Talking with Kids about the Holocaust

~ Becky Ross Michael

We Must Not Forget: Holocaust Remembrance Day and Books to Help Us Understand — FallenStar Stories

….if understanding were possible. Today, 27 January marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. When the Red Army arrived at the gates of this most infamous of the Nazi concentration camps, they saw for the first time the horrors that it held. It stands today as a memorial; a stark reminder of what human […]

We Must Not Forget: Holocaust Remembrance Day and Books to Help Us Understand — FallenStar Stories

47 thoughts on “Talking with Kids about the Holocaust”

  1. Thank you, Becky, for the link to that superb and valuable list/description of various excellent Holocaust books aimed at younger readers.

    Though not exactly on topic, among the memorable Holocaust novels aimed at ADULTS is Erich Maria Remarque’s “Spark of Life” — one of that author’s lesser-known works. It’s heartbreakingly compelling.

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  8. It’s nice to know there are age appropriate books to help parents and educators teach children about this difficult subject. I can barely comprehend the genocides and pogroms that have taken place in human history, and still do today, let alone explain them to a child. What would we do without books?!?

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  9. I am subscribed to “Letters of Note” email which is always full of profound, witty and heartfelt letters from the past. Today was especially poignant, entitled “Into Eternity” a final letter. Vilma Grünwald was 39 years old when she wrote her final letter to her husband, Kurt. I found that even as she faced her last days, she wanted her husband to live with hope and joy. The link to the letter is https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/into-eternity

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  10. It’s tricky ground when we delve into such a mature subject matter, but I generally found it could be done if handled sensitively. Using books was one of the best ways to touch on some of these challenging subjects.

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  11. I’m glad some have been able to write appropriate books about it for children. It was never discussed in our home and my mother was German and had lived through that war. I can’t watch things on TV or the movies about it without being overcome with deep sobbing at what so many went through. We are still doing that to people in so many places and never seem to learn that it’s wrong in every case. I’ll have to look up the books and see how they explain it because I wouldn’t know how to do that. Thanks for this.

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    1. Marlene, thanks for your input on this difficult topic. My grandparents were German and had already come to the U.S. before WW II. I know we still had relatives there, and I have no real idea of what life was like for them, except that they had very little, as far as material possessions. My grandparents used to send them things, on occasion. As you say, almost the worst part is that people are still doing this type of thing to each other yet today!

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  13. I know of one book about ‘ordinairy’ life during the war in Austria. ‘My Own Dear Brother’ by Holly Müller. It draws on her family history and I think it’s brave to tackle such a difficult subject from that point of view. There must be other books written by German or Austrian people who lived through those times, but yes a thorny subject unless one had helped somehow in resisting the Nazis. My friend Sarah’s grandmother did so and had to flee and ended up in the USA too. Brave people. We must all wonder how we would have behaved in their place.

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  14. It is indeed so very important to remember what we are capable of as human beings — both the despicable and the honorable things. This is why we need to educate our children about the holocaust — our possible worst moment in human history: as kids we “take information in” and as adults we weigh its significance on contemporary matters. Every book and film I saw as a kid and as a teen haunts every modern event. It is the ghost that will not rest as long as that kind of evil germinates in this world..as well it should not. Thank you!

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