The Best Children's Books About the Holocaust

We all know how important is to remember the Holocaust. As adults, it is our responsibility to pass on the collective memories of the atrocoties committed by the Nazis to ensure they never happen again. But it is certainly not an easy subject to talk about with children.

Children’s books about the Holocaust are a great way to help. Bringing the events of the past to life with personal stories is one of the best ways to understand history, whether the stories are memoirs or fictionalised from real-life events.

We’ve put together a list of the five best Holocaust books for children, for a range of ages.

Georgina Atwell

Toppsta

2023-01-15

2021-05-01

The Best Children's Books About the Holocaust

The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II

A personal, powerful and resonant account of the Holocaust by one of this country's best-loved children's authors. By turns charming, shocking and heart-breaking, this is the true story of Michael Rosen's search for his relatives who "went missing" during the Second World War - told through prose, poetry, maps and pictures.

When Michael was growing up, stories often hung in the air about his great-uncles: one was a clock-mender and the other a dentist. They were there before the war , his dad would say, and weren't after .

Over many years, Michael tried to find out exactly what happened: he interviewed family members, scoured the internet, pored over books and traveled to America and France. The story he uncovered was one of terrible persecution - and it has inspired his poetry for years since.

Here, poems old and new are balanced against an immensely readable narrative; both an extraordinary account and a powerful tool for talking to children about the Holocaust.

Supported and checked by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education.

"The Missing may ostensibly concern the Holocaust but, as Rosen makes clear, this is a book about facing down prejudice, defying those who would sow the seeds of hatred and opening our arms to those in need. " - Independent

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When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

This semi-autobiographical and unforgettable story, of a Jewish family fleeing from Germany before the start of the Second World War, now reissued with its original cover illustration in this very special edition.

Michael Morpurgo called When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit: "The most life-enhancing book you could ever wish to read."

This internationally acclaimed story of one Jewish family's flight from Hitler's Germany has become a much-loved classic, and has been in print since its debut 45 years ago.

Suppose your country began to change. Suppose that without your noticing, it became dangerous for some people to live in Germany any longer. Suppose you found, to your complete surprise, that your own father was one of those people.

That is what happened to Anna in 1933. She was nine years old when it began, too busy to take much notice of political posters, but out of them glared the face of Adolf Hitler, the man who would soon change the whole of Europe - starting with her own small life.

One day, Anna's father was missing. Then she herself and her brother Max were being rushed by their mother, in alarming secrecy, away from everything they knew - home and schoolmates and well-loved toys - right out of Germany...

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The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition

In July 1942, thirteen-year-old Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the horrors of Nazi occupation, went into hiding in an Amsterdam warehouse. Over the next two years Anne vividly describes not only the daily frustrations of living in such close quarters, but also her thoughts, feelings and longings as she grows up. Her diary ends abruptly and tragically when, in August 1944, Anne and her family were all finally betrayed.

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Once

Once by Morris Gleitzman is the story of a young Jewish boy who is determined to escape the orphanage he lives in to save his Jewish parents from the Nazis in the occupied Poland of the Second World War.

Everybody deserves to have something good in their life. At least Once.

Once I escaped from an orphanage to find Mum and Dad.

Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house.

Once I made a Nazi with a toothache laugh.

My name is Felix. This is my story.

Once is the first in a series of children's novels about Felix, a Jewish orphan caught in the middle of the Holocaust, from Australian author Morris Gleitzman - author of Bumface and Boy Overboard . The next books in the series Then , Now and After are also available from Puffin.

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The Best Children's Books About the Holocaust

The Missing: The True Story of My Family in World War II

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition

Once

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