'In the last couple of years I realised that, as one of the last witnesses, I must speak out.' Tomi Reichental, who lost 35 members of his family in the Holocaust, gives his account of being imprisoned as a child at Belsen concentration camp. He was nine-years old in October 1944 when he was rounded up by the Gestapo in a shop in Bratislava, Slovakia. Along with 12 other members of his family he was taken to a detention camp where the elusive Nazi War Criminal Alois Brunner had the power of life and death. His story is a story of the past. It is also a story for our times. The Holocaust reminds us of the dangers of racism and intolerance, providing lessons that are relevant today.
'At the age of six I began to fear for the future. ... By the age of nine I was on the run for my life. ... By the time I was ten I had seen all there was to see.' An accessible and honest account of the Holocaust that reminds us of the dangers of racism and intolerance, providing lessons that are relevant today. A true story of heroism during this painful horrific time in history. Tomi Reichental grew up in a small village, with friendly neighbours and a big, happy family. But things began to change, and Tomi was told he couldn't play with some of the local children any more. Then the police started to take away friends and family. Life changed completely when he was sent a thousand kilometres away, with all the other local Jews, to the terrifying Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The Nazis killed millions of people, simply because of their race or religion. Tomi tells his story so that such a horrific thing won't happen again.
“I find it hard even now to get into focus all these horrors, my mind is really quite incapable of taking in everything I saw because it was all so completely foreign to everything I had previously believed or thought possible.” British Major Ben Barnett’s words echoed the sentiments shared by medical students, Allied soldiers, members of the clergy, ambulance drivers, and relief workers who found themselves utterly unprepared to comprehend, much less tend to, the indescribable trauma of those who survived at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The liberation of Bergen-Belsen by the British in April 1945 was a defining point in history: the moment the world finally became inescapably aware of the Holocaust. But what happened after Belsen was liberated is still a matter of dispute. Was it an epic of medical heroism or the culmination of thirteen years of indifference to the fate of Europe’s Jews? This startling investigation by acclaimed documentary filmmaker and historian Ben Shephard draws on an extraordinary range of materials–contemporary diaries, military documents, and survivors’ testimonies–to reconstruct six weeks at Belsen beginning on April 15, 1945, and reveals what actually caused the post-liberation deaths of nearly 14,000 concentration camp inmates who might otherwise have lived. Why did it take almost two weeks to organize a proper medical response? Why were the medical teams sent to Belsen so poorly equipped? Why, when specialists did arrive, did they get so much of the medicine plain wrong? For the first time, Shephard explores the humanitarian and medical issues surrounding the liberation of the camp and provides a detailed, illuminating account that is far more complex than had been previously revealed. This gripping book confronts the terrifying aftermath of war with questions that still haunt us today.
During the holocaust the Nazis preserved small groups of Jewish prisoners in case they needed to exchange them for captured German civilians. This diary describes life in such a concentration camp and how the internees responded to its horror.
During the Holocaust the young Hetty was rounded up by the Nazis and sent for 14 long months to Belsen Concentration Camp. Hetty and her two little brothers were forcefully separated from their parents. This is her story; how she as one of the eldest children had to become the ‘Little Mother’ not only taking care of her two brothers but also forty young children living in Barrack 211 known as ‘The Children’s House of Belsen’. At fourteen-years-old, an unimaginable task amidst the inhumane conditions of hunger, cold, sickness death and despair, she kept up her spirits. A truly remarkable story of a young girl’s determination.
Presents an illustrated biography of the Jewish heroine, Luba Tryszynska, who saved the lives of more than fifty Jewish children in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the winter of 1944/45.
This is the story of a young boy's journey from a sleepy provincial town in Hungary during the Second World War to the concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen. Peter Lantos revisits his past from the perspective of the present and finally lays to rest the ghosts of his past.
