International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2025 : Nine New Books

The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives to Save Jews During the Holocaust

by Hurowitz, Richard

Book - 2023

"Six years ago, Hurowitz began publishing in The Octavian Report, the digital quarterly magazine he founded, articles about individuals who rescued J...Show more "Six years ago, Hurowitz began publishing in The Octavian Report, the digital quarterly magazine he founded, articles about individuals who rescued Jewish people during World War II. Some of those stories of "righteous Gentiles," including an Italian bicycle champion, Portuguese and Japanese diplomats, and people from Denmark, are expanded in this collection of short biographies focused on the heroic actions of a small number of people during the Holocaust. Hurowitz reports on the lives of his subjects before and after their actions in Europe and consults the existing research on common traits among those who consistently do the right thing to help others. His intent for this book was to determine what society might do to make such behavior more commonplace. Like the sociologists and psychologists who have studied those who risked their lives, families, and careers to save those threatened by mass murder, Hurowitz finds and reveals common threads, such as many of the subjects had tolerant parents who disciplined them in consistently loving and rational ways. The author hopes presenting these stories as models might inspire many more to do something about the genocides that continue today. VERDICT Of profound interest to those seeking to improve the world." --Joel Neuberg, Library Journal Show less

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The Holocaust

An Unfinished History

by Stone, Dan

Book - 2024

"A significant new history of the Holocaust from the director of the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway. Stone, a professor of modern his...Show more "A significant new history of the Holocaust from the director of the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway. Stone, a professor of modern history and author of The Liberation of the Camps, emphasizes that we must stop thinking about the Holocaust as solely a German affair. "The genocide of the Jews," he writes, "could not have been so thorough and so brutal without almost ubiquitous collaboration across Europe and beyond." Historians agree that the trauma of Germany's World War I defeat led to a legion of revanchist splinter groups. The Nazis were not taken seriously until 1932, when they became Germany's largest party, and Hitler took power peacefully in 1933. No one has yet explained his obsessive hatred of Jews, but his party--and most Germans--went along. Stone delivers a gripping account of prewar Nazi legal persecution. About half of Germany's Jews fled before emigration was banned in October 1941, although many found refuge in neighboring countries "that were later occupied." Mass murder began with the 1939 invasion of Poland, and Stone's blow-by-blow account may be more distressful than previous ones because he refutes their myths. Nearly half of the victims died of starvation or disease or were shot in "face-to-face killings reminiscent of colonial massacres." In the gas chambers, victims died in agony, but fanatics such as the SS did not do all the work. Ordinary civilians and soldiers participated with frightening enthusiasm. Years later, many decent people claimed that refusing would have provoked terrible retaliation, but that is a myth. No group or country that declined to cooperate suffered. Stone concludes that today, "fascism is not yet in power. But it is knocking on the door." The solution, he writes, is not necessarily more Holocaust education, unless it addresses a society that takes equality and tolerance for granted. A painfully revealing, vital history." Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews Show less

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The Counterfeit Countess

The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust

by White, Elizabeth B.

Book - 2024

"Historians White and Sliwa (Jewish Childhood in Kraków) deliver a powerful biography of Jewish mathematician Janina Spinner Mehlberg (1905–1969), wh...Show more "Historians White and Sliwa (Jewish Childhood in Kraków) deliver a powerful biography of Jewish mathematician Janina Spinner Mehlberg (1905–1969), who posed as a Catholic aristocrat during WWII and joined the Polish resistance. Born to a “life of rare privilege for a Polish Jewish girl,” Mehlberg earned a doctorate in 1928, married a fellow student, and settled in Lwow (later Lvov). By 1941 the couple “experienced the full force of Nazi persecution.” After narrowly evading several deadly round-ups, they arrived in Lublin, where a family friend, Count Andrzej Skrzynski, provided them with new identities as Count and Countess Suchodolska. When the German SS took charge of the city, Skrzynski recruited “the Countess” to provide welfare services to prisoners at the Majdanek concentration camp, where she connected with the resistance, aided during a typhus epidemic, and engaged in fraught negotiations with the camp commandant that led in 1943 to the release of more than 3,000 Catholic Poles imprisoned there after their expulsion from territory annexed by Germany in 1939. Drawing from Mehlberg’s private memoir, the authors recreate vivid scenes of horror at Majdanek, describing on one occasion “the smell of burnt hair and roasting flesh.” The result is a heart-wrenching profile of resilience, ingenuity, and heroism." - Publishers Weekly Show less

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Lovers in Auschwitz

A True Story

by Blankfeld, Keren

Book - 2024

"Journalist Blankfeld debuts with a page-turning account of the unlikely love story between David Wisnia, a Polish Jew from the Warsaw ghetto, and Zi...Show more "Journalist Blankfeld debuts with a page-turning account of the unlikely love story between David Wisnia, a Polish Jew from the Warsaw ghetto, and Zippi Spitzer, a Jew from Slovakia, that blossomed amidst the horror of Auschwitz. The two met during a work detail in the prisoner intake area; the only woman stationed there, Spitzer—a smooth operator who had “immediately been strategic in creating connections [with] prisoners and guards”—had talked her way into a position painting the stripes on women’s prison uniforms. She eventually became the right-hand woman to the commandants of the women’s camp, Birkenau, and, according to Blankfeld, “used her growing influence to shield unhealthy prisoners by giving them positions inside her office.” A graphic designer by trade prior to her internment, she made secret copies of rosters and camp diagrams, “hiding the copies in her office in hopes that one day they’d come in handy” for prosecuting Nazi crimes. Separated after the war, Spitzer and Wisnia both made their way to the U.S., where they began new lives. Unbeknownst to Wisnia until they met again, more than 70 years after the war, Spitzer had taken several actions to keep him alive in the camps, including removing his name from crematorium rosters. Fast-paced and novelistic, this is a moving demonstration of the ability to find love in the darkest places." - Publishers Weekly Show less

