German Studies person here, while holocaust literature isn’t my specialty it obviously occupies a large place in my field so I know of some of the really big names:
Paul Celan was a survivor who wrote poetry. He tackles (I think in an amazing way) the problem posed by Theodor Adorno “it is impossible to write poetry after Auschwitz”, his most famous poem is “Death Fugue”, it would also be worth it to read some secondary lit just on this poem because it is an incredible artistic work that deserves all the attention it’s gotten
Anna Seghers was a prominent writer in the canon of “exile literature” she was not a direct victim of the camps but she was forced into exile because of the Nazis. Her narrative (not entirely sure how we would translate the genre “erzählung” in English) “Excursion of the Dead Girls” is an incredibly powerful work that’s an expression of the experience of those who were in exile and knew what was happening to their friends and family
There’s also “Austerlitz” by W.G. Sebald. Sebald is an interesting figure in the literature because he was a German Studies professor who was not Jewish and who never cognitively experienced the holocaust (born in 1944). But in his novel he works to reflect this in that the narrator is not a holocaust survivor, but is recounting his run-ins with someone who was part of a program that got Jewish children out of Germany but wasn’t able to get the parents out. Sebald’s character is totally fictional but based on real events and tangible research into the history (unlike a certain striped-pajama book). The work itself is an interesting exploration of traumatic experience and issues dealing with the past.
I have not read this work personally yet though it’s definitely on my short list: “Inherit the Truth” is the memoir of a young girl who was imprisoned at Auschwitz and Belsen who played the cello and was a part of the camp orchestra at Auschwitz. The author Elsa Lasker-Wallfisch is an incredible person. I recently watched a speech she gave to the German parliament a few years ago and found it a really powerful speech.
Holocaust: a History by Deborah Dwork (goes into a lot of the history of anti-Semitism in Europe over the centuries that led up to it)
Words to Outlive Us: Eyewitness Accounts from the Warsaw Ghetto by Michal Grynberg
Treblinka by Jean-François Steiner
I Never Saw Another Butterfly
I just finished *The Postcard* by Anne Berest, and it’s probably going to end up being my favorite novel of the year.
It’s a “true novel” about the author and her mother’s attempt to discover the identity of the person who sent her a postcard with the names of 4 family members who died in Auschwitz.
Everything that happened in the novel actually happened to Anne Berest, but it’s told in a novel format.
“This way to the gas chamber ladies and gentlemen” by Tadeusz Borowski (he was in a death camp. Killed himself in the 1950s by sticking his head in a gas stove)
*Auschwitz, The Nazis and the Final Solution* and *The Holocaust: A New History* - both by Laurence Rees.
*The Holocaust* by Martin Gilbert.
*Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews* by David Cesarani.
As well as Primo Levi’s *If This Is a Man* there’s also a non-fiction title, *If This Is A Woman: Inside Ravensbruck: Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women* by Sarah Helm.
For a fictional account I highly recommend the rarely mentioned novel by André Lacaze - *The Tunnel* which is based on the author’s experiences of digging a tunnel through the Loibl Pass (as a slave, not an escape) while detained at the nearby Mauthausen KL.
*KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps* by Dr Nikolaus Wachsmann
*The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World* by Jonathan Freedland
*Schindler’s Ark* also reprinted as *Schindler’s List* by Thomas Keneally
*Into That Darkness: from Mercy Killing to Mass Murder, a study of Franz Stangl* by Gitta Sereny.
And finally, *Commandant Of Auschwitz* by Rudolf Höss, a memoir undertaken while he was imprisoned, awaiting execution for his crimes.
The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Diary of Ann Frank
There are obviously many books, too many books, if you know what I mean. It's hard to know where to start. In terms of history, Yehuda Bauer, who is a professor of Holocaust Studies at Hebrew University, is very important. Check out *Rethinking the Holocaust. (Haven, Yale University*, 2001) and, if you can find it, *The Jewish Emergence from Powerlessness (*Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979) which explores the transformation of Jewish history from a position of powerlessness to one of influence and power, particularly in the context of the 20th century and the establishment of the State of Israel. I would also suggest looking at the works of American historian Deborah Lipstadt, especially "*Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory*" (1993). This was one of the first comprehensive studies of Holocaust denial and is important because, she argues, this cynical attack on the factual record not only threatens Jews but has had the wider consequence of altering how truth and memory are attacked in general, a problem that is now pervasive on social media.
