Customer Reviews

Children in the Holocaust and World War II: Children's Diaries of World War II

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a chilling, moving, important book in which 23 youth and youngsters try to understand the hatred and violence that engulfs their previously peaceful lives. The average age of the writers is around 13-14 years. For many of these children, these excerpts represent their final plea to the surviving world, fully understanding that they will not be a part of that world. Writing became their last and sometimes ONLY form of resistance. I found the very last entry of the unknown brother and sister in the Lodz ghetto to be especially moving. Without access to any other paper, the boy scrawled his diary entries into the margins of an old French novel. After the war was over, a next door neighbor returned to the wreckage of the house, and found the book with the boy's notes in it. If any one of us actually knew any one of those who wrote these diaries... if any one of them were a member of our own families, we would naturally value even one of their retrieved pages far above all of the other books we own, would we not? Well, as I read this book I realized many times that just because I did not know one of these children personally does not really diminish the inherent importance of any one of their pages... these children were all known and loved by their own families and friends. They should have been loved by those who were then acting as their mortal enemies, but sadly, they were not.

Some of these entries depict deprivations and describe atrocities that are near impossible for most of us today to imagine. Some would avoid the book on account of this, and that is understandable. We can go to horror novels to be deliberately horrified in a fictional sense, but it seems morbid to turn to non-fiction for the same results. But we must remember that we do not read non-fiction for the same reasons that we read fiction. We read non-fiction, not to dwell on or glory in horror, but to LEARN something about ourselves and others. There is an old saying "To dwell on history is to lose an eye; to ignore it is to lose both of them." Laurel Holliday has here edited a book which should not be ignored.

As a teacher I found this book to be an excellent way to personalize the experiences of the many child victims of the Holocaust for my students. They could see that these children had families, hopes, and dreams just like any other child although some were shattered by the Holocaust. My students could read about someone their own age and identify with them. I was disappointed with the inclusion of the Joan Wyndham diary for my own school setting. I teach eighth graders in a Catholic school and some of the discussion of her sexuality is inapproriate for my students. That is the only blemish on this wonderful book from my particular situation. It requires that I take extra caution when I use the book.

This book will touch you. It will make you sad, it will make you reflect on the past. But most of all, it will inform you about the perils and daily life of children (mostly Jewish Children) during World War II. The author did an excellent job of compiling, translating, and editing the diary entries she found and chose to print. I would recommend it to most of my friends.

I am a 6th grade student, I read Chidren in the Holocaust and World War ||:Their Secret Diaries. This book has childrens diaries ages 10-18 it tells about the horrifying stories that children lived and witnessed. One of the children quoted "I don't want to die because I've hardly lived," said Eva Heyman 13 year old girl who was murdered at Auschwitz. I would seggest this book for young aldults,I think people should read this book so this problem does not happen again.

The book Children in the Holocaust and world war two and their secret diaries was one of the sadest books I've ever read, and I'm not just saying that because I'm doing this for a school project. I couldn't beleive Hitler actually did these things to Jews and any kind of person.
Before I read this book I knew nothing about the Holocaust I didnt even know what the Holocaust was, and i thought it was gonna be a boreing project. I almost cried because of the facts these children wrote. I couldn't and still cant beleive these children kept diaries, risking there lives to tell what Hitler was doing. I rate this book with five stars because it was sad, exciting and some of the diary entries were really discriptive and I enjoyed it. Thanks for your time.

An excellent resource for kids and adults all aroud the world. This book shows what it was like during the holocaust and very heavy details about the holocaust itself. This is on of the many holocaust books I read, and out of all of them, this one is the best.

while i am glad a read this i would not recommend other children reading this.

this book was written in such depth and truth that no author could ever write something like this. accounts of terror, death, hope, love, and despair can not be ignored as you travel into the mind of a youths trying to cope when the world descends to chaos in front of them. millions of people died in World War II and the Holocaust, the least we can do is read their words and remember them. they may have lost there chance at a future so let us not also lose their past.

while i am glad a read this i would not recommend it for any child, teenager, or sensitive adult

this book was written in such depth and truth that no author could ever write something like this. accounts of terror, death, hope, love, and despair can not be ignored as you travel into the mind of a youths trying to cope when the world descends to chaos in front of them. millions of people died in World War II and the Holocaust, the least we can do is read their words and remember them. they may have lost there chance at a future so let us not also lose their past.

Not dramatic. These were interesting but not poignant, as I was expecting. There were a few outcries against the hideous war, but mostly these diaries were stopped before the dreadful conclusions, of course.

The children sometimes had very good insights, and sometimes they were just normal children.

Very interesting.

These diaries and journals are incredible. To read the words of these children is life changing. Their honest and powerful words present a very different picture of daily life during WWII than anything I have ever read. Some of the children were in ghettos, some in camps, some in hiding--their words are pure and honest. After reading their stories, you will not think about the Holocaust in the same way you did before.