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Saints and Liars

The Story of Americans Who Saved Refugees From the Nazis

by Dwork, Deborah

Book - 2025

"Award-winning Dwork (director of CUNY Ctr. for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity; Holocaust: A History) focuses on t...Show more "Award-winning Dwork (director of CUNY Ctr. for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity; Holocaust: A History) focuses on the lives of American citizens who travelled all over the world to assist victims of Nazi Germany. This book centers on five committed individuals and couples who risked their own lives to help save others from an unimaginable fate. Spanning the globe, with accounts from Prague, Vilna, Shanghai, Marseille, and Lisbon, these are gripping narratives of relief workers representing Quakerism, Unitarianism, and Judaism, who navigated intricacies, changing policies, and danger to rescue Jewish people from the grip of the Nazis. The stories reflect how luck, immediate decisions, and incredible timing contributed to saving as many people as they did. For example, Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat to Lithuania, against orders, issued transit visas to Japan and thus saved the lives of thousands. VERDICT A beautifully written and gripping narrative with a focus on detail and insight into the people involved." --Jacqueline Parascandola, Library Journal Show less

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The Survivor

How I Made It Through Six Concentration Camps and Became A Nazi Hunter

by Lewkowicz, Josef

Book - 2025

"The amazing, untold story of the Holocaust from a survivor turned Nazi hunter. No one expected the Nazis to arrive with such speed, and without a s...Show more "The amazing, untold story of the Holocaust from a survivor turned Nazi hunter. No one expected the Nazis to arrive with such speed, and without a shot being fired. But when they entered Kraków in 1939, Josef Lewkowicz's life was obliterated as he and his family were sent to concentration camps across the continent. Josef--after surviving the horrors of six separate concentration camps during World War II--became a relentless Nazi hunter in the aftermath of the war. The Survivor is a captivating record of one man's survival against all odds--but it is also a unique and ultimately optimistic chronicle of such a pivotal moment in history, offering wisdom and hope despite the crushing darkness. Josef's pursuit of justice--which includes the capture of his greatest tormentor, the murderous SS kommandant Amon Goeth, made infamous through his chilling portrayal by Ralph Fiennes in Schinder's List--takes readers on a riveting exploration of a story that spanned continents. In The Survivor, Josef Lewkowicz shares a poignant and gripping account of his remarkable life, capturing the indomitable spirit and enduring soul--the neshama--of the survivor. This is more than a story; it is a testament to human resilience, a chronicle of justice, and a tribute to those who defied the darkest moments of our history." Show less

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Paris Undercover

A Wartime Story of Courage, Friendship, and Betrayal

by Goodman, Matthew

Book - 2025

"Two women in Nazi-occupied Paris created a daring escape line that rescued dozens of Allied servicemen. With one in a German prison camp, the other ...Show more "Two women in Nazi-occupied Paris created a daring escape line that rescued dozens of Allied servicemen. With one in a German prison camp, the other wrote a book about it-a memoir that was built on lies. Now the bestselling author of Eighty Days shares their incredible, never-before-told full story" Show less

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Two Sisters

Betrayal, Love, and Resistance in Wartime France

by Whitehouse, Rosie

Book - 2025

"Journalist Whitehouse (The People on the Beach) delivers a heartrending account of her mother-in-law's experiences during the Holocaust. Huguette Mü...Show more "Journalist Whitehouse (The People on the Beach) delivers a heartrending account of her mother-in-law's experiences during the Holocaust. Huguette Müller and her sister, Marion, escaped the Nazis with the help of a French doctor named Frédéric Pétri in 1943. To flesh out that story beyond Huguette's memory of it, Whitehouse tracked down the doctor's relatives in California, conducted interviews, and combed through historical records in hopes of adding Dr. Pétri to the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem. Interwoven with the details of Whitehouse's reporting is a portrait of the white-collar Müller family, professionals who distanced themselves from their Judaism in 1920s and '30s Berlin. When the Nazis came to power, the Müllers fled to France, where Huguette and Marion's mother was captured and sent to Auschwitz. The sisters escaped to a ski resort in the French Alps, where Huguette broke her leg and was treated by Dr. Pétri, who took her into his home so they could avoid detection by the Gestapo at a local hospital, and eventually helped them leave France. Whitehouse nimbly balances a white-knuckle wartime narrative with a trenchant examination of the politics of Vichy France. This makes a well-covered historical period feel agonizingly immediate." - Publishers Weekly Show less

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Irena's Gift

An Epic World War II Memoir of Sisters, Secrets and Survival

by Kirsten, Karen

Book - 2024

"In 1942, in Nazi-occupied Poland, a Jewish child was smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto in a backpack. That child was Karen Kirsten's mother, but she...Show more "In 1942, in Nazi-occupied Poland, a Jewish child was smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto in a backpack. That child was Karen Kirsten's mother, but she knew nothing about this extraordinary event until one day a letter arrived from a stranger. After Karen eventually discovered the grandparents she loved dearly were in fact not her biological grandparents, she travelled the globe to uncover her family's past and to find the answers to baffling questions-why did her adoptive grandmother treat Karen's mother so unkindly? Why did she hide the truth that she was her mother's aunt? And why, if she appeared to dislike Karen's mother, did she risk her life to save her and bring her to Australia?" Show less

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