Chil­dren’s

Anne Frank and the Chil­dren of the Holocaust

Car­ol Ann Lee
  • Review
By – November 11, 2011

Most peo­ple are famil­iar with Anne Frank’s sto­ry, but in this book the author has added addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion about oth­er chil­dren and teenagers who suf­fered dur­ing the Holocaust.

Lee does not shy away from the graph­ic details of every­day life in hid­ing, dur­ing the trans­ports, and in the con­cen­tra­tion camps. She describes the fear and hor­ror of those times, but refrains from giv­ing the read­er more infor­ma­tion than is age appropriate. 

The bib­li­og­ra­phy is exten­sive, includ­ing stan­dard Holo­caust his­to­ry books as well as inter­views and unpub­lished mem­oirs. Sources of quotes are not always clear; a time­line and map would have been useful. 

Lit­er­a­ture for young adults often con­cludes with a hope­ful note, in spite of over­whelm­ing prob­lems. A quote from Anne’s diary ends this book: I want to go on liv­ing, even after my death!” The author paints a pic­ture of friend­ship, brav­ery, loy­al­ty, and for­ti­tude. She demon­strates why Anne’s diary is a sym­bol of ulti­mate vic­to­ry over evil. 

Books like this will ensure that the one and a half mil­lion chil­dren who died in the Holo­caust will not be for­got­ten. For those who ques­tion whether we need yet anoth­er book about Anne Frank, the answer is: decid­ed­ly yes. For ages 12 and up.

Anne Dublin is the teacher-librar­i­an at Holy Blos­som Tem­ple in Toron­to, Cana­da and an award-win­ning author of books for chil­dren and young adults. Her lat­est book is June Call­wood: A Life of Action (Sec­ond Sto­ry Press, 2006).

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