Grade 9 & Up--Following a brief history of the Holocaust, first-person accounts focus on different aspects of the experience from arrival to liberation. Each chapter contains a quick preface to explain the context, for example, arriving at the camps, and then there are three or four accounts on the topic from differing viewpoints. The selections are particularly well chosen-each person's story adds a vital color to the canvas of this book. Along with sadly familiar stories from a nurse, a man on gruesome work detail, and one of the twins from Dr. Mengele's "experiments," there are little-seen post-war accounts from an apologetic local teenager; an unrepentant camp commandant; and a horrified Edward R. Morrow, reporting the human toll at Buchenwald for the first time. This is powerful testimony, related by those who were there.
Paula J. LaRue, Van Wert Middle School, OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Review
"The contributions in the eclectic mix come from individuals such as Eleanor Roosevelt, actress June Havoc, and hobo Box-Car Bertha, with each person's perspective taking readers directly into the experience through details and eye-opening observations."
-- Booklist (May 2001) (Booklist 20020501)
"Following a thorough introduction that provides novice historians with background information, this series entry uses primary-source documents organized in a coherent chronology. With its important documents, this work will help budding historians and researchers make sense of a complex time."
-- School Library Journal (July 2002) (School Library Journal 20010215)
"These are in keeping with the aim of the series, to personalize history and, in this way, make it more meaningful."
-- School Library Journal (May 2002) (School Library Journal )
"The History Firsthand series presents excerpts from period documents, organized under broad subject heading and introduced by a paragraph of background. Each book includes a few black-and-white illustrations."
-- Booklist (Febraury 2001) (Booklist )
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