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Best Holocaust Books

Explore the most compelling Holocaust books that capture the atrocities and resilience, as curated from the web's most respected publications. Ranked by their frequency of recommendation.

Recommendations from 48 articles, Barack Obama, Jimmy Fallon, Bill Gates and 78 others.
Best Holocaust Books
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Night book cover
Night
Elie Wiesel - 2006-01-16 (first published in 1956)
Goodreads Rating
A powerful memoir, Night delves into the memories of Elie Wiesel, a Jewish teenager taken from his home and sent to concentration camps during WWII. Wiesel recounts the anguish of losing his family and his faith, and his despair in coming face to face with the unimaginable evil of humanity. This moving and unforgettable testimony serves as a stark reminder of the need to fight against such atrocities ever occurring again.
The Book Thief book cover
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak - 2006-03-14 (first published in 2005)
Goodreads Rating
In Nazi Germany, a young girl falls in love with books and words. From stealing books from book burnings to the mayor's wife's library, Liesel's love affair with literature blooms with the help of her foster father. But when her family hides a Jew in their basement, the danger intensifies. Markus Zusak's superbly crafted writing tells a timeless story of love and loss in a tumultuous era.
Number the Stars book cover
Number the Stars
Lois Lowry - 1998-02-09 (first published in 1989)
Goodreads Rating
Set in Copenhagen during World War II, Number the Stars tells the story of best friends Annemarie and Ellen, who face the daily struggles of life in a city occupied by Nazi soldiers. When Ellen is forced to pretend to be part of Annemarie's family to escape being relocated with the rest of Denmark's Jewish population, Annemarie is tasked with a perilous mission to save her friend's life. This poignant and suspenseful tale explores themes of friendship, bravery, and sacrifice in the face of unimaginable danger.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas book cover
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
John Boyne - 2006-09-12
Goodreads Rating
Take a journey with a nine-year-old boy named Bruno, but beware of the fence he eventually reaches - one you hope to never have to cross. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a difficult story to describe, with a mystery that makes it best to start without any prior knowledge. Although not written for nine-year-olds, this tale will capture anyone's heart.
The Diary Of A Young Girl book cover
The Diary Of A Young Girl
Anne Frank - 1993-07-01 (first published in 1947)
Goodreads Rating
Discover a world classic and timeless testament to the human spirit in this extraordinary diary, written by a teenage girl who hid with her family from Nazis for two years in Amsterdam. With new passages originally withheld by her father, meet Anne Frank: stubbornly honest, touchingly vulnerable, in love with life, and facing hunger, fear, death, and frustrations few teenagers have ever known. Explore her secret world of soul-searching, rebellious clashes, romance, newly discovered sexuality, and candid observations of companions. Imparting adult wisdom beyond her years, Anne's story is that of every teenager.
The Complete Maus book cover
The Complete Maus
Art Spiegelman - 2003-10-02 (first published in 1980)
Goodreads Rating
The Complete Maus is a captivating graphic novel that tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife's survival during Hitler's Europe. Through the use of cartoons, the author conveys the everyday struggles and fear of the Holocaust while exploring the emotional journey of guilt, relief, and survival. This contemporary classic sheds light on how the trials of survivors affect their children and is of immeasurable significance.
Man's Search for Meaning book cover
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl - 2006-06-01 (first published in 1959)
Goodreads Rating
Discover how to find meaning in suffering and move forward with renewed purpose by exploring the riveting memoir of a psychiatrist who survived Nazi death camps. In this influential book, based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, the author argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it and find meaning in it through his theory of logotherapy. This book is a must-read for anyone searching for significance in the act of living.
The Librarian of Auschwitz book cover
The Librarian of Auschwitz
Antonio Iturbe - 2017-10-10 (first published in 2012)
Goodreads Rating
Experience the incredible true story of a young girl named Dita, a prisoner in Auschwitz, who risked it all to keep the magic of books alive during one of the darkest times in human history. When Dita is asked to become the librarian of Auschwitz, she must protect eight precious volumes the prisoners have managed to sneak past the guards. This powerful tale of courage and hope will leave you breathless.
