Six Classic Holocaust Literatures
Must read books about the Holocaust.
“Holocaust” is the term generally referring to the systematic extermination of Jews along with other groups perpetrated by Nazi Germany and the Axis powers during World War II. Other victims include religious groups such as Freemasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Catholic and Protestant clergy; the physically and mentally handicapped; homosexuals; prisoners of war; intelligentsia and political activists; and races that were considered inferior such as the Roma Gypsies and Slavic people. More than eleven million people perished, which according to estimates include around six million Jews and two million Gentile Poles.
An enormous amount of Holocaust literature is available for those who desire to comprehend the dimensions of the Holocaust. Some are left behind by victims in the form of journals, letters and diaries, while others were written by Holocaust survivors. There are also accounts of resistance and stories of heroic rescues. The most important goal of learning about the Holocaust is to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again.
Here are six classic holocaust-themed books:
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The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
A book comprising of excerpts from diaries written by Anne Frank, beginning from her thirteenth birthday in June 1942 which was a mere three weeks before she and her family went into hiding from the Gestapo in a building’s tiny room in Amsterdam until their eventual betrayal in August 1944 when they were transported to Bergen-Belsen camp, where she died of typhus in 1945. It provides a glimpse of daily life under the Nazis and her expression of faith in human goodness in the hope of living in a world without hate.
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Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
Originally titled “Se Questo e un Uomo” (Italian for “If This Is a Man”). This memoir recounts the author’s two agonizing years at Auschwitz with his life spared mainly because of his scientific expertise being a chemist by profession, making him valuable to the Nazis. It was written to expose the atrocities perpetrated by the German Nazi regime.
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Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Initially published in 1946 under the title “Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager”(literally “A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp” in German). Viktor Frankl chronicled his three torturous years of experience in Nazi death camps where he lost his wife and parents; and discussed logotherapy, a new psychotherapeutic method developed to assist people find a reason for living, even in the most painful circumstances including suffering and death.
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Night by Elie Wiesel
Originally published in Yiddish in 1956 entitled “Un di Velt Hot Geshvign” (”And the World Remain Silent”). Elie Wiesel, after having endured through four concentration camps, vowed never to speak of his holocaust experience but decided after a decade to finally break his silence when Nobel laureate Francois Mauriac encouraged him to write a memoir about it; and had since written more than 30 works dealing with Judaism, Holocaust and the moral responsibility to battle racism and genocide. It somehow enabled people to understand the horrors of the Holocaust.
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They Fought Back by Yuri Suhl
A book featuring a collection of more than 30 amazing stories, detailing accounts of women including teenagers, wives and widows; and of many Jewish people of diverse political beliefs who courageously conducted anti-Nazi operations in Berlin at the height of the war. It was written to in an effort to dispel the Holocaust myth that Jews did not resist their tormentors, because the truth is, many did.
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Their Brothers’ Keepers by Philip Friedman
A scholarly work by the “Father of Holocaust History” for the purpose of keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive after more than a decade of extensive research through interviews, eyewitness accounts and official documents. It features objective accounts of many ordinary individuals, who, at great personal risks, displayed great compassion and courage in aiding Jews during the Nazi occupation.
Other Holocaust themed series
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Please explain me why it is mandatory that every “Holocaust” article mention that “Jehovah’s Witnesses” were also persecuted by the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s?
The Nazis persecuted “anyone” and “everyone” who did not believe and practice as they did, so the list of Nazi opposers could potentially be endless.
Everyone knows that approximately 6,000,000 Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis, and even many more millions of Jews suffered from lesser “persecution”. Approximately 100,000 homosexuals, 200,000 gypsies, and 200,000 disabled people were “persecuted” or slaughtered.
Compare those statistics with the Jehovah’s Witness. There were only 6000 JWs in Germany during that time period, and while many of those 6000 German JWs were arrested, only 200-300 lost their lives, and the majority of those 2-300 died from any number of causes other than having been executed. Those deaths, few though they may be when compared with the groups who lost thousands to execution, are tragic. But, that is not the point. The point is why does every single Holocaust article lump the JWs into the mix as if they were a significant part of the Holocaust story?
