 Anne Frank's diary captured her life and feelings during the time her family was in hiding from the Gestapo – in hiding as they were Jews and were threatened with being sent to concentration camps. In the end, Anne did die in a camp – but her father survived and had her diary published.
Anne was not the only teen to suffer in hiding or in camps during World War II. It was such a pivotal moment in history that many authors have written novels based on the Holocaust.
True tales…
Walter Buchignani
Regine spent the war in hiding with a false identity. This book tells what it was like to have to move from one safe house to another, never knowing what had happened to her true family and never able to use her real name.
Recommended for ages 14+
Published to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war this is an anthology of diaries written by children in Nazi-occupied Europe and England. The 23 diary extracts are by children from ten to eighteen years old and provide a record of their various experiences: in hiding, in the ghettos and concentration camps, in Resistance movements and during the Blitz.
Recommended for ages 12+
Mark Harris
10,000 children, mostly Jewish, were evacuated from Europe to Great Britain before the outbreak of war in August 1939. 18 of these children, parents and rescuers tell their stories in this book.
Recommended for ages 14+
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Laurel Holliday
Young people tell their stories of living in war - from World War Two and the Holocaust, to Ireland, to the Palestine-Israel conflict. Both sides of stories are told by people who, sometimes, only have their diaries and stories to express how they really feel.
Recommended for ages 12+
Hanneke Ippisch
As a teenager, the author joined the Dutch resistance movement and was eventually arrested by the Germans, becoming a political prisoner at the age of 19. Her account of her experiences is illustrated with documents, photographs and historical notes and includes suggestions for further reading and an index. Her concern is that young people understand moral values and she takes care to point out that the actions she and her friends found necessary, because of the war, were still wrong.
Recommended for ages 14+
Livia Bitton Jackson
Elli is 13 when the Germans invade Hungary and she and her mother are shipped to a concentration camp. This is a horrifying account of what life was like for so many Jews but Elli does manage to survive the war and to find her brother afterwards.
Recommended for ages 12+
Livia Bitton Jackson
After the war Livia, with her mother and brother, return to Czechoslovakia, planning to go to America. Livia helps with smuggling Jews to Israel and also manages to smuggle her mother and herself onto an underground transport.
Recommended for ages 14+
Karen Levine
This is a true story - the story of Hana, a young Jewish girl; and Fumiko Ishioka, who was determined to find out Hana's story.
This is an unbelievable story of love, coincidences, and connections across time and cultures.
For more information, visit the CBC radio site, listen to the original radio programme (using Real Player), and see more photos. Or visit Hana's suitcase - a site put together by the Brady family.
Recommended for ages 10+
Anita Lobel
Anita Lobel is best known as a picture book illustrator but this is an account of her life from 5-10 years old, when she was living in terrifying conditions hiding from the Nazis, then captured by them and marched from camp to camp.
Recommended for ages 14+
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Ken Mochizuki
Based on the true story of a Japanese diplomat who risked his own life to save Jewish refugees escape from Poland.
Recommended for ages 10+
Irene Gut Opdyke
At the beginning of the war Irene is a 17-year-old Polish nursing student. She does all she can to help and protect the local Jews, including becoming the mistress of a German officer when he discovers some of the people she is hiding.
Recommended for ages 16+
Ruth Minsky Sender
A teenage girl recounts the suffering and persecution of her family under the Nazis, in a Polish ghetto, during deportation, and in a concentration camp.
Nelly S. Toll
Nelly's father tried various ways of ensuring his family's safety during the Nazi occupation of their Polish hometown. Eventually Nelly and her mother hide in their old apartment building, where Nelly keeps herself sane by painting - drawing a fantasy life totally different to the reality she was living in.
Recommended for ages 10+
Andrea Warren
Jack was only 15 when he was sent to a concentration camp. This is his story - how he survived and the friends he made - and his life after the war. How do you cope and remain sane when your family of 80 becomes only five? Can you learn to forgive?
Recommended for ages 14+
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Novels
John Boyne
A haunting and deceptively simple story – told from the point of view of 9-year-old Bruno who doesn’t understand the significance of what he sees.
Recommended for ages 14+
Maurice Gleitzman
The story of Felix, a Polish Jew, living in an orphanage in 1942.
Recommended for ages 10+
Jean-Jacques Greif
Moshe Wisniak, a poor Polish Jew, uses his physical strength and cleverness, plus luck, to help him survive the horrors he is subjected to in the concentration camps of World War II. Based on the life of Moshè Garbarz.
Erik Haugaard
Dane is visiting Germany in 1937 – and slowly becomes aware of the spread of the Nazi party.
Recommended for ages 12+
Roberto Innocenti and Ian McEwan
A young schoolgirl follows a van to the camp at the edge of town. Through her eyes we see the concentration camp and the ongoing war.
Recommended for ages 12+
Anne Isaacs
This holocaust novel is based on true experiences of a young teenage prisoner in a Nazi labour camp.
