Eighty years have passed since the liberation by the Soviet armies of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, in Poland occupied by the Nazis. Here are many resources to cultivate memory and reflection with children and adolescents.
On January 27, 1945, the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was released. The largest concentration and extermination camp built by the Nazis will have been the scene of the death of more than a million people, Jewish for the vast majority. On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of what has become today a privileged place for the memory of the genocide, here are 10 books to accompany the reflection on the Shoah and the Second World War with the youngest, according to their age.
“The visit to the Struthof, unknown camp”
From 9 years old. This documentary album based on a realistic fiction follows Simon, a third student who will visit the Struthof, the only Nazi concentration camp installed on French territory, in Alsace, where thousands of people were tortured and executed during the occupation. On the occasion of this school outing, her grandmother tells him the story of her mother, a resistant Alsatian teenager, whose twin brother died in this camp.
“The visit to the Struthof, unknown camp” by Yaël Hassan and Marc Lizano, Nathan, € 15.95 (2024).
“Simon, the child of the 20th convoy”
From 9 years old. Adapted from a novel written in 2008 by the Belgian Françoise Pirart himself based on real history and the book of Simon Gronowski, this comic book began in Brussels in 1943. Three years that the Germans occupied Belgium, three years that Simon And his family live in a stay. Until arrest, until departure, by train, east. A terrible journey to the unknown during which, however, Simon has an appointment with hope …
“Simon, the child of the 20th convoy”, by Françoise Pirart and Laura Perez, € 6.90 (2020).
“The journal of Anne Frank”, graphic novel
From 10 years old. Signed by the tandem Ari Folman – David Polonsky (to whom we owe “waltz with Bachir”), the first official graphic adaptation of the “Anne Frank Journal” offers a particularly poignant new reading. A beautiful way, for children and adults, to discover or rediscover the voice of a young teenager who has upset the whole world.
“The Journal of Anne Frank” in graphic novel, Calmann-Levy, € 20.00 (2019).
“The courageous fight of Alfred Nakache, a survivor swimmer of Auschwitz”
From 10 years old. Signed Samir Senoussi and Kim Consigny, this novel accompanied by documentary pages returns to the story of Alfred Nakache (1915-1983), a Jewish athlete, French swimming champion on multiple times. He had ahead of the Nazis at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Deported in 1943, he participated in the London Olympics on his return. His life is an example of strength and courage in the face of barbarism.
“The courageous fight of Alfred Nakache, a survivor swimmer from Auschwitz”, by Senoussi Samir and Consigny Kim, Bayard Jeunesse, € 6.90 (2024).
“My friend Anne Frank”
From 10 years old. In “My friend Anne Frank”, Hannah Goslar, childhood friend of Anne Frank and survivor of the Bergen-Belsen camp, confides her memories of war to journalist Alison Leslie Gold, who transcribes them into a moving novel at height of children.
“My friend Anne Frank”, Bayard Jeunesse, € 6.90 (2024).
-“I experienced the concentration camps”
From 12 years old. Reissued on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of concentration camps, this work collects the poignant testimonies of three survivors of Nazi barbarism: Simone Lagrange, arrested in Lyon at 13 and deported with her parents in Auschwitz, of which she will be alone to come back; Christine Szenberg, who fled with her mother and her little sister of the Warsaw Ghetto, and André Migdal, arrested at 16 years by the French police for acts of resistance and who, after stays in the French camps, will be deported to Germany.
“I lived the concentration camps”, by Stephan Zaubitzer, Véronique Guillaud, Cristina Szenberg, André Migdal, Simone Lagrange, Bayard Jeunesse, € 11.90 (new publication in January 2025).
“Auschwitz explained to my daughter”
From 13 years old. How to explain to children the Shoah? How to make a young girl understand today that the Nazis did everything to exterminate millions of men, women and children, simply because they were Jewish? Annette Wieviorka, historian and Research Director emeritus at the CNRS answered questions, very direct, of her own daughter, 13 years old at the time, on the enigma of absolute evil. Their dialogue full of modesty and simplicity is still a perfect transmission and contextualization tool today.
“Auschwitz explained to my daughter”, Annette Wieviorka, Seuil, € 7.50 (1999).
“Ginette Kolinka: story of an Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor”
From 14 years old. While Uroret d'Hondt is in high school in high school in 2018, her class receives a survivor from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. The testimony of the latter will remain engraved in his memory, to the point of wanting to transcribe him a few years later in this work, halfway between the comics and the graphic novel. The story is that of Ginette Kolinka, a tireless memory passer of the Holocaust, now 99 years old, who, arrested by Gestapo in March 1944 and then deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, will be the only survivor of her family.
“Ginette Kolinka: story of a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau”, of Aurore d'Hondt, rounds in O, € 25.00 (2023).
“The Auschwitz librarian”
From 14 years old. A good introduction to the theme of the Shoah, this comic strip tells the true story of Dita Adlerova, 14, who lives in the Ghetto de Terezín, in Prague. Deported with her family in the deadliest concentration camp of the Second World War, she met Fredy Hirsch, a Jewish educator who offers her to become the “Auschwitz librarian”. Dita manages to hide eight books in a place where books are prohibited.
“The Library of Auschwitz” by Rubio Salva – Aroca Loreto, Street of Sèvres,
“The anti -Semitism explained to young people”
From 15 years old. Why are Jews the subject of a particular hatred? When anti-Semitism has appeared? Is it a form of racism? Why did Hitler hate the Jews? Anti-Zionism or support for Palestine, is it anti-Semitism? In a new updated edition, this book to put in the hands of teens dismantles false ideas and conspiracy theories that have swarmed since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel, answering all questions, even those that we would not dare to pose.
“The anti -Semitism explained to young people” by Michel Wieviorka, Seuil, € 11.90 (2024).
