Holocaust Remembrance Day: Reading List

On Yom HaShoah—Holocaust Remembrance Day—we reflect on the tragic events during the Holocaust in which more than six million Jews, and millions of other innocent lives, were unjustly killed. As global citizens, it is critical that we continue to stand with the Jewish community in shining a light on a dark and horrific time in history.

As we reflect upon the injustices, cruelty, and collective loss, the arts serve as a vehicle of healing, mourning, and bridging of our common bond as humankind. Here is a reading list of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and graphic novels that honor and remember the profound stories and impact of the Holocaust. May we never forget.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

The Diary of a Young Girl, also known as The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of writings from the diary of Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager who documented her life in hiding during World War II. From 1942 to 1944, Anne routinely wrote in the diary, which she considered a friend, addressing countless entries to “Dear Kitty.” The diary captures her thoughts on friendships, crushes on boys, academic performance at school, moments of loneliness and oppression, and her views on human nature. On August 1, 1944, the diary entries abruptly end with “I...keep trying to find a way to become what I'd like to be and what I could be if… if only there were no other people in the world.” In 1947, two years after Anne's death in a concentration camp, the book was published by her father Otto Frank—the only family survivor.

“The Blade of Grass from Ponar” by Abraham Sutzkever and translated by 2016 NEA Literature Translation Fellow Maia Evrona

In 2016, poet and translator Maia Evrona received NEA funding to translate  the Yiddish poetry collection Poems from My Diary by Abraham Sutzkever. Deemed by the New York Times as “the greatest poet of the Holocaust,” Sutzkever was an exceptional Yiddish poet, with work comprised of beauty, depth, and humanity. In 1943, after his newborn son and mother were killed by Nazis, Sutzkever and his wife escaped and joined a Jewish partisan unit in the forests. In his poem “The Blade of Grass from Ponar,” Sutzkever longs for Lithuania, the country where he spent his childhood. Remaining proud of his roots but hopeful for the journey that lies ahead, Sutzkever states, “I will not separate from my hometown’s blade of grass. / My good, longed-for earth will make room for both.”

Jack and Rochelle by Jack and Rochelle Sutin

In this captivating memoir, Jack and Rochelle Sutin reflect upon their battle to survive the Holocaust as part of a group of Jewish partisans hiding several months in an underground bunker in the forests of Poland. Jack and Rochelle were only acquaintances before World War II, but became lovers and fought in the resistance movement. Their story is told through a series of interviews conducted by their son Lawrence Sutin, who not only chronicles his parent’s stories of survival, but their love story of more than 50 years. After the war, the Sutins married and emigrated to America.

The Shawl by 1968 NEA Literature Fellow Cynthia Ozick

First published in 1980 in The New Yorker, Cynthia Ozick's short story "The Shawl" was combined in 1989 with a second short fiction piece, "Rosa," to create the novella also titled The Shawl. In the first story, “The Shawl,” a mother (Rosa), her baby (Magda)—hidden by a cloth—and niece (Stella), struggle to survive in a Nazi concentration camp. Stella’s theft of the cloth ultimately leads to Magda’s death by a guard. In the second half of the novel, the story “Rosa” is set 40 years later and chronicles the life of Rosa and Stella as refugees in America. As Stella attempts to build a new life in New York, Rosa is unable to let her past life go; resulting in Rosa destroying her New York store and moving to a cheap Miami hotel. Rosa and Stella demonstrate the varied long-term effects of Holocaust experiences.

Night by Elie Wiesel

After a ten-year hiatus from speaking about his Holocaust experiences, Elie Wiesel published Night in 1956. Although Wiesel makes some minor changes between himself and the main character, Eliezer, Night is considered a memoir. The novel tells the first-hand experiences of Eliezer Wiesel, a studious Orthodox Jewish teenager who fights to survive at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Eliezer battles to keep his faith while witnessing other prisoners die of starvation, disease, and abuse from guards. Inside of the concentration camp, Eliezer commits to serving as his father’s protector. Before the concentration camp is liberated, Eliezer’s father dies due to a fatal beating from a guard. Eliezer survives the Holocaust, but he is a shell of the person he once was. In 1986, Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for speaking out against violence, repression, and racism.

