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.