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[Discussion] Could you recommend me more books regarding Holocaust survivors/Nazism!

Snow White luvs Peter Pan

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I've already read:

The Diary of Anne Frank which made me sad because she died 2 months before the Bergen Belsen concentration camp where she was captive was set free by the Russian army. It also surprised me her maturity at such a young, at moments while I was reading it, it seems she was the only sane one from her family.

Five Chimneys by Olga Lengyel which was if I'm not mistaken, the first book published by a Holocaust survivor. That book made me hate and despise Josef Mengele! he profaned The words and practice of Science and Medicine in the name of Nazi's racist supremacy ideals! :puke:

Nunca jamás (Never Again) by Dunia Wassertrom a French survivor who emmigrated to Mexico when she was set free, unfortunately it isn't available in English but her testimony is as crude, merciless as Olga's.

Is it worthwhile reading Mein Kempf?

Thank you!
 
There's the book Schindler's List/Ark. Where the German Oskar Schindler came to save more than one thousand Polish Jews. I have only ever seen the 1993 movie. And it is a very hard movie to watch. Especially because of my German Polish background. But it is such a really good movie. I know there are other Holocaust books. But Schindler's List is the only one that came to my mind. Other besides Anne Frank.
 
Definitely Night by Elie Wiesel.

If you don't mind fictional, there's Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (about the French Round Up). I didn't read that one, but my mom did. It was also made into a movie and the movie was really good. :)

Also The Boy in The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. Again, haven't read it, but saw the movie. Very sad.
 
MJsBollywoodGirl7 said:
There's the book Schindler's List/Ark. Where the German Oskar Schindler came to save more than one thousand Polish Jews. I have only ever seen the 1993 movie. And it is a very hard movie to watch. Especially because of my German Polish background. But it is such a really good movie. I know there are other Holocaust books. But Schindler's List is the only one that came to my mind. Other besides Anne Frank.
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Believe it or not I haven't seen complete The Schindler's List! When it's on TV it already goes half of the movie or about to end... :rant: I bet it's a good adapatation of the book, I knoe it received possitive reviews.

TheEternalMoonwalker said:
I heard this one is really good and interesting. Could be a bit disturbing though: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Auschwitz-A...011X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345071350&sr=8-1

If you feel like reading a fictional book about that time in history I recommend The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Really Really good book.
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I don't mind reading disturbing stories because in many cases it's a reminder that not necessarely all people with a religious faith are good to mindkind. It makes me angry and sad though... just because of idiotic racist ideals millions were murdered and the ones who are still alive suffer the consequences.

CaptainEoLove85 said:
Definitely Night by Elie Wiesel.

If you don't mind fictional, there's Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (about the French Round Up). I didn't read that one, but my mom did. It was also made into a movie and the movie was really good. :)

Also The Boy in The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. Again, haven't read it, but saw the movie. Very sad.
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I forgot to mention in my readings The Boy in The Striped Pajamas, I aso watched the film and think it's a good adaptation of it, in the case of the characters in the book, Bruno's father and Brunos's sister are more racist and I liked the books's ending because it's sadder than the movie's.

Very appreciated your recommendations guys, I'll take them into account!
 
I searched and found a list
http://www.adlit.org/books/c879/
I´ve read Maus 1 and Maus2 by Art Spiegelman.
It´s worth reading.

Exodus,Mila 18 and QB VIII are written by Leon Uris.
It´s fictional stories and people but when I read them it really felt like these persons could have exist.
I think I learned in school long time ago that it took Germany just some days to take Polen during the second world war.
In Mila 18 I read about how jews there in the ghetto fighted for about a month before they were overpowered.
Many times it seems they didn´t know what would happen if they were taken to camps but it seems these jews knew they were fighting for there lifes.

It´s interesting because many times it seems like jews didn´t even try to resist.
There is however a book written by Rashke, Richard ,Escape from Sobibor.
I read the book years ago but I bought the film last week in a red cross second hand shop and haven´t seen it yet.
 
Thank you MIST!

When I was 16, I watched a movie for TV called "Escape from Sobibor." I'm pretty sure it was based on the book you mentioned and I'm pretty sure as well the book is better than the movie; even though I watched that movie 10 years ago, I still remember vividly the scene when an SS soldier ordered his German Shepard to catch a nude child who escaped from the gas chambers.

If you want to watch the movie, here it's:


And if you want read Night by Elie Wiesel (which I'm reading,) I leave the pdf file:

http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/Night.pdf
 
I would recommend reading, if you can get your hands on a copy that is, Joseph Goebbels' diaries. He's a far better writer than Hitler, who was more talented as an orator, and he provides an interesting look into the personalities of high-ranking Nazi party members. I would read Mein Kampf if I were you, if only to get an idea of early Hitler, but it is kind of a dry read.