While everyone knew that the war would soon be over, Nazi Captain Wuerff is so fanatical that he'll continue his struggle to the bitter end. He is determined to crush the Dutch Resistance and rid The Hague of every last Jew. While his leaders amass tremendous fortunes in looted treasure, and prepare for their escape from Europe, Captain Wuerff remains focused on his deadly mission. Resistance hero Kees van Rijn is resolved to undermine Wuerff's plans. With his friends in the Resistance, he fights to keep hidden Jewish families alive and safe from the camps. During the war, over ten thousand Jews were hidden throughout the Netherlands, thus avoiding the Fuehrer's "Final Solution." While they suffered great hardships, they were at least alive.Kees stays on the run, moving families from one hiding place to another, often right under the noses of the Nazis. But Captain Wuerff has a plan to snare Kees and his comrades, and to round up the Jews in one fell swoop. If he can lure Kees' beautiful wife, Johanna, and his boy, Cornelius, into the trap, so much the better. In the last days of the war, Captain Wuerff plans to earn distinction by filling one last train with Jews for the concentration camps, and he intends for the van Rijn family to join them on this deadly final trip.
A Morris Award Finalist Longlisted for the National Book Award For fans of The Book Thief and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas comes a lushly illustrated novel about a teen Holocaust survivor who must come to terms with who she is and how to rebuild her life. "A tour de force. This powerful story of love, loss, and survival is not to be missed." --KRISTIN HANNAH, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale After losing her family and everything she knew in the Nazi concentration camps, Gerta is finally liberated, only to find herself completely alone. Without her papa, her music, or even her true identity, she must move past the task of surviving and on to living her life. In the displaced persons camp where she is staying, Gerta meets Lev, a fellow teen survivor who she just might be falling for, despite her feelings for someone else. With a newfound Jewish identity she never knew she had, and a return to the life of music she thought she lost forever, Gerta must choose how to build a new future. "What the Night Sings is a book from the heart, of the heart, and to the heart. Vesper Stamper's Gerta will stay with you long after you turn the last page. Her story is one of hope and redemption and life--a blessing to the world." --Deborah Heiligman, award-winning author of Charles and Emma and Vincent and Theo A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST CHILDREN'S BOOK OF 2018 A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF 2018
Irene's first person Holocaust memoir, Shores Beyond Shores, is an account of how the heart keeps its common humanity in the most inhumane and turbulent of times. Irene's childhood is cut short when she and her family are deported to Nazi-controlled prison camps and finally Bergen-Belsen, where she is a fellow prisoner with Anne Frank. Later forbidden from speaking about her experiences by the American relatives who cared for her, Irene is now making up for lost time. Irene has shared the stage with peacemakers such as the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Elie Wiesel, and she considers it her duty to tell her story now and on behalf of the six million other Jews who have been permanently silenced. Book long description: Irene Butter's memoir of her experiences before, during and after the Holocaust is not a recounting of misery and tragedy; rather it is the genuine story of a girl coming to terms with a terrible event and choosing to view herself as a survivor instead of a victim. When the Dutch police knock on their door, Irene and her family are forced to leave their home and board trains meant for cattle. They are taken to Nazi-controlled prison camps and finally to Bergen-Belsen, where Irene is a fellow prisoner with Anne Frank. With limited access to food, shelter, and warm clothing, Irene's family needs nothing short of a miracle to survive. Irene's memoir tells the story of her experiences as a young girl before, during, and after the Holocaust, highlighting how her family came to terms with the catastrophe and how she, over time, came to view herself as a survivor rather than a victim. Throughout the book, her first-person account celebrates the love and empathy that can persist even in the most inhumane conditions. Irene's words send a poignant message against hate at a time when anti-Semitic, fascist and xenophobic movements around the globe are experiencing a resurgence. Irene, through her book, reminds us of the impact one person can have in choosing to follow the mantra, 'never a bystander' -- a phrase she adopted only 33 years ago, after her own voice was silenced by her cousins in the years after the Holocaust. Now, Irene Hasenberg Butter is a well-known inspirational speaker on her experiences during World War II.
