Today, we observe Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s a day to remember the six million Jews murdered during World War II and the countless others who suffered under Nazi persecution.
The University of Alabama Press stands in solidarity with those affected by this horrific event in history. To deepen understanding and foster remembrance, we’ve compiled a reading list of essential texts that offer diverse perspectives on the Holocaust. By engaging with these diverse accounts, we honor the victims and ensure their stories are not forgotten.
Anna’s Shtetl by Lawrence A. Coben
Offers a rare view of a childhood in a European ghetto.
Considering Maus: Approaches to Art Spiegelman’s “Survivor’s Tale” of the Holocaust edited by Deborah R. Geis
The first collection of critical essays on Maus, the searing account of one Holocaust survivor’s experiences rendered in comic book form.
For Decades I Was Silent: A Holocaust Survivor’s Journey Back to Faith by Baruch G. Goldstein
A fascinating memoir about a Holocaust survivor’s loss of and journey back to faith.
Mothers, Sisters, Resisters: Oral Histories of Women Who Survived the Holocaust edited by Brana Gurewitsch
Powerful oral testimonies providing an important historical record of women’s experiences during the Holocaust.
The Sephardim in the Holocaust: A Forgotten People by Isaac Jack Lévy with Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt
Documents the first-hand experiences in the Holocaust of the Sephardim from Greece, the Balkans, North Africa, Libya, Cos, and Rhodes.
A Thousand Kisses: A Grandmother’s Holocaust Letters edited by Renata Polt
Letters to a beloved son and his family tell the poignant story of one woman’s life in Nazi-occupied Prague.
In the Shadow of Hitler:
Alabama’s Jews, the Second World War, and the Holocaust by Dan J. Puckett
How Alabama Jews became aware of and responded to the coming of the Second World War and the Nazi persecution of European Jews.
The Kishinev Ghetto, 1941–1942: A Documentary History of the Holocaust in Romania’s Contested Borderlands by Paul A. Shapiro with chronology by Radu Ioanid and Brewster Chamberlin and translations by Angela Jianu
Offers a wealth of primary sources and insightful commentary about the little-known slaughter of Jewish residents of Kishinev (Chisinau) under the military occupation by Romania under Marshal Ion Antonescu, a Hitler ally.
Excerpt: The Castle: A Novel by Seth Rogoff