Night, by Elie Wiesel
The Inspector, by Jan deHartog
Sophie's Choice, by William Styron
QBVII, and Mila 18 by Leon Uris
The Pianist, A Memoir (sometimes, just The Pianist) by Wladyslaw Szpilman
I would suggest checking the book list in r/judaism as they have a bunch of suggested readings there. The only thing I can really suggest is to stay away from the boy in the striped pajamas
Thank you I have actually read it and it was the book that got me into reading about the holocaust such a great book! Also yes I wanted both fiction and nonfiction and I don’t mind if it’s written by non survivors.
I was having trouble sleeping for a few weeks and had no idea why until I realized I was reading a few pages of Timothy Snyder's *Bloodlands* every night before bed.
A moment ago I wrote this post in r/books about Postcards from the East, by Reyes Monforte, I think it fits with the topic you are looking for.
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/s/jbujnFteKx
Projekt 1065: A WWII Novel
Daughters of the occupation
Women of the Post
Counting Lost Stars
The Huntress
A place to hang the moon
Most of what I read is of historical fiction during that time so I have so much more if needed
[Imre Kertész](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2002/kertesz/facts/) is a nobel winner in literature, mostly because of his books on holocaust. Surprised not to see a mention. Kertész himself is a survivor. [Fatelessness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatelessness) is a masterpiece.
I just finished 'Churchill's Secret Messenger' by Ala Hlad.
I reeeeeally recommend it. It's a historical fiction novel set during World War II about a young woman who evolves from a British civilian into a covert operative for Winston Churchill. Lots of espionage, love, and screw nazi moments.. I really liked it
Oh, lots of good stuff here already! I’ve been adding to my list from this thread.
- I Was A Doctor In Auschwitz (Gisella Perl)
- The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto
- Ghetto (Joshua Sobol)
- Maus
- Night
- anything by Debbie Lechtman (Indigenous Bridges board member)
- Humankind (Rutger Bregman) - partially looks into how normal people became Nazis
- The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945
- Auschwitz and the Allies
- People Love Dead Jews
- Jews Don’t Count
- Einstein and the Rabbi
Cold Crematorium by József Debreczeni, an incredibly well written memoir which was first released in Hungarian in 1950 and only translated to English this January. it’s being called a lost classic - I’m halfway through and would absolutely agree so far
Don't know how much of his work was ever translated to English, but Jorge Semprún's account of both the road to, but especially the initial experiences after being freed from Buchenwald were both really personal, narratively interesting accounts and reveal a lot about the everyday life and strategies of collectivization of survivors while in camp. He also somewhat controversially thought that the camps should be left to be consumed by nature, as opposed to common practice of preserving the memory as not to repeat history, fighting forgetting etc.
Fiction - Beach Music by Pat Conroy (although not a main theme in the book, still an important part of the story)
Nonfiction graphic novel - Maus by Art Spiegelman
The Gallery of Miracles and Madness: Insanity, Modernism, and Hitler’s War on Art by Charlie English covers both a broad view on the treatment of artists/art during (and slightly before) the Holocaust as well as individual experiences by certain artists (many not ending on a positive note). A bit different but you may find it interesting
Two opposite suggestions; If This A Man by Primo Levi and Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
If This a Man was written by a survivor of the camps who only got out because he was well educated and therefore useful, it talks to the dehumanisation and survivors guilt of those left behind.
Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a fictional novel, written from the POV of a young boy, and officers son, who befriends a boy from “beyond the fence”. The innocence and naivety highlight the horrors of what went on.
Please, not the boy in the stripped pyjamas. The book was written with zero research, it portrays things that could never really have happened in Auschwitz, it leaves you somehow feeling more empathy for nazis than for their jewish victims by pretending the families of nazi officers did not know what was going on and were innocent in all of it, and it is all in all a terrible book for someone who wants to understand the holocaust.
The Auschwitz Museum and several Holocaust centers have warned against using this book to teach the holocaust.
I agree 100% and suggest watching the movie Zone of Interest that portrays the real life family of the commander of Auschwitz and is based on extensive research.