Maus by Art Spiegelman

Published in 1991, the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman is a deep and complex story. The novel, part fiction and part memoir, documents Spiegelman’s parents' experiences as Jews in German-occupied Poland. Spiegelman presents the story in graphic form, portraying Jews as mice, Poles as pigs, and Germans as cats. Taking place during two different time periods, the present-day period in Florida sets up the story of the past, with Spiegelman interacting with his father, Vladek. Based on their interactions, the story transitions to the past as Vladek recounts his experiences in Auschwitz. In 1992, Maus became the first graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize and set the foundation for this distinctive genre.

“The Butterfly” by Pavel Friedmann

On June 1942, Pavel Friedmann wrote the poem "The Butterfly" on a piece of thin paper while confined at Theresienstadt concentration camp. Friedman takes the audience into the world of the speaker and uses the image of a butterfly to symbolize the loss of freedom and growing fear and terror of the new world inside of the concentration camp. As the speaker states “Only I never saw another butterfly. / That butterfly was the last one. / Butterflies don't live in here....” The poem ends with a sad realization that the speaker may never see freedom and the beauty of nature again. The poem has been included in collections of children’s literature from the Holocaust era and also inspired The Butterfly Project of the Holocaust Museum Houston—an exhibition where over a million paper butterflies were created to symbolize the same number of children that were murdered during the Holocaust.

Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard

In 1939, playwright Tom Stoppard and his family left Czechoslovakia to escape from the German invasion and eventually settled in England. His mother did not talk much about the past and in the 1990s, he found out that members of his family were killed during the Holocaust. Fictional but based on the examination of his Jewish roots, Stoppard’s play Leopoldstadt transitions from 1899 to 1955, documenting the challenges of Vienna’s Jewish community through the Merz family. The family battles grief after losing a son and nephew in World War I and handles the family business through the Great Depression and the beginning of the Holocaust. In the final scene, the family has been reduced to just three survivors. Leopoldstadt takes a valiant look at Jewish identity and what it means to assimilate within a larger culture. 

The Cats in Krasinski Square by Karen Hesse, illustrated by Wendy Watson

The children's book The Cats in Krasinski Square, by Karen Hesse, brings audiences of all ages into the story of a young Jewish girl and her sister, “passing” as Polish during World War II in Warsaw, Poland. The sisters make a plan to to sneak food, brought by participating train passengers, to starving Jewish people. Their plan is put in jeopardy when the Gestapo (secret German police) arrive at the train station with dogs trained to sniff out smuggled food. In an effort to fool the Gestapo, the sisters round up the stray cats of Krasinski Square in baskets. After releasing the cats and causing a distraction to the dogs, the plan is finally a success. This story serves as a reminder that anyone, even a child, can make a difference in the world. Told in lyrical free verse, the story is enhanced by the illustrations of Wendy Watson. Watson uses muted colors in pencil, ink, and watercolor that beautifully paint the visuals of the setting and time period.

Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan

A fictional story loosely based on the life of Pino Lella, author Mark Sullivan paints an epic tale of courage and resilience. As a teenager, Lella is ripped from his home in Milan, Italy, and joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps. During this time, he falls in love with Anna, a widow six years older than him. In an attempt to keep him safe from combat, Lella’s parents make him enlist as a German soldier. However, his time as a soldier is short-lived, as Lella gets injured in a bombing and becomes the personal driver for a powerful German commander. Due to this position, he has the opportunity to serve as a spy for the Allies and risks his life by reporting on the commander’s activities. Throughout the highs and lows of the novel, Lella witnesses the horrors of the Holocaust—fighting in secret and strengthened by his love for Anna and the life he dreams for them to share in the future.