In fact, during that time period, there were more Jehovah’s Witnesses arrested and jailed in the United States than in Germany. In fact, from 1941 until 1945, approximately 4500 American Jehovah’s Witnesses “elected” to go to prison rather than serve in the Military and go fight against those same Nazis who were committing those atrocities. Roughly two-thirds of those 4500 American JWs were even offered “conscientious objector” status, in which they were offered “non-combatant” work as a substitute, but 99% of those JWs even refused to help out that much.
In fact, Jehovah’s Witness played an even less significant role in the Holocaust tragedy than the role that JWs play in any part of societal goings-on today. But-for being the butt of a few comedians’ jokes here and there, the JWs would receive virtually no mention outside articles about the Holocaust.
In fact, it is almost an insult to mention Jehovah’s Witnesses alongside Holocaust victims such as the Jews and homosexuals, given that Jehovah’s Witnesses view both groups much as did the Nazis.
Practicing homosexuals are instantly excommunicated and shunned by the JWs, which means that JW family members are forbidden to associate with them, and must cut them out of their lives. Excommunication is the Old Testament equivalent to “death by stoning”, and Shunning is treating an excommunicated person as if they had been executed.
As for Jews, the WatchTower Society teaches its own version of “replacement theology”, which says that GOD rejected the Jews as His “chosen people”, and replaced them with today’s “Jehovah’s Witnesses”. In fact, the title “Jehovah’s Witnesses” was originally applied to the Jews by the Prophet Isaiah, and is even quoted on the wall at the entrance to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.
The WatchTower Society, in calling its own members “Jehovah’s Witnesses” is attempting to steal that designation away from the Jews. The WatchTower Society even teaches that all of the Bible’s promises of restoration for the Jewish people now belongs to the followers of the WatchTower Society.
I’m really sorry that you think the way you do. I did not mean it to be an insult. I’m just citing the truth about the Holocaust. There are many minorities that suffered too. Holocaust is such a sensitive topic but I guess it should be so.
About GOD’s rejection of His chosen people: GOD did reject them but only for a while. God has reserved a remnant for Himself among His chosen people. This is what the Bible says! It’s written in the Paul’s epistles to the Romans, chapter 11. This rejection will last only until the full number of the Gentiles has come in (v. 25). GOD’s promises of restoration is available to all people who call on the name of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, both Jews and Gentiles alike (Galatians 3:26-29).
Thanks for your comment!
GOD bless you!
Jews people is the original branch,for catholic people,and then therefore the grafted branch.And Father Lord our God.
Why is it people get so offended over facts in history? The truth is that Jehovah’s Witness WERE PERSECUTED during the Nazi regime.
You are correct, many other groups were targeted as well, however Jehovah’s witnesses were the only group that were offered a piece of paper to sign, denouncing thier faith, in which signing in meant their freedom. Don’t believe me? Visit this website:
http://www.ushmm.org/education/resource/jehovahs/jehovahsw.php
This is the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., which is in no way supported by the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society.
You are also correct in saying that many Jehovah’s Witnesses were imprisoned for choosing not to go to war and kill other human beings. Killing is in direct contrast with the bible command, “Thou shalt not kill”. It is this command that caused JW’s in Nazi Germany not to side with the man made government, while people of other religions chose to take up arms for Germany.
As to being against Homosexuals, yes, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that this is a godly lifestyle. This goes with the scripture found at 1 Corinthians 10:9 “9 What! Do YOU not know that unrighteous persons will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men, 10 nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom.”
As for torturing, hating, killing, or being unkind to such persons in anyway (such as you are comparing JW’s to Nazis) this would also go against the Bible command “Love thy neighbor”. Therefore, while JW’s reject this lifstyle, they in no way hate or torture such ones. Ecclesiastes 1:16 says ““The [true] God will judge both the righteous one and the wicked one…” and therefore it is up to God to judge.
Facts are facts. The truth is the Holocaust happened. Geonocide is still happening, and the only way this world will ever be repaired is by relying on God, and having faith in this promise: “The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it.” (Psalm 37:29) Only Jehovah God can fix this world’s problems.