Thank you for your wonderful suggestions. Shanah tova.
Wendie Sittenfield On Wed, Sep 16, 2020, 11:11 PM Marjorie Gann <[email protected]> wrote: > Wendie, here are a few titles from the past that I thought were excellent. > I read each of them years ago, so I may have some details wrong, but these > were among the best of the Holocaust books I read and, in some cases, wrote > about in the 1990s. > > *Shadow of the Wal*l, by Christa Laird: Misha lives in Dr. Janos > Korczak's Orphans' Home in the Warsaw Ghetto. The novel does a brilliant > job of conveying conditions in the ghetto, the child smuggling, and > especially the humanism of Korczak and his assistant, Mme Stefa. The scene > in which the orphans, accompanied by Korczak and Stefa, march towards the > train is particularly touching. > > Two novels set in Germany: > > *Friedrich*, by Hans Peter Richter (translated from the German): This > amazing memoir (I think it's written as a novel, but it reflects the > childhood of the author) focuses on the friendship between a Jewish boy and > a non-Jewish German boy. It traces the graduall unfolding of Nazi control > and moves into a depiction of German guilt. As I recall, the author > remembers his childhood as a period that tainted his entire life and his > nation, and writing this seemed to me to be his way of coping with his > personal guilt for the betrayal of his Jewish friend. > > *Good-bye, Marianne*, by Irene N. Watts. A novel of the > Kindertransporte. Watts focuses on one girl and the wrenching decision her > parents must make to let her go on the train to England on the > Kindertransporte. For classroom use, it would be excellent, because it's > quite sho and has both a boy (Ernest--gentile German) and a girl (Marianne) > as protagonists. It does not, however, have quite the authentic ring that > *Friedrich* does. > > Two novels of occupied countries: > > *The Upstairs Room*, by Johanna Reiss. Like the Franks, Reiss's family > hid with a Dutch family during the war, in this case in the countryside,. > Unlike Anne Frank and her sister, Johanna and her sister survived. There > are some very tense moments (German soldiers billet themselves in the > rescuers' home for a brief period, and there are occasional searches of > their house). That makes the novel ideal for dramatization, and I in fact > used it in Remembrance Day performances because some of the scenes were > intensely dramatic. It's a memoir and rings very true, but it was published > in the 1970s. > > *A Pocketful of Seeds *by Marilyn Sachs. Sachs based this novel on her > friend's experiences in WWII France under occupation. Rebellious, spunky > Nicole is away from home when the police round up her family for > deportation. She ends up in hiding in a convent school, which is quite an > ordeal for a feisty young teen. Although written by someone who wasn't > there and didn't live through those terrible years in France, this novel > evokes the atmosphere in wartime France, and the presence of collaborators, > perfectly. > > And one novel set in New York: > > *Alan and Naomi,* by Myron Levoy. Alan Silverman, probably around 13 or > 14, lives in NY and only wants to be one of the guys. But it's 1944, and a > French girl named Naomi Kirshenbaum moves into his building. She acts > strangely; Alan doesn't really understand it, but we know that there must > have been some trauma. His parents ask him to visit the neighbours with > whom Naomi is staying, and try to draw her out of herself. One vehicle for > doing this is his Charlie McCarthy puppet (remember those?), and the scenes > in which Alan, with some reluctance, reaches out to Naomi through the > puppet are particularly touching. It's a novel that subtly evokes the war > in France, but also touches on both American near-obliviousness to their > people's suffering in Europe, and on what it was like being a Jewish kid > among gentile kids in America in the 1940s. The psychological study of Alan > is as profound as the study of the traumatized Naomi. > > Marjorie > > > > > > On Wed, Sep 16, 2020 at 6:58 PM Wendie Sittenfield via Hasafran < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Hello Safranim, >> >> Please send me your suggestions for a really engaging book for a middle >> school class to read prior to starting a Holocaust elective. >> >> Many thanks in advance. >> >> Shana tova. >> >> Wendie Sittenfield >> >> >> __ >> Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual >> author >> and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries >> (AJL) >> ================================== >> Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: >> [email protected] >> To join Ha-Safran, update or change your subscription, etc. - click here: >> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran >> Questions, problems, complaints, compliments send to: [email protected] >> Ha-Safran Archives: >> Current: >> >> http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.service.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html >> Earlier Listserver: >> >> http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html >> AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org >> -- >> Hasafran mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran >> >
__ Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) ================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: [email protected] To join Ha-Safran, update or change your subscription, etc. - click here: https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran Questions, problems, complaints, compliments send to: [email protected] Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.service.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html Earlier Listserver: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org -- Hasafran mailing list [email protected] https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran
