Iturbe, Antonio The Librarian of Auschwitz, 432 pages. Translated by Lilit Zekulin. Henry Holt (Macmillan), 2017. $20.
Language: R (25+ swears, 2 ‘f’); Mature Content: PG (innuendos of
prostitution); Violence: PG-13 (Holocaust tortures, deaths)
When Dita and her family are moved from the walled Terezin
ghetto to the barracks of Auschwitz, Dita finds a place for herself in Alfred
Hirsch’s secret classes for the children of Auschwitz. Her job is to care for the eight printed
books and the “living” books (teachers who can tell a vivid remembered story of
a book) that the prisoners managed to sneak pass the guards. Interwoven with the story of Dita and the
books are the atrocities and cruelties of life in the camps and Dita’s life
after she manages to survive long enough for liberation after she is
transferred to Bergen-Belsen.
Based on the life of Dita Kraus, a Holocaust survivor,
Iturbe adds to the stark, gruesome knowledge that we have of the conditions of
survival in the camps. I have been to
Terezin in the Czech Republic and Dachau, but I can still only imagine how
difficult it was to survive. This will
be a pretty challenging book for even a high school student to read, but so
interesting.
HS – OPTIONAL. Cindy,
Library Teacher
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