The Hiding Place book cover
The Hiding Place
Corrie Ten Boom - 1974-10-01 (first published in 1971)
Goodreads Rating
Discover a powerful true story of courage, faith, and sacrifice during the Nazi occupation of Holland. Follow the lives of Corrie ten Boom and her family as they become leaders in the Dutch Underground, risking everything to hide Jewish people in their home and aiding their escape from the Nazis. This moving tale of love, hope, and resilience in the face of unimaginable hardship is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen book cover
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen
Tadeusz Borowski - 1992-08-01 (first published in 1946)
Goodreads Rating
Explore the haunting reality of survival in Tadeusz Borowski's raw and unforgettable collection of concentration camp stories based on his own experiences at Auschwitz and Dachau. In spare and brutal prose, witness a world where basic human compassion is forgotten and the drive to stay alive overrides all else. From eating and working just yards from murder to reducing human value to a mere bowl of soup, these stories immerse you in a reality where normality and abnormality lose all distinction. This masterwork of world literature is a must-read for anyone seeking a powerful and eye-opening perspective on history's darkest era.
Anne Frank by Scholastic Inc.
Hidden by Loic Dauvillier
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
The Last Jew of Treblinka by Chil Rajchman
I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson
Once by Morris Gleitzman
Survival In Auschwitz by Primo Levi
All But My Life by Gerda Klein
Hitler Youth by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier
Mapping the Bones by Jane Yolen
The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
The Choice by Edith Eva Eger
Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt
Escape from Sobibor by Richard Rashke
The Holocaust by Martin Gilbert
Auschwitz and After by Charlotte Delbo
What the Night Sings by Vesper Stamper
White Bird by R. J. Palacio
The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson
My Survival by Joshua M. Greene
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
Boy 30529 by Felix Weinberg
Maus I by Art Spiegelman
If This Is a Man and The Truce by Primo Levi
Mendelssohn Is on the Roof by Jiri Weil
Underground in Berlin by Marie Jalowicz Simon
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder
Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
In My Hands by Irene Gut Opdyke
999 by Heather Dune MacAdam
Irena's Children by Tilar J. Mazzeo
Bomb by Steve Sheinkin
Surviving Hitler by Andrea Warren
The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco
The Yellow Star by Carmen Agra Deedy
Why? by Peter Hayes
Fragments of Isabella by Isabella Leitner
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto by Emmanuel Ringelblum
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
Who Was Anne Frank? by Ann Abramson
I Never Saw Another Butterfly by Hana Volavkova
Survival in the Shadows by Barbara Lovenheim
Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 by Saul Friedlander
The Length of a String by Elissa Brent Weissman
The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Beyond Courage by Doreen Rappaport
The Crime and the Silence by Anna Bikont
The Island on Bird Street by Uri Orlev
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz
Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen
The Missing by Michael Rosen
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
Five Chimneys by Olga Lengyel
Rena's Promise by Rena Kornreich Gelissen
Auschwitz by Miklos Nyiszli
Sophie's Choice by William Styron
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Survivors by Allan Zullo
The Last Jews in Berlin by Leonard Gross
Eyewitness Auschwitz by Filip Müller
Things We Couldn't Say by Diet Eman
The Destruction of the European Jews by Raul Hilberg
Jack and Rochelle by Jack Sutin
The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig
The Unwanted by Michael Dobbs
Benno and the Night of Broken Glass by Meg Wiviott
Survivor Cafe by Elizabeth Rosner
Anatomy of a Genocide by Omer Bartov
A Light in the Darkness by Albert Marrin
Holocaust Journey by Martin Gilbert
In the Name of Humanity by Max Wallace
Four Perfect Pebbles by Lila Perl
Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed by Philip P. Hallie
The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss
Irena's Children by Mary Cronk Farrell
Ordinary Men by Christopher R. Browning
The Promise by Eva Schloss, Barbara Powers