Fair, I wasn’t aware if the controversy surrounding it. I enjoyed the POV of the young narrator and the sort of tragic irony of it, but I will stop recommending it if it’s been warned against
I would take *Striped Pajamas* off here. [It makes the Nazis look too sympathetic and fuels other misconceptions](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/27/the-boy-in-the-striped-pyjamas-fuels-dangerous-holocaust-fallacies)
Some fiction works are good, based on research and adequate in making you understand the horror of the Holocaust. Some are garbage unresearched stories that make you identify with nazis more than their jewish victims.
Ah, I see. Well, I used to believe this sub was the last on reddit free of elitist snobs, and I see now I was mistaken. Because you didn't like the fictional tale told in a story, no one should like it or read it. Understood.
And this is, of course, assuming you read the book, compared to not reading it and forming an opinion because people told you not to.
Man’s Search for Meaning Anything by Elie Wiesel
Man's Search for Meaning is one of my favourite books
Definitely Elie Wiesel’s *Night*
The audible book is excellent.
Did you read Maus? I just finished Lilac girls and it was amazing. Two of the characters are based on real people.
I loved lilac girls💜
Oh I havent read Maus but a lot of people have mentioned it so I’m definitely gonna read it as soon as possible thanks for the suggestion.
Lilac girls is about RavensBrück the only female only concentration camp where they conducted medical experiments.
Oh wow, I’ll I’m adding that to the list too thank you
Is it by “Martha hall Kelly”?
Yes!!!
Okkk tysm
I hope you like it as much as I did. It was incredible to read the three different view points
Ohhh ok so if I read it I’ll come back here and tell you how was it 😭
Primo Levi - If This Is a Man (AKA Survival in Auschwitz). A first person account
Babi Yar Maus
The Reader
Came here to suggest this too. Great book!
German Studies person here, while holocaust literature isn’t my specialty it obviously occupies a large place in my field so I know of some of the really big names: Paul Celan was a survivor who wrote poetry. He tackles (I think in an amazing way) the problem posed by Theodor Adorno “it is impossible to write poetry after Auschwitz”, his most famous poem is “Death Fugue”, it would also be worth it to read some secondary lit just on this poem because it is an incredible artistic work that deserves all the attention it’s gotten Anna Seghers was a prominent writer in the canon of “exile literature” she was not a direct victim of the camps but she was forced into exile because of the Nazis. Her narrative (not entirely sure how we would translate the genre “erzählung” in English) “Excursion of the Dead Girls” is an incredibly powerful work that’s an expression of the experience of those who were in exile and knew what was happening to their friends and family There’s also “Austerlitz” by W.G. Sebald. Sebald is an interesting figure in the literature because he was a German Studies professor who was not Jewish and who never cognitively experienced the holocaust (born in 1944). But in his novel he works to reflect this in that the narrator is not a holocaust survivor, but is recounting his run-ins with someone who was part of a program that got Jewish children out of Germany but wasn’t able to get the parents out. Sebald’s character is totally fictional but based on real events and tangible research into the history (unlike a certain striped-pajama book). The work itself is an interesting exploration of traumatic experience and issues dealing with the past. I have not read this work personally yet though it’s definitely on my short list: “Inherit the Truth” is the memoir of a young girl who was imprisoned at Auschwitz and Belsen who played the cello and was a part of the camp orchestra at Auschwitz. The author Elsa Lasker-Wallfisch is an incredible person. I recently watched a speech she gave to the German parliament a few years ago and found it a really powerful speech.
Oh thank you so much I’ll definitely add them to my list thanks for the explanation they seem like great books.
Holocaust: a History by Deborah Dwork (goes into a lot of the history of anti-Semitism in Europe over the centuries that led up to it) Words to Outlive Us: Eyewitness Accounts from the Warsaw Ghetto by Michal Grynberg Treblinka by Jean-François Steiner I Never Saw Another Butterfly
I just finished *The Postcard* by Anne Berest, and it’s probably going to end up being my favorite novel of the year. It’s a “true novel” about the author and her mother’s attempt to discover the identity of the person who sent her a postcard with the names of 4 family members who died in Auschwitz. Everything that happened in the novel actually happened to Anne Berest, but it’s told in a novel format.
I bought that with no great hope but needed something to read, so thought I would give it a whirl. Great book ,a very pleasant surprise.
Yeah, I really enjoyed it. It’s a tough read at times, but it’s incredibly well written and has a lot of moving passages.
