The Librarian of Auschwitz: The heart-breaking Sunday Times bestseller based on the incredible true story of Dita Kraus

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Adults are corrupted. That's why young people are so important. You can still shape them, improve them.” Life, any life, is very short. But if you’ve managed to be happy for at least an instant, it will have been worth living.” Like all stories of the Holocaust, this one is horrifying. I'm not sure I agree with the idea of presenting any of the Holocaust as being even mildly palatable. Though this is based on a true story I think the authors tidied up some of it for the age range. But it is inconsistent in content and this would probably not be appropriate for children ages 8-12. The graphics alone would keep it out of most school libraries. Would I buy this for my middle school library? YES – with reservations for nudity in the concentration camp “showers” and while being interrogated by Nazi officers

In 1949 they moved to Israel with their young son and other survivor friends. They lived in Kibbutz Givat Chaim, near Hadera, where Otto was an English teacher and Dita worked in the shoe-repair shop. Later Dita also became an English teacher and they taught at the Hadassim school, east of Netanya, founded in 1947 for European Jewish refugee children. Wenn man ein Buch mit dem Titel "Die Bibliothekarin von Auschwitz" liest, dann ist natürlich schon klar, dass es ein tiefgreifendes und aufwühlendes Buch sein muss. Immerhin ist das Setting das Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau im Jahr 1944. The ‘children’s school’ was established to create a sense of normalcy. Some families didn’t think it mattered if the kids kept learning and reading given their nightmare conditions —but we soon see how much it did matter. It goes without saying that the Holocaust was horrific and demoralizing....but stories still need to be heard. A book is like a trapdoor that leads to a secret attic: You can open it and go inside. And your world is different.”

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As a graphic novel writer, he publishes mainly in the French-Belgian market and his work has been nominated to an Eisner Award. I loved the entire graphic novel. This is a true story, and it isn’t pretty. Teen readers need to know about the Holocaust, and the graphic novel format of this book will help bring the Holocaust to a larger audience. I'm not sure why this is considered a teen book--it is as intense as any I have read on this time period. Bearing that in mind, I'm not sure how a lot of kids would respond to reading it. Please do a thorough review with the Common Sense Media information, especially the violence section, before having your child read it. It's definitely not for the middle school crowd; mature high schoolers will probably be okay with it and be able to take away the overall message without being overwhelmed by human's cruelty to other humans. It took a few chapters to get that ‘hooked’ feeling...(part of it might’ve been my mental debate)....I’ve owned the ebook since it was released - but when one has read as many books about the holocaust as I have ( as many of us have)....we begin to tiptoe cautiously —

First of all I just want to take a moment to admire the cover, it's absolutely stunning and I think it represents the book perfectly. Life, any life, is very short. But if you've managed to be happy for at least an instant, it will have been worth living.” Dita is a curious, book-loving young girl who displays tremendous bravery in helping her family and other prisoners at the concentration camp. She lives one day at a time, focusing on the small acts of kindness she can perform. It wasn't an extensive library. In fact, it consisted of eight books and some of them were in poor condition. But they were books. In this incredibly dark place, they were a reminder of less sombre times, when words rang out more loudly than machine guns...'Death, the threat of death, and unimaginable cruelty are a constant presence. Some things (how people died in the gas chamber, how their bodies were removed, a hanging) are graphically described. Beatings, executions, and deaths by disease or starvation happen daily. Auschwitz's "Doctor Death," Joseph Mengele, is a character in the novel, and although few of his experiments on adults and children are written about in detail, even references to them (doing live autopsies, injecting typhus into children, cutting open pregnant women with no anesthetic) may be extremely disturbing to some readers.

The incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust, based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus.Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide. Get started Close There are those who might think that this was an act of useless bravery in an extermination camp when there were other, more pressing concerns-- books don't cure illnesses; they can't be used as weapons to defeat an army of executioners; they don't fill your stomach or quench your thirst. It's true: culture isn't necessary for the survival of mankind; for that, you only need bread and water. It's also true that with bread to eat and water to drink, humans survive; but with only this, humanity dies. If human beings aren't deeply moved by beauty, if they don't close their eyes and activate their imaginations, if they aren't capable of asking themselves questions and discerning the limits of their ignorance, then they are men or women, but they are not complete persons.” Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezín ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious books the prisoners have managed to smuggle past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the secret librarian of Auschwitz, responsible for the safekeeping of the small collection of titles, as well as the 'living books' - prisoners of Auschwitz who know certain books so well, they too can be 'borrowed' to educate the children in the camp. The Librarian of Auschwitz is a very good book. This is labeled a YA book but I'd consider it an adult novel, because there is a lot of violence and mentions of very sexual things, even for a young adult novel. The reason I gave it four stars is because the book and overall message is positive and realistically portrays the Holocaust, and helps the reader to understand the atrocities committed during that time. However, know yourself and your limit on violence and sexual stuff because it's heavily talked about. There is also mention of a homosexual character, which might spark discussion among younger readers and examples of painful and traumatizing surgeries a Nazi doctor at Auschwitz performed on the prisoners.

Conocemos a Dita cuando tiene 14 años y ve que su mundo se empieza a desmoronar. La llegada de los nazis a Checoslovaquia y sus acciones para someter a los judíos harán que pase de tener una infancia normal a acabar en el infierno. Al igual que muchas otras personas, ella y sus padres son obligados a portar marcas que les señalan como judíos y se ven sumergidos en una situación de terror e incertidumbre. El futuro es incierto e intentar sobrevivir cada día es el único plan que se puede tener. Tras ser obligados a vivir en un gueto, acaban siendo trasladados a Auschwitz. Y nada volverá a ser igual. Aunque no entienden muy bien el motivo, Dita y su madre acaban en un barracón en el que las condiciones son ligeramente menos deplorables que en los demás. Y es ahí donde su amor por los libros la ayudará a convertirse en la bibliotecaria de Auschwitz...Los mayores se desgastan inútilmente buscando una felicidad que nunca encuentran; en cambio, a los niños, la felicidad les brota de la palma de las manos.”