I have a great interest in books about the holocaust. When I was a teenager I read The Diary of Anne Frank, and I was haunted by it for years. Then as I grew older, I discovered a wealth of books that are set in Europe during World War II. My favorites include a classic, a recently discovered treasure, and a new gem!
A Classic: The Hiding Place is Corrie ten Boom's autobiography, and one of the most inspiring books I've ever read. Though set in one of the darkest periods of modern history, this book is bursting with hope, joy, and love. There are no spiritual platitudes; rather, hard wrought morsels of truth.
Corrie was the daughter of a Dutch watchmaker, and as both she and her sister Betsy never married, they lived and worked in their father's workshop for most of their lives. When the Nazi's invaded Holland, the ten Boom family became actively involved in the resistance movement. They designed and built a secret room in their attic which they used to hide Jews. Eventually, they were found out, and Corrie and her sister were sent to a concentration camp.
If you have not read The Hiding Place, I urge you to add it to your list. You will be profoundly moved by this story of faith in action.
A Recently Discovered Treasure: Suite Française, by Irene Nemirovsky is a fictional story written about France during the Nazi occupation. It was written in France during the war, but it was not discovered and published until 2007.
The author, Irene Nemirovsky, was the daughter of a wealthy Jewish- Russian businessman who moved his family from Russia to Paris, France to escape persecution. At sixteen, she learned to speak and write fluently in French. She was married and had two daughters when Germany invaded France. With her family, she fled to the south of France, where Nazis had not yet invaded. There she began working for the resistance movement by writing for an underground newspaper. At the same time, she worked on her novel, Suite Française. Eventually she was found out, and taken to concentration camp.
Because he loved his wife so much, Irene's husband wrote daily to ask if he could take his wife's place in prison. He worried for her life, because she was not in good health. The officials tired of his requests, and rather than releasing his wife, they simply decided to imprison him as well. Just before he was taken, he managed to get his two daughters into hiding with one of their teachers. All they took with them was a satchel of their mother's writings.
When the war finally ended, the two daughters went every day to the train station where prisoners returned from the concentration camps, hoping to find their mother or father. But neither parent had survived. Years later, one of the daughters became a book editor in New York. She finally dared to open the satchel of her mother's writings, and what she found was this novel, Suite Française. The story, which was written as their mother observed events unfold before her eyes, reads like an eye-witness account, even though it is a work of fiction. It is, of course, unfinished; but, the publisher includes the author's notes, in which Nemirovsky has carefully outlined the entire plot.
A New Gem: The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is one of the best written books I've ever read. Set in Germany during the second World War, it is the story of young foster girl named Liesl Memiger who is taken in by a passive resister and his wife. Her foster father teaches her to read using a book she had stolen off of a book burning pile--thus the title. The Book Thief offers a rare perspective for the WWII genre--one from inside the homes and families of everyday German people.The characters are flawed, real, and endearing.
I cannot possibly convey the brilliance with which this story is told. It is narrated by Death, a character that is so well personified that as a reader, I developed an affection for the phantom. He is gentle, witty, and, in his own words, "...nothing, if not fair." In order to whet your appetite, I'll leave you with excerpt from the prologue:
A Classic: The Hiding Place is Corrie ten Boom's autobiography, and one of the most inspiring books I've ever read. Though set in one of the darkest periods of modern history, this book is bursting with hope, joy, and love. There are no spiritual platitudes; rather, hard wrought morsels of truth.
Corrie was the daughter of a Dutch watchmaker, and as both she and her sister Betsy never married, they lived and worked in their father's workshop for most of their lives. When the Nazi's invaded Holland, the ten Boom family became actively involved in the resistance movement. They designed and built a secret room in their attic which they used to hide Jews. Eventually, they were found out, and Corrie and her sister were sent to a concentration camp.
If you have not read The Hiding Place, I urge you to add it to your list. You will be profoundly moved by this story of faith in action.
A Recently Discovered Treasure: Suite Française, by Irene Nemirovsky is a fictional story written about France during the Nazi occupation. It was written in France during the war, but it was not discovered and published until 2007.
The author, Irene Nemirovsky, was the daughter of a wealthy Jewish- Russian businessman who moved his family from Russia to Paris, France to escape persecution. At sixteen, she learned to speak and write fluently in French. She was married and had two daughters when Germany invaded France. With her family, she fled to the south of France, where Nazis had not yet invaded. There she began working for the resistance movement by writing for an underground newspaper. At the same time, she worked on her novel, Suite Française. Eventually she was found out, and taken to concentration camp.
Because he loved his wife so much, Irene's husband wrote daily to ask if he could take his wife's place in prison. He worried for her life, because she was not in good health. The officials tired of his requests, and rather than releasing his wife, they simply decided to imprison him as well. Just before he was taken, he managed to get his two daughters into hiding with one of their teachers. All they took with them was a satchel of their mother's writings.
When the war finally ended, the two daughters went every day to the train station where prisoners returned from the concentration camps, hoping to find their mother or father. But neither parent had survived. Years later, one of the daughters became a book editor in New York. She finally dared to open the satchel of her mother's writings, and what she found was this novel, Suite Française. The story, which was written as their mother observed events unfold before her eyes, reads like an eye-witness account, even though it is a work of fiction. It is, of course, unfinished; but, the publisher includes the author's notes, in which Nemirovsky has carefully outlined the entire plot.
A New Gem: The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is one of the best written books I've ever read. Set in Germany during the second World War, it is the story of young foster girl named Liesl Memiger who is taken in by a passive resister and his wife. Her foster father teaches her to read using a book she had stolen off of a book burning pile--thus the title. The Book Thief offers a rare perspective for the WWII genre--one from inside the homes and families of everyday German people.The characters are flawed, real, and endearing.
I cannot possibly convey the brilliance with which this story is told. It is narrated by Death, a character that is so well personified that as a reader, I developed an affection for the phantom. He is gentle, witty, and, in his own words, "...nothing, if not fair." In order to whet your appetite, I'll leave you with excerpt from the prologue:
I could introduce myself properly, but it's really not necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that as some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.
At that moment you will be lying there (I rarely find people standing up). You will be caked in your own body. There might be a discovery; a scream will dribble down the air. The only sound I'll hear after that will be my own breathing, and the sound of the smell, of my footsteps.
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