Interweaving his own narrative with the recollections of Knud himself, here is Phil Hoose’s inspiring story of these young war heroes."


  • Atwood, Kathryn J.
    Women heroes of World War II : 26 stories of espionage, sabotage, resistance, and rescue
    Summary:Overview: A 2012 VOYA Nonfiction Honor List selection. Noor Inayat Khan was the first female radio operator sent into occupied France and transferred crucial messages. Johtje Vos, a Dutch housewife, hid Jews in her home and repeatedly outsmarted the Gestapo. Law student Hannie Schaft became involved in the most dangerous resistance work–sabotage, weapons transference, and assassinations. In these pages, young readers will meet these and many other similarly courageous women and girls who risked their lives to help defeat the Nazis.

  • Savit, Gavriel
    Anna and the Swallow Man
    Summary:When her university professor father is sent by the Gestapo to a concentration camp, seven-year-old Anna travels the Polish countryside with the mysterious Swallow Man during World War II.


  • DeWoskin, Rachel
    Someday we will fly
    Summary:Lillia, fifteen, flees Warsaw with her father and baby sister in 1940 to try to make a new start in Shanghai, China, but the conflict grows more intense as America and Japan become involved.


  • Opdyke, Irene Gut
    In my hands : memories of a holocaust rescuer
    Summary:Recounts the experiences of the author who, as a young Polish girl, hid and saved Jews during the Holocaust.