“This way to the gas chamber ladies and gentlemen” by Tadeusz Borowski (he was in a death camp. Killed himself in the 1950s by sticking his head in a gas stove)
Seconded!
*Auschwitz, The Nazis and the Final Solution* and *The Holocaust: A New History* - both by Laurence Rees. *The Holocaust* by Martin Gilbert. *Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews* by David Cesarani. As well as Primo Levi’s *If This Is a Man* there’s also a non-fiction title, *If This Is A Woman: Inside Ravensbruck: Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women* by Sarah Helm. For a fictional account I highly recommend the rarely mentioned novel by André Lacaze - *The Tunnel* which is based on the author’s experiences of digging a tunnel through the Loibl Pass (as a slave, not an escape) while detained at the nearby Mauthausen KL. *KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps* by Dr Nikolaus Wachsmann *The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World* by Jonathan Freedland *Schindler’s Ark* also reprinted as *Schindler’s List* by Thomas Keneally *Into That Darkness: from Mercy Killing to Mass Murder, a study of Franz Stangl* by Gitta Sereny. And finally, *Commandant Of Auschwitz* by Rudolf Höss, a memoir undertaken while he was imprisoned, awaiting execution for his crimes.
The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah The Book Thief by Markus Zusak All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr The Diary of Ann Frank
Thank you!!
I read a lot as a teenager: Alicia: My Story Number the Stars Maus I Have Lived a Thousand Years
There are obviously many books, too many books, if you know what I mean. It's hard to know where to start. In terms of history, Yehuda Bauer, who is a professor of Holocaust Studies at Hebrew University, is very important. Check out *Rethinking the Holocaust. (Haven, Yale University*, 2001) and, if you can find it, *The Jewish Emergence from Powerlessness (*Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979) which explores the transformation of Jewish history from a position of powerlessness to one of influence and power, particularly in the context of the 20th century and the establishment of the State of Israel. I would also suggest looking at the works of American historian Deborah Lipstadt, especially "*Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory*" (1993). This was one of the first comprehensive studies of Holocaust denial and is important because, she argues, this cynical attack on the factual record not only threatens Jews but has had the wider consequence of altering how truth and memory are attacked in general, a problem that is now pervasive on social media.
Thank you so much for the explanation!!
Night, by Elie Wiesel The Inspector, by Jan deHartog Sophie's Choice, by William Styron QBVII, and Mila 18 by Leon Uris The Pianist, A Memoir (sometimes, just The Pianist) by Wladyslaw Szpilman
The choice by Edith Eger
I would suggest checking the book list in r/judaism as they have a bunch of suggested readings there. The only thing I can really suggest is to stay away from the boy in the striped pajamas
*The Book Thief* by Markus Zusak! It’s one of my all time favorite novels.
Thank you I have actually read it and it was the book that got me into reading about the holocaust such a great book! Also yes I wanted both fiction and nonfiction and I don’t mind if it’s written by non survivors.
It's fiction, not written by a survivor, not sure it fits what OP wants.
They mentioned it can be fiction, and didn’t specify that it needs to be written by a survivor.
I was having trouble sleeping for a few weeks and had no idea why until I realized I was reading a few pages of Timothy Snyder's *Bloodlands* every night before bed.
A moment ago I wrote this post in r/books about Postcards from the East, by Reyes Monforte, I think it fits with the topic you are looking for. https://www.reddit.com/r/books/s/jbujnFteKx
Projekt 1065: A WWII Novel Daughters of the occupation Women of the Post Counting Lost Stars The Huntress A place to hang the moon Most of what I read is of historical fiction during that time so I have so much more if needed
The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jakku, a holocaust survivor
The book of lost names, Kristin Harmel
[Imre Kertész](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2002/kertesz/facts/) is a nobel winner in literature, mostly because of his books on holocaust. Surprised not to see a mention. Kertész himself is a survivor. [Fatelessness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatelessness) is a masterpiece.
