Research Guide: The Holocaust

Subject Headings

Use these terms in a search engine.

  • Concentration Camp–Poland
  • Genocide–Germany–History
  • Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
  • Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature
  • Holocaust Survivors
  • Nazi Persecution
  • World War, 1939-1945–Concentration Camps

 

Dewey Decimal Categories

Use these numbers to locate this topic in the nonfiction section of the library.

  • 920
  • 940.5317
  • 940.5318
  • J 920
  • J 940.5317
  • J 940.5318

 

Fiction [all titles are owned by DPLS]

Adlington, L. (2017). The Red Ribbon. Hot Key Books.
Every dress is a matter of life and death as Ella is forced to work as a seamstress in Birkenau-Auschwitz.

Arnold, E. K. (2024). Blood Years. Balzer & Bray.
Based on the author’s grandmother’s story, Arnold weaves a tale of a young woman’s story as she struggles to keep her grandfather’s business, their home, a relationship with her sister, and more importantly, their lives.

Boyne, John. (2006). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York: David Fickling Books.
Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, moves to a new home. After days of exploring, Bruno arrives at a fence with a boy wearing striped pajamas on the other side.

Hesse, Monica (2016). Girl in the Blue Coat. Massachusetts: Little, Brown, and Company.
In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, Netherlands, Hanneke is hired to find a Jewish girl who went missing.

Iturb, Antonio (2017). The Librarian of Auschwitz. New York: Henry Holt.
Based on a true story, Dita Kraus is placed in charge of the forbidden library at Auschwitz.

Nielsen, Jennifer. (2018). Resistance. New York: Scholastic Press.
Determined to make a difference, Chaya Lindner forges papers in order to become a courier traveling between the Polish ghettos.

Sax, Aline. (2013). The War Within These Walls. Michigan: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.
Misha lives in a ghetto with the rest of the Jews in Warsaw. She does everything she can in order to save her family.

Spiegelman, Art. (1997). Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. New York: Pantheon.
Maus is the story of a Jewish survivor and his son. It is a graphic novel.

Wiviott, Meg. (2015). Paper Hearts. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books.
Based on a true story, Paper Hearts tells the tale of two young women who were made to work in a munitions factor in Auschwitz during WWII. This is a novel written in verse.

Zusak, M. (2006). The Book Thief. Alfred A. Knopf.

 Leisel steals books and writes stories in order to bring some joy to her family and the Jewish man they are hiding. 

 

Nonfiction [all titles are owned by DPLS]

Arato, Rona. (2013). The Last Train: A Holocaust Story. Ontario: Owlkids.
A true story of two brothers and their mother who survive the Holocaust.

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. (2004). Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow. New York: Scholastic Nonfiction.
Bartoletti examines the younger generation who devoted their lives to Hitler.

Chiger, Krystyna. (2008). The Girl in the Green Sweater: A Life in Holocaust’s Shadow. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Krystyna describes her experience of living in the sewer systems to escape the Nazis.

Anne, Frank. (1996). The Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Anchor Books
This is the diary of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl who was hidden in an attic for 2 years before being captured by the Nazi party.

Holliday, Laurel. (1995). Children in the Holocaust and World War II: Their Secret Diaries. New York: Pocket Books.
An anthology of diaries written by 23 children across occupied Europe and England.

Koch, Stephen. (2019). Hitler’s Pawn: The Boy Assassin and the Holocaust. California: Counterpoint​.
Upon hearing of his family’s persecutions, Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish teenager residing in Paris shoots the first German Diplomat he saw at the German Embassy.  This event sparks Hitler’s “reasons” for the Kristallnacht and the Holocaust.

Rees, Laurence. (2017). The Holocaust: A New History. New York: Public Affairs.
Rees answers the questions of “how” and “why” by speaking with survivors and perpetrators.

 

Websites

The Holocaust. (n.d.). Retrieved October, 2014, from http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-holocaust  
The History Channel has gathered a collection of online videos, photos, and speeches pertaining to the Holocaust.

Holocaust Memorial Center: Zekelman Family Campus. (n.d.). Retrieved October, 2014, from http://www.holocaustcenter.org/
The Holocaust Memorial Center honors those who perished, were persecuted, or survived the persecutions of the Nazi Party between 1933 and 1945. The center’s website provides a listing of resources found within their archives, as well as scheduled exhibits. The Holocaust Memorial Center is located in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

The Holocaust Wing | Jewish Virtual Library. (n.d.). Retrieved October, 2014, from http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/holo.html

The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise established the Jewish Virtual Library as a way to connect America to Israeli culture. The Holocaust Wing provides a comprehensive list of resources from the Nazi Party to persecution and the world reaction.

IWitness. One Voice at a Time. (n.d.). Retrieved October, 2014, from http://iwitness.usc.edu/SFI/
IWitness was developed by USC Shoah Foundation: The Institute for Visual History and Education. IWitness provides access to over 1,300 online video testimonials of Holocaust survivors and witnesses. Viewers must register for a free account to access the videos.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.). Retrieved October, 2014, from http://www.ushmm.org/
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s mission is to inform others about the tragedy, to archive the memory of those involved, and to encourage our citizens to question and reflect upon the events. This website provides a history of the events, links to testimonials, I.D. cards, and interactive maps. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is located in Washington DC.

Virtual Museum of the Anne Frank House. (n.d.) Retrieved October, 2014, from http://www.annefrank.org
This website was created for the 50th anniversary of the Anne Frank House. Viewers can read the biographical data of Anne Frank, browse through the timeline, explore the secret annex, and read excerpts of her diary. The Anne Frank House is located Amsterdam, Netherlands.

 

YouTube Videos

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Channel. (2014) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/ushmm
This YouTube channel is provided by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

 

​Television Series and Movies

Cary, Arthur (2019). The Last Survivors. Virginia: PBS
Over 70 years later, some of the last remaining survivors of the Holocaust share their stories.

Dahme, Maude. (2006). The Hidden Child. PBS Home Video. New Jersey: NJN Public Television.
Only 100,000 Jewish children survived the Holocaust. The Hidden Child focuses on one young survivor, Maude Dahme.

Heyman, David (Producer), & Herman, Mark (Director). (2009). The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. United States: Miramax Films.
Based on the book of the same name by John Boyne, Bruno explores his new home and come across a fence with a boy on the other side.

Small, Ron. (2019). Surviving Birkenau: The Dr. Susan Spatz Story. United States: Holocaust Education Film Foundation
Dr. Susan Spatz recounts her 3 year experience inside a Nazi concentration camp.