Recommended for ages 10+
Reinhardt Jung
A young boy dreams in black and white of a time back then. A time when he would have been killed by the Nazi ideology.
Recommended for ages 14+
Reviewed by Annie
Lynne Kositsky
Esther flees from Germany to France at the beginning of the War.
Recommended for ages 12+
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Carol Matas
15-year-old Ruth has survived Buchenwald Concentration Camp but her entire family has been wiped out and she has nowhere to go. Recruited by Brichah, an underground organisation that helps people get to Palestine, she risks her life to lead a group of children there, using secret routes and forged documents.
Recommended for ages 14+
Norma Fox Mazer
Imagine you have been hiding in a small storeroom for almost a year and then being turned out with nowhere to go. Karin and her mother and brother eventually find another place to hide but must leave again when the Germans begin house to house searches and this time their mother is too ill to travel.
Recommended for ages 12+
Michael Morpurgo
Jo lives on the border with France – there he meets Benjamin who has been helping smuggle Jewish children into Spain. There the two of them wait for Anya, Benjamin’s daughter.
Recommended for ages 10+
Donna Jo Napoli
Roberto and Samuele, teenagers in Venice, are rounded up by German soldiers to provide forced labour for the Nazis. Their treatment is little better than prisoners in concentration camps as they are near starvation, shot if they try to run away and in danger of freezing to death.
Recommended for ages 12+
Linda Newbery
Hilly's family life has changed dramatically with Heidigran - her grandmother - moving in. That means Hilly has to share her younger sister's room. And Hilly and Zoe and very different. Heidigran's suffering from Alzheimer's Disease - and her past is coming out - the real story and not the one she invented.
Recommended for ages 15+
Gudrun Pausewang
The journey to a concentration camp as seen by an 11-year-old girl who has no knowledge of what the Nazis have been doing to Jews.
Recommended for ages 12+
Mirjam Pressler
Malka is a little Jewish girl struggling for her life during World War Two with Minna, her older sister, and their mother. When she is left behind by them, Malka doesn't know what to do except that she has to live and make it to Hungary to see her family again.
Best character: Malka
Valerie, 14
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Hans Peter Richter
The story of the Holocaust from the points of view of two families – one Jewish and one not.
Recommended for ages 12+
Art Spiegelman
Probably the most famous graphic novel of all time - and one of the very, very few accepted by the establishment. The author based his story of the Holocaust on interviews with his father - an Auschwitz survivor. A story of all-too human courage and evil - compelling and riveting.
Recommended for ages 14+
Jerry Spinelli
He's never known family or his name. When he ends up with Uri he is given both. Now known as Misha he keeps stealing food - he's so little he can get into the weirdest places. A handy skill to have when they're rounded up and put into the Warsaw ghetto. Misha becomes part of Janina's family and, therefore, a Jew.
Set in Warsaw during World War II this is a poignant and stunning read.
Recommended for ages 14 +
Irene N. Watts
Marianne has been rescued from the Nazis by being transported to England. How can she cope so far from her family and not knowing the language or culture? When the War begins her life becomes even harder.
Marianne's story started in Good-bye Marianne, and continues in Finding Sophie.
Recommended for ages 12+
Eva Wiseman
Marta lives in Budapest at the time of the German invasion during World War II. Her life is turned upside down - starting with being barred from school, as she is a Jew. Her father is sent to a work camp, and her family is kicked out of their apartment. She isn't allowed to see her friend Peter as he is a Christian. The aid of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swiss diplomat (and real person) helps Marta and her family survive, but it's always on a knife edge.
Recommended for ages 12+
Jane Yolen
Rebecca has also loved the fairytale of the princess who fell asleep and was awakened by the kiss of a prince – the perfect story that her grandmother tells over and over again. But there is something about Gemmas version of the fairytale that other children don’t like. Many years later Becca makes a promise to Gemma that she will follow the story and find the castle in the woods. It will be a harrowing journey for Becca because the fairytale blends and covers a story that tells of a horror that saw millions of people die in a war that they didn’t make. An intense story that may change the way that you look at fairytales and other family tales passed from generation to generation.
Recommended for ages 14+
Markus Zusak
'Since 1933, ninety per cent of Germans showed unflinching support for Adolf Hitler. That leaves ten per cent who didn't. Hans Hubermann belonged to the ten per cent.' Set in Germany, during World War Two, Death retells the story of a girl -Liesel Merminger, and the time when she went to live with foster parents Rosa and Hans Hubermann. There she learns to read and commits multiple book thefts. She also learns how harsh it is to rebel against the Nazi ideals when her foster family hides a Jewish fist-fighter, Max, in their basement. This is a moving story about the power of words that affect our lives and the struggles to deal with it. Not exactly the best read for comedy lovers.
Recommended for.. older ages
Yvonne, nearly 14
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I have lived a thousand years: growing up in the Holocaust 
Good night, Maman 
Final journey