Dawn by Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel is probably best known as a Holocaust survivor and author Night which tells the story of his experience in concentration camps. While his novel is taught in schools, it is actually the first book in a loosely connected trilogy. While Night is biographical, the other two novels, Dawn and Day (sometimes titled The Accident) are works of fiction about experiences after the Holocaust. 

Dawn is a heavily philosophical book. The narrator - Elisha - is the sole survivor of his family after the Holocaust. He joins a group of Jewish terrorists trying to reclaim Palestine from the English. It seems as though part of their philosophy is that they were good people before the Holocaust, but that didn't save them, so what's the point of being good? Their movement has reached the point that one of their followers is being held hostage (David ben Moshe). In response to the English having one of their soldiers, they have taken an English officer as their hostage (John Dawson). Despite attempts to free David, the English plan on executing him, which has the Movement planning on executing John. Elisha is the one chose to pull the trigger, a fact that his conscience struggles with after everything he's already experienced. Dawn is Elisha's struggle to bear the weight of his role as executioner.

This book is very deep. Although it was written in 1961 and only 80 pages long, it is very powerful and still relevant given the world's constant state of conflict. It questions whether or not the Movement's actions are justified. It asks what right man has to kill and play God. Elisha thinks about how executing a man is different than killing a man in war. It also looks at the change of one's soul when one becomes a killer. There is a very powerful image of Elisha seeing the ghosts of his loved ones who with him because if he becomes a murderer, then they are murderers too. Is that how he wants his parents to think of him because he is essentially a reflection of them. This book only takes place within the hours before dawn - the time of the execution - but his internal battle is very thorough. The end results leaves him forever changed.

Dawn is not a book to be taken lightly. It may be small but it is very powerful. 
MMK

The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson

This book is a memoir of a young boy's journey during the Holocaust and how Oskar Schindler helped save his life.
 
Leon grew up with his family in Poland and had a typical life filled with everyday struggles. Although he was Jewish, he got along with non-Jews and went about his business not causing any problems. When the Germans started to take over Europe, they figured everything would quickly come to a close, just like the last time Germany came to town. This time, however, was different. Pretty soon families were forced to board trains and leave town. Leon and his family escaped this fate initially because they had work permits. Then the entire town was forced to move into a ghetto, made to share cramped living quarters and struggle to find food to survive. Before long, Leon's family started to separate - first one brother was sent on a train, then another brother, his father and sister had to leave for a labor camp while Leon and his mother went to another ghetto. The next stop became a labor camp where Leon found himself alone and struggling to survive, until he finds a way to contact his father who is working for the infamous Oskar Schindler. Although Schindler finds a way to reunite Leon's family, the fear they live in doesn't cease until the end of the war when they can finally start over, although knowing that life will never be the same again.
 
While this story is captivating and enjoyable (or as enjoyable as a Holocaust memoir can be), this book feels focused on its target audience of young readers. It has a great voice where you can hear the young Leon telling his story. As an adult reading this book, however, it felt as if something is missing. In no way am I trying to lessen what Leon went through because the reader definitely sees his struggle and sympathizes with his plight for survival, but his story is only 206 pages (small pages, a lot of spacing). At times I felt as if he was telling rather than showing. Maybe this comes from the fact that this memoir is based on the speeches he gives about his experiences, where he has a limited time and can't give every detail. Even though I personally wanted more, it was a gripping memoir that peeked my interest in Oskar Schindler and other tales of survival.

No Holocaust story is going to be easy to tell - especially when it is one you personally lived through. With so many books out there telling all of the horrific details, you almost expect that when you pick up a Holocaust book, which threatens to desensitize you to the emotional pain one experiences. Leon's story isn't as heavy on the details as you might expect, but that fits with the audience and doesn't do much to lessen the horrors he experienced. This book gives a great view of the Holocaust from the eyes of a boy who was barely even ten when the world around him began to change and nineteen when he had a chance to start anew. For young readers wanting to know about someone's experience in the Holocaust, this is a worth the read.
MMK

The Final Journey by Gudrun Pausewang

This novel was written twenty years ago in German. A few years later it was translated to English and is a timeless tale of a young girl's journey during the Holocaust.

