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School Library Journal Review
Gr 6 UpThis fine new Holocaust series is impeccably researched and well presented with a wealth of good-quality black-and-white photos from various archives. Quotes are woven into the narratives, and relevant background information appears in boxes that are interspersed throughout, yet there is nothing stilted or text-bookish in either the writing or format. Book One provides a social and economic history of the Jews, shaped and punctuated by repeated acts of persecution, actions that in modern times lead to the growth of Zionism and the Holocaust. Book Two is a description of and commentary on the increasing anti-Semitism and restrictions upon the Jews, first in Germany and then in other countries as conditions deteriorated and panic escalated throughout Europe. Book Three begins with Germany's invasion of Poland and Czechoslovakia, and ends with the forming of the Axis partners, including Russia, Japan, and Italy, whose fascist dictator had once scorned Hitler and who had good relations with Jews. Those who helped the Jews are not neglected, nor are the complex relations between Poles and Jews. The presence of little known information and quotes throughout reveal the depth of the author's research. Book Four records the full fury of the Holocaust as Germany implemented the genocide of the Jews. Book Five chronicles the last battles, resistance, rescue, and liberation. It includes a discussion of the plight of the Displaced Persons (DPs) and of U. S. President Harry Truman's efforts on their behalf. Book Six continues the story of the DP camps, homelessness, and the creation of the state of Israel. It describes the Nuremberg Trials and the fate of many Nazis after the war. The volume closes with instances of other genocides and poses the moral injunction: "To Be a Bystander Is to Share in the Guilt." Book Seven consists of chronologically arranged primary-source documents that can be used with the first six books or can stand alone. Book Eight contains a topical annotated bibliography coded by reading levels, a list of illustrated books (art and photo-essays, but not children's picture books), a topical annotated videography, listings of Web sites and CD-ROMS, and museums and resource centers. An outstanding set.Marcia W. Posner, Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Nassau County, Glen Cove, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Ea. vol.: 1997. 80p. index. illus. Blackbirch, lib. ed., $18.95; 8-vol. set, plus cumulative index volume, $164.55. Gr. 6^-12. More and more states are now requiring that the Holocaust be taught in schools, as history and also as part of a curriculum on tolerance. For those who want to read more than the excellent one-volume Holocaust histories, such as Bachrach's Tell Them We Remember (1994) and Rogasky's Smoke and Ashes (1988), this eight-volume Holocaust series is an authoritative, readable, comprehensive history that is especially well designed for classroom and group discussion as well as for personal reading. With a chronological account of what happened, the authors raise searching questions of why it happened and what it means for us now. As in the U.S. Holocaust Museum, the focus is on the Jews, but attention is also paid to the Nazi's four million other victims, including the Romani, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and Soviet prisoners of war. Always, from the preface of the first volume to the end of the last book, the emphasis is not only on the victims and the perpetrators but also on the role of the bystanders, those who did nothing, in Europe and around the world. The first volume relates the Nazi genocide to the long history of anti-Semitism. Then four volumes discuss the history in detail, year by year, from 1935 to the end of World War II. The next looks at the survivors, the trials, and the aftermath. In all the books, eyewitness accounts are part of the narrative; in addition, one whole volume is devoted to primary-source materials. The series design is clear and readable in a magazine-type, photo-essay format, with many subheads, inserts, maps, and stirring historical photographs. Everything is fully documented in chapter notes at the back. Each volume includes a bibliography, chronology, glossary. In addition, one complete volume is a detailed resource guide to books, videos, Web sites, CD-ROMs, museums, and resource centers, which will be invaluable for librarians and educators. (There is an important omission: apparently in response to the lunatic fringe that denies that the Holocaust ever happened, only nonfiction resources are included. There is no mention anywhere in the series of the great historical fiction that humanizes the history--no Friedrich [1987] by Hans Richter, no Nightfather [1994] by Carl Friedman, no works by Ida Fink or Uri Orlev, and no mention of Art Spiegelman's Maus [1991]). The authors try not to shock or horrify, but there is no prettying up of the truth. The series' adviser, Michael Berenbaum (formerly of the U.S. Holocaust Museum and now president of the Shoah Visual History Foundation), speaks eloquently in his foreword about how the Holocaust shatters the myth of innocence and how these books raise moral questions in our lives about prejudice and the pressures of conformity. "What would I have done?" is always the question. --Hazel Rochman