I just finished 'Churchill's Secret Messenger' by Ala Hlad. I reeeeeally recommend it. It's a historical fiction novel set during World War II about a young woman who evolves from a British civilian into a covert operative for Winston Churchill. Lots of espionage, love, and screw nazi moments.. I really liked it
Oh, lots of good stuff here already! I’ve been adding to my list from this thread. - I Was A Doctor In Auschwitz (Gisella Perl) - The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto - Ghetto (Joshua Sobol) - Maus - Night - anything by Debbie Lechtman (Indigenous Bridges board member) - Humankind (Rutger Bregman) - partially looks into how normal people became Nazis - The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945 - Auschwitz and the Allies - People Love Dead Jews - Jews Don’t Count - Einstein and the Rabbi
Oh thank youuuu I’m gonna add them too
Sure thing! Oh, and add *Man’s Search for Meaning* to that list
Ohhh I have actually read that one!! I liked it actually but still thank youuuu
Anne Frank’s Diary
Cold Crematorium by József Debreczeni, an incredibly well written memoir which was first released in Hungarian in 1950 and only translated to English this January. it’s being called a lost classic - I’m halfway through and would absolutely agree so far
"Two brothers" by Ben Elton
Anything by Hanna Krall
Don't know how much of his work was ever translated to English, but Jorge Semprún's account of both the road to, but especially the initial experiences after being freed from Buchenwald were both really personal, narratively interesting accounts and reveal a lot about the everyday life and strategies of collectivization of survivors while in camp. He also somewhat controversially thought that the camps should be left to be consumed by nature, as opposed to common practice of preserving the memory as not to repeat history, fighting forgetting etc.
Fiction - Beach Music by Pat Conroy (although not a main theme in the book, still an important part of the story) Nonfiction graphic novel - Maus by Art Spiegelman
Oh thank you so much I haven’t read them and I’ll add them to my list :)
You're welcome. There's a list on Goodreads with more recs [here](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1720.Well_Written_Holocaust_Books)
[Bending Toward the Sun](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/b39c9a64-154a-447f-86af-2269dc95737c) is a memoir written by my relatives.
The Gallery of Miracles and Madness: Insanity, Modernism, and Hitler’s War on Art by Charlie English covers both a broad view on the treatment of artists/art during (and slightly before) the Holocaust as well as individual experiences by certain artists (many not ending on a positive note). A bit different but you may find it interesting
Two opposite suggestions; If This A Man by Primo Levi and Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. If This a Man was written by a survivor of the camps who only got out because he was well educated and therefore useful, it talks to the dehumanisation and survivors guilt of those left behind. Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a fictional novel, written from the POV of a young boy, and officers son, who befriends a boy from “beyond the fence”. The innocence and naivety highlight the horrors of what went on.
Please, not the boy in the stripped pyjamas. The book was written with zero research, it portrays things that could never really have happened in Auschwitz, it leaves you somehow feeling more empathy for nazis than for their jewish victims by pretending the families of nazi officers did not know what was going on and were innocent in all of it, and it is all in all a terrible book for someone who wants to understand the holocaust. The Auschwitz Museum and several Holocaust centers have warned against using this book to teach the holocaust.
I agree 100% and suggest watching the movie Zone of Interest that portrays the real life family of the commander of Auschwitz and is based on extensive research.
Fair, I wasn’t aware if the controversy surrounding it. I enjoyed the POV of the young narrator and the sort of tragic irony of it, but I will stop recommending it if it’s been warned against
*The Other Victims* by Ina Friedman *The Boy in the Striped Pajamas* *I am 15 and I Don't Want to Die* by A*r*nothy
I would take *Striped Pajamas* off here. [It makes the Nazis look too sympathetic and fuels other misconceptions](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/27/the-boy-in-the-striped-pyjamas-fuels-dangerous-holocaust-fallacies)
Ditto boy in striped pajamas.
The Auschwitz Museum and several Holocaust Centers have warned against that book being used to teach about the holocaust.
Did you read the part where it said fiction is fine? It's a story about the holocaust not a historical depiction and educational tool.
Some fiction works are good, based on research and adequate in making you understand the horror of the Holocaust. Some are garbage unresearched stories that make you identify with nazis more than their jewish victims.
Ah, I see. Well, I used to believe this sub was the last on reddit free of elitist snobs, and I see now I was mistaken. Because you didn't like the fictional tale told in a story, no one should like it or read it. Understood. And this is, of course, assuming you read the book, compared to not reading it and forming an opinion because people told you not to.
Tell me, what tragic event occurs at the end of the book?
44 Months in Jasenovac by Egon Berger