Anyone know of any good Holocaust novels?

Question

just wanting to read a good holocaust novel but dont know which books would be it.

please dont mention any of the following cause ive already read them:

Stones in Water
Numbering The Stars
the story of Corrie Ten Boom

Answer 1

Sophie's Choice by William Stryon. this is the best holocaust book i've ever read. wait till you find out the many choices sophie has to make. this book is a page turner. the movie authentically brings the novel to life.

atp

Answer 2

Stones in Water was wonderful, wasn't it?

Here are some others you may want to try:

The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss - based on a true story. There's also a sequel called The Journey Back.

Escape from Warsaw - Ian Serraillier - written in the 1940s or 1950s, this one features four children who escape from the Nazis and go searching for their parents.

I Am David - also called North to Freedom - Anne Holm - about a boy who escapes from a concentration camp somewhere in eastern Europe, and his journey north to Denmark. One interesting thing in this book is that we never really learn why the boy was in the camp in the first place.

Twenty and Ten - also called The Secret Cave - Claire Huchet Bishop - a really short but well-written book (under 100 pages) about French schoolchildren who hide Jewish children from the Nazis

The Endless Steppe - Esther Hautzig - someone already mentioned this one, but I wanted to put in a plug for it. It's pretty long, but very interesting and gut wrenching because it's a biography. It reads more like a novel, though. I actually listened to the book on tape and can recommend that, too -- the narrator was compelling.

Another couple of biographies that read a bit like novels are Inge Auerbacher's I Am A Star, Child Of The Holocaust and Beyond the Yellow Star to America.

The Island on Bird Street - Uri Orlev - A Jewish boy is left in the Warsaw Ghetto on his own for months and has to learn how to survive.

Hide and Seek - Ida Vos - a Jewish Dutch girl tells of her experiences during the Nazi occupation of Holland, and what happened when the war was over.

I Am Rosemarie - Marietta Moskin - Another Jewish Dutch girl story.

Answer 3

The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss a fictional story about hiding
The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig a Polish Jewish family is sent into exile in Siberia.
Briar Rose and the Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Sophie's Choice by William Stryon
The Key to Rebecca by Ken Follett

Answer 4

Night, by Elie Wiesel, is the cornerstone of Holocaust literature (because Wiesel is such a talented writer and because it is a true account).

Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi is in the same vein, along with The Diary of Anne Frank.

The Painted Bird, by Jerzy Kosinski, is a book that Wiesel considered one of the best Holocaust novels. It's about a young Jewish boy during WWII who avoids capture by the Germans by hiding out with Polish peasants. It tells the story of his observations of the cruelty of human nature, even though he is not in a concentration camp. It is very pessimistic (the guiding metaphor of the novel is the idea that if you capture a bird and paint its feathers, then when it returns to its flock, the other birds will consider it an intruder and kill it).

Art Spiegelman's Maus (vol. I & II) is an autobiography of himself and his father. It's very creative and touching, dealing with generation issues and characterizing the Germans as cats and the Jewish as mice. It is unique, since it is told in the form of a graphic novel.

Tadeusz Borowski's "This way for Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen" is a brilliant collection of loosely autobiographical Holocaust stories, originally written in Polish I believe. (Especially genius becuase Borowski was so young when he wrote it--after surviving several concentration camps, he committed suicide at 28.)

The short story "The Shawl" by Cynthia Ozick is also a brilliantly written Holocaust narrative.

Answer 5

"I Have Lived a Thousand Years" by Livia Bitton-Jackson
"The Holocaust Chronicles" by Marilyn Harran
"Mendel's Daughter" by Martin Lemelman
"Fires in the Dark" by Louise Doughty (novel)
"Running Through Fire: How I Survived The Holocaust" by Zosia Goldberg
"Schindler's List" by Thomas Keneally

And, of course, "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Bloom, as you've mentioned. Still, it's one of my favorites.

Answer 6

A Coming Evil by Vivian Vande Velde
Greater Than Angels by Carol Matas

Answer 7

Parallel Journeys, by Eleanor H. Ayer, With Helen Waterford And Alfons Heck. This is a biography written by two people who lived through WWII in opposite places. She was a Jew, he was a member of the Hitler Youth, and later the German Air Force. They met as adults in the 70's in San Diego and did many presentations together to educate people about how Hitler rose to power and about their own incredible lives. You have GOT to read this one. It's in the public library.
Also these great fiction books.
The Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
The Island on Bird Street, by Uri Orlev
Milkweed, by Jerry Spinelli
Winds of War, by Herman Wouk (adult trilogy, includes Holocaust experience along with all of WWII.)
In My Hands : Memories Of A Holocaust Rescuer, by Irene Gut Opdyke, With Jennifer Armstrong.
Daniel, Half Human and the Good Nazi, by David Chotjewitz,

Answer 8

I highly recommend learning about the Holocaust through Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series. Start with The Kill Artist and work your way up to the newest - The Messenger. Mr. Silva is brilliant.

Answer 9

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
I Have Lived A Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson
The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender
In My Hands by Irene Gut Opdyke

and check out my bibliography on my site:

http://bl-books.tripod.com/id124.html

Answer 10

The Diary of Ann Frank.