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Holocaust literature for children
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There are numerous books about the Holocaust geared toward children in the hopes that teaching them the truth about the horrific events that occured under Hitler during World War II will prevent a repeat in the future. Mass executions of people of certain ethnicities continue to occur (in Darfur, for instance), underscoring the importance of teaching children to love all people and put an end to the hatred and prejudices that have caused so much destruction.
T4 by Ann Clare LeZotte focuses on the Nazi program Tiergartenstrasse 4, named after its Berlin headquarters, whose primary goal was to euthanize all people with disabilities. In Hitler's mind, these people were unfit to live and stood in the way of the Nazi's goal of creating a "perfect" race. Written in short poems, LeZotte tells the story of Paula Becker, a young German girl who was born deaf and communicates in her own version of sign language. She is forced to leave her parents and sister to avoid being taken away by the Nazis and killed simply because of her hearing loss.
In Lois Lowry's Newbery medal winner Number the Stars, a 10-year-old Danish girl learns that her best friend and her family are in danger. They are Jewish, and the Nazis have begun deporting them. Annemarie's parents take Ellen in and pretends she is one of their own, but the charade can last only so long. Annemarie leaves Copenhagen with her mother, sister, and Ellen to seek the help of her fisherman uncle to provide Ellen and her family with permanent shelter. Their escape doesn't go as planned, and Annemarie must summon courage she never knew she had to save her friend's life--and her own.
David Colbert's 10 Days: Anne Frank chronicles 10 of the 5,748 days Anne spent on earth, from the moment her father decides to keep his two daughters by his side as the Germans approach the Netherlands and the days the Frank family spends in hiding to their eventual capture and death in the concentration camps. Colbert aims to show children that Anne was a normal teen, and he gives a face to at least one of the 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust.
These and other Holocaust books written for children spell out the horrible truth of the concentration camps and the Nazi policies against the Jews and other persecuted groups of people. But rather than detail the events in graphic fashion, these stories present only the facts a young child can handle. Parents can use these books to enhance their children's knowledge of history, as well as start a dialogue about prejudice and how it must end.
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