Again, our Jewish calendar sets our people’s history into bold contrast. Passover’s triumphant exodus story is followed swiftly by Yom HaShoah, a day marking the Holocaust’s horrifying unchecked human cruelty. Despite some counterbalancing examples of courage and compassion, how do we tell this tale to our children? Here are some books for young people that may help them — and you — sort out the incomprehensible chaos of war and its impact on real individuals and families.
For Sharing with Younger Readers
Benno and the Night of Broken Glass by Meg Wiviott (Lerner Publishing Group, $7.95 paper), wonderfully illustrated with multi-media collage by Josée Bisaillon, received starred reviews in School Library Journal and is highly recommended to introduce the Holocaust to children 7 to 11. In 1938 Berlin, Benno, the neighborhood’s favorite cat, sees his peaceful Rosenstrasse gradually change into a worried, unfriendly place. Jewish Sophie Adler no longer walks to school with church-going Inge Schmidt. Booted men in brown shirts strut about. Then comes Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, and the burning of Neue Synagogue and Professor Goldfarb’s books. The points are clear but not belabored: While Sophie, her family and Professor Goldfarb disappeared, Herr Gerber’s grocery stayed open for business. Even for Benno, “Life on Rosenstrasse would never be the same.” Includes a factual afterword and a bibliography.
Some books in picture book format should be evaluated with care before choosing them for young children. For example, Otto: The Autobiography of a Teddy Bear by Tomi Ungerer (Phaidon Press, $16.95 hardcover), author/illustrator of many highly praised children’s works, uses the viewpoint of this favorite toy to describe life in Germany in the ‘30s. When David, Otto’s owner, is sent away, his best friend Oskar takes care of Otto until an explosion destroys their shelter and Otto is on his own. He undergoes the horrors of war, bombings and battles, and after saving an American GI, ends up in a New York antique shop window. An unlikely but hopeful conclusion reunites him years later with both boys, now lonely old men glad to find him and each other. Ungerer, who turns 80 this year and lived in Alsace during the Nazi occupation, has told his story simply but the illustrations are graphic and scary. The first English edition of a 1999 French publication, a close look at the battered teddy bear on the cover may warn you that Ungerer’s book is most suited for ages 9 and up.
Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto by Susan Goldman Rubin (Holiday House, $18.95 hardcover), with oil paintings by Bill Farnsworth, is another illustrated work marked as being for 6 to 10 year olds. Because of its focus on the rescue of children in jeopardy and because of the separation and abandonment issues involved, I’d call it more suited for 8 years and up. The paintings are exceptional and the story of this tiny Polish social worker is inspiring as it shows how she quietly and ingeniously helped smuggle nearly 400 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, while keeping careful records of their identities so they could be reunited with their families should any survive the war. Contains an afterword, resources, notes, and index.
For Older Readers
Once by Australian novelist Morris Gleitzman (Henry Holt and Co., $16.99 hardcover), is an original and imaginative work about 10-year-old Felix’s adventures after he runs away from the convent where his bookseller parents had hidden him. Unaware, brave and hopeful, Felix lives in stories which juxtapose his essentially naïve and poetic nature against the brutal realities of the time in which he lives. The noted children’s literature journal The Horn Book, in its starred review, said “This is the rare Holocaust book for young readers that doesn’t alleviate its dark themes with a comforting ending.” Powerful and simple, it is most suitable for readers 12 and up, including adults who loved The Book Thief.
Is it Night or Day? A Novel of Immigration and Survival, 1938-1942 by Fern Schumer Chapman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $17.99 hardcover) is based on the experiences of the author’s mother, whose German Jewish parents sent her to America in 1937 at the age of 12 to save her from Nazi persecution. How she adjusts and survives is both a very specific and very universal story, leading to a deeper understanding of today’s immigrants, changing their lives but not knowing what comes next. Ages 12 up.
A Family Secret is the second of two intertwined graphic novels by Eric Heuvel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $9.99 paperback), one of the Netherlands’ top graphic artists. It follows the story of Helena whose father, a policeman, collaborated with the Nazis. Helena never forgave him for apparently not helping her Jewish best friend, Esther, to escape. Helena’s grandson Jeroen becomes instrumental in discovering the truth about his grandfather’s actions regarding Esther. Grade 5 and up.
Black Radishes by Susan Lynn Meyer (Random House, $16.99 hardcover) follows Gustave Becker from Paris to the small village of Saint-Georges, where his family believes they will be safer. Gustave gets involved with resistance fighters and begins to take risks, crossing over to find food and helping those who want to escape. The title refers to food bribes given German border guards to remind them of home. Grades 4-7.
Guardian Angel House by Kathy Clark (Second Story Press, $14.95 paperback) is based on the true story of the author’s mother and aunt, both of whom were hidden in a Budapest Sisters of Charity convent after the Nazis invaded Hungary. In this Holocaust Remembrance Book for Young Readers, the elder sister describes life in the convent, the relationships between the nuns and the girls, and the deepening tension as food becomes more scarce and the Nazis more suspicious. Though the end of the war brings knowledge of many losses, the book ends on a note of hope and new beginnings. Ages 10-14.
Rita Berman Frischer is the former library director of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and a lecturer on children’s literature. She is a frequent children’s book award judge and reviewer.