I don't really bother with books about the holocaust/Third Reich/WWII as a whole, tbh. I like more focused works. I've read Anne Frank's diary and Elie Wiesel's Night, the latter was a far more decent read than the former. I read more biographies rather than just general historical books. I recommend Himmler by Peter Padfield to get a good glimpse into Himmler's life. I really would try to get a hold of Goebbels' diaries, though. First-hand sources are always more interesting than work by biographers, which can be slanted one way or another.

I also read a good book about Hess, wish I could remember what the author's name was... I rented it from the library back in high school so my memory is a bit hazy, but it was an interesting read.

Goebbels by Ralf Georg Reuth was also a very good read. Very detailed biography of Goebbels, well-written. Angela Lambert's The Lost Life of Eva Braun is also a good read, although the style of writing is not up to par with historians' and the author loses focus at times. Still worth a read, though.

I really want to get a hold of Goebbels' novel, Michael. I have heard good things about it. That's more to understand Goebbels himself rather than the Third Reich/WWII, though.

Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl by Stephen Bach is also worth a read. It's about the filmmaker behind the world's greatest political propaganda film, Triumph des Willens.

I also once read a very good book about the Nuremberg trials. I forget who the author was, as I rented that too.

With that said, I can recommend a lot of good films/documentaries on WWII/Third Reich, and Hitler, etc. if you're interested. Also have a whole collection of photographs, mostly of Mengele in South America. Have some recording of him singing, too, but that's more curio than substance. I have a bunch of things on him, including a poem he wrote. It paints an interesting picture, the personal Mengele. Kind of crazy.
 
If you would like to... Ms Ester Golan is a wonderful woman who loves helping others understand the horrors of that time as she is a Shoa survivor herself.

I was a High School student in Berlin who had the opportunity to interview with Ms Golan in the late 90ies - when she came to Berlin/Germany.

You can reach her here:
http://golanes.blogspot.com/

You can read English summaries of her letters in that time.
http://1939to1942.blogspot.com/2007/10/31dec39.html

Her book is written in German, so that might not be of immediate help - but she and her story are an incredible testament to the times. And as far as I remember she is always willing to educate others. (in English as well)
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P.S.: I think you inspired me to finally translate my later grandfather's book into English - since his perspective of a survivor in the former "Soviet Occupied Zone" might be quite interesting.
 
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Hi Snow White

there is a informative book written by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen.
It's title is (in German) "Hitlers willige Vollstrecker". But the original is written in USA, title: "Hitler's Willing Executioners" (Alfred A. Knopf Inc., New York).

D. Goldhagen is Associate Professor of Government and Social Studies on the Harvard University. He wrote his dissertation about this theme, too.

The book ist about the question: Who were the "Nazis"? And Goldhagen shows there were not only Hitler, Göring, Himmler an Eichmann but also least 90 or 95% of the normal-ordinary people 100%-Nazis in the time between 1933 and 1945.
And these 95% from German people were the foundation for the Nazi-leaders.

I mean this is a very important book.


If you want to inform you about the mass murder on the European Jews (and "Zigeuner" i.e. Sinti and Roma, too) maybe you can per Google find about the Eichmann-Suit in Jerusalem 1961.
(You must have strong nerves and internal and external by a good health---- when I may say this. Sorry...)


You asks the question in Nr. 1:
Is it worthwhile reading Mein Kempf?

I mean: No!.....or: Maybe later, AFTER you have had read many informations about "What were the national socialism (NS-time) in Germany and who were it's victims.
"Mein Kampf" is written by Adolf Hitler, and it is pure Nazi-propaganda. I mean, it is perhaps dangerous as one not know, what was done in reality.


(i hope, you can understand my english but I'm learning it, every day a tiny little bit more.... I hope so.)
 
There were germans who risked their lives to help jews and other people who were sent to concentration camps.
Some people were hiding jews but I haven´t read a book or seen a movie about it.

Hans and Sophie Scholl and The White Rose

The White Rose participants recognized that the means used to achieve their desire to live in a society in which women, men and children were respectfully treated and did not exist to be the tools of the government needed to be consistent with that end. The men and women of The White Rose did not engage in violence. Rather, they pursued their dream and conveyed their message by distributing leaflets that expressed truths otherwise unavailable to be read by the German people. In the midst of war torn Germany they dared to go beyond exercising freedom of thought by exercising freedom of association, speech and the press: for which some of them paid with their lives

It´s more to read here http://forejustice.org/
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERwhiterose.htm
I´ve seen a movie and I think there must be a book about them too.

This is something new to me hundreds of German women ,unarmed, demanded their husbands back and they won.
http://www.rinr.fsu.edu/fallwinter97/features/hitler.html
This;If non-compliance and the open protest saved 1,700 Berlin Jews from extermination, Stoltzfus asks, what would have happened if other Germans had confronted Hitler?
 
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