International Holocaust Remembrance Day

January 27 is designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this year's theme is "Rescue during the Holocaust: The Courage to Care."

Through the powerful words of Holocaust victims—the survivors and the murdered—bystanders, and perpetrators, the books in our The Holocaust Through Primary Sources series highlight a variety of individual experiences describing major events of the Holocaust. Gripping primary source accounts give the text a strong emotional element and keep the reader interested. Filled with color photos of primary source artifacts and black-and-white period photos, each book contains stories from men, women, and children.

 As the Warsaw ghetto in Poland went up in flames in April 1943, Jewish fighters fought bravely for twenty-seven days against Nazi soldiers. With deportation to a death camp all but certain, young Jews in the ghetto decided not to go quietly. Although the Nazis defeated the Jewish resistance group, the spirit of the uprising lived on. For Jews living in Europe during the Holocaust, survival was often the only form of resistance. But Jews in ghettos, concentration camps, and partisan groups across Europe did fight back. Told through the words of teen resisters, author Ann Byers details the stories of courageous young people who fought back against Nazi Germany in our second Holocaust series, True Stories of Teens in the Holocaust.You can read a free chapter clicking here.