Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust

“The Survivors”, a multicultural book, is a collection of eight true stories about nine Jewish children that survived the Holocaust. The ages of these children at the time their world was turned up-side down range from age 4 to age 17. Each story gives details about how the children were living

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normal lives, in normal communities, with loving parents and siblings. Over night the Nazi Gestapo would invade their neighbor hoods forcing them to leave their homes and businesses to live in tent ghettos. The families would wait for Aktzia, the rounding up of the Jews to put them on trains going to death camps. The healthy would be marched to work camps where they would die of starvation or, in many cases, murdered by a psychotic kapo, or guard, who relished in the cruelest forms of brutality. All nine of these children survived their horrendous experiences and grew up to have families and careers. Unfortunately many children did not.

This book was difficult for me to read. The subject of the holocaust has always been difficult to accept as a reality. To believe there were, and still are, so many people that can hate other people because of there nationality or faith is unfathomable. The book does focus on the terror the Jews suffered at the hands of the Nazis. However, it does mention in several of the stories how people of different race, faith, and even a deserter from the German army assisted the escape and survival of these children. This culturally specific book is written based on the authors’ personal interviews with each of the individuals that were the children in the stories. Allan Zullo, the author, has written over 100 non fiction books with many of these specifically about the Holocaust. Mara Bovsun, co-author, is a free lance journalist that has assisted in research and written several books with Allan Zullo.

Although the authors want to show that “…even in the most horrible and hopeless situations imaginable, young people can rely on their courage, their faith, their smarts – and sometimes, sheer luck – to pull them through”, I would suggest this book as supportive material for a history lesson only with older students.

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Book summary- This is a book with many true stories from children who were in the holocaust.
Content Summary- history, holocaust, biography

I read "Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust" because I am extremely interested in the Holocaust and my son had purchased this book from his book fair at school and was lying around. He is in the 7th grade. The book looked interesting and it was a short read so I gave it a go. The

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book in itself was interesting. However, the writing is obviously geared toward my son's age. The stories contain enough information in them that young teenagers definitely get a good understanding of the horrors that these Jewish children in particular as well as the Jews at the time endured and very few survived. For an adult, the book is very topical being that it is for young readers. There are obviously other Holocaust reads that will better suit adults. Again, as I stated earlier I read this because it was lying around and it was a short read on an interest of mine. I am giving this book a four star rating for young readers; however I don't really recommend it for adults if you are looking for something with substance. I would recommend "Night" by Elie Wiesel or "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom for adults. For young adults, "The Book Thief" by Markus Zuzak, "Milkweed" by Jerry Spinelli, "The Devil's Arithmetic" by Jane Yolen or "Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry.

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This book is about 9 jewish boys and girls that had to experiance the time of the halocaust in Europe. It tells about how the children had to witness horror, change their identities and how some even had to run away from home trying to escape the dangers of wehre they lived. It talks about how they

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survived and all they had to risk and sacrifice to get away safe.

I thought this book was very good. It was very sad to see what they had to go through, but the history and knowledge was wonderful. It really helped open my eyes to what really went on during that time. I had no idea it was so horrible and sad.

I think this would be a great book to ready when learning about Anne Frank, it would be pretty much how she was having to live in that time. I also think that it would be good when studying the actualy holocaust. I think it would really help children get a true perpective of the events.

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-No Award
-4 and up
-This book is about true stories of boys and girls surviving through the holocaust. They have experience horrible events that has effected them in many different ways.
-I think it is important to teach kids about the Holocaust and read about survivors of the holocaust. I would do a

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lesson about War World two and teach them the rise of Hitler
-I would also try and bring the kids to the museums where they present what was going on in the holocaust.

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This book is for emotionally mature students who can handle reading about the torture of nine Jewish children during the Holocaust. Each of this kids did make it through their horrible ordeal to tell their stories, but they witnessed much suffering and bore witness to a sort of living hell. Some of

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them managed to escape, some pretended to be someone else.

This book would be a good companion story when learning about this topic in history. It would also be a good multicultural book and can be compared to other races and religions that have been persecuted.

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This book is very touching and grabs you from the start. Reading personally stories about children in the HOlocaust is a tear jerker. I'd reccomend this to anyone who likes touching and heartwarming yet a string puller book.

I think this book was a great book because it was sad and interesting. It was also interesting how they survive various things. But this book explanes too much and no on how he gets out.

Overall this is a great book.
And I recommend everyone to read this great book.

I enjoyed this chapter book because of the point of view and the plot. I believe that the holocaust is a very important event in history to discuss with children. The reason that I liked the point of view in the story is because there were nine different jewish boys and girls who described their

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lives during the holocaust. The author does a great job when tell the stories of each child in a developmentally appropriate way for his readers. Additionally, at the beginning of each chapter, the specific child's name was specified to lead the reader through the story; this makes it easier for young children to follow along with the plot when reading about a confusing time in history. Similarly, I enjoyed the plot of the story because I believe that all of the aspects discussed were appropriate and necessary for young children to understand. For example, for each young child that reflected his or her experiences, a different concept about the holocaust was covered. One child discussed "the nazis" and another one discussed "the death march." These are just two examples to show that by offering readers with multiple different perspectives, they are able to become more knowledgeable about the historical event. The overall idea of the book is to inform readers about the experiences and hardships that many young children suffered from during the holocaust.

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