The novel takes place almost entirely on a train. Alice is an eleven-year-old Jew who was taken from her home with her grandfather and grandmother. Her mother and father had already left and were at a "dentist clinic." She believes that she is going to join them in the east. Forty-nine people are crammed in the cattle car with no bathroom and no seats and no idea where they are going. As they pass station after station without stopping and without being given water, the reality of their situation slowly worsens. The naive Alice soon learns the truth that her loved ones tried to protect her from and begins to connect the dots of her memories living in the basement. As the journey comes to a close, even those who seem to know it all don't really know everything.

This novel about the Holocaust only touches briefly on the horrors that Jews and others faced - but that doesn't make it any less powerful. There isn't the excessive suffering and withering away that one usually reads about - the utter hopelessness - but there is the unknown future that hangs over everyone. It captures the complete disregard for human life these victims suffered and how, despite loss, one needs to carry on and how people can come together in the face of tragedy. The ending itself, while somewhat ambiguous for someone unfamiliar with the history, is equally haunting given the characters' naivety.

While this book might not talk about all of the experiences one faced during the Holocaust, it shows the reality that not many people made it beyond that final train journey. It is filled with characters you care about and, while some may not be as developed or memorable, you worry about their fates. Overall, this is a haunting journey for both reader and character.
MMK

"Once" "Then" and "Now" by Morris Gleitzman

This is a series of three book (the fourth is coming out in a few months) that first follow a boy in the Holocaust and then jumps to his life seventy years later. The first two books are amazingly emotionally charged while the third book loses some of the magic. It is still a great series.

Once begins with a naive Felix who was sent to an orphanage by his parents three years ago. He receives what he believes to be a sign from his parents that they're coming for him but instead sees men (Nazis) coming and burning books. Fearing that his parents (booksellers) are in grave danger, Felix leaves and tries to warn his parents. For most of the novel Felix believes this horrible situation is about book or specifically Jewish books. Along the way he meets Zelda, a six-year-old whose parents he discovered shot dead. He rescues Zelda, only to be caught by the Nazis. He is rescued along with Zelda  and hidden but is still under the illusion that his parents are out there and he needs to find them. When he finally realizes the truth, he is devastated and with the Nazis in town, he has to find the strength and courage to save himself and those he loves that he can still save.

Then begins right after Once. Felix and Zelda are on the run from the Nazis. They both know the truth about their parents and now believe the only way to survive is to find new parents. With a few more shocking discoveries about what the Nazis are capable of, a kind woman finds the children and brings them into her home, dyes their hair and passes them off as her niece and nephew. It sounds easy enough, but when Felix makes an enemy out of a town bully, he has to be extra careful not to be caught with his pants down (literally). With the Nazis always around, Felix knows that even with the help of a friend in the Hitler Youth, the only way to protect his loved ones is to leave, but can he save them before it's too late?

Now jumps about 70 years and changes narrators. Now the story is about Felix's granddaughter Zelda (obviously named after his childhood friend). She's living with Felix in Australia while her parents are saving lives in Africa. As the new girl in school, she suddenly becomes the target of bullying, a fact that Felix is extremely sensitive about. All of that gets put aside, though, when a horrible bushfire starts and threatens to destroy the town, forcing Zelda to be brave like her namesake.

The first two books have an amazing voice. Felix is only ten and believes in storytelling and how with the right story anything is possible. His naivety is so believable you feel horrible that he's experiencing all of this without realizing the severity. The first two books just have so much emotion that you get sucked in and cannot put it down. You are one with these characters to the point that I was yelling at the second book when certain events took place. They are powerful and what's nice is that they are a really quick read. It's great storytelling to get in that emotion in under 200 pages. Something gets lost in the third book, however. The voice isn't as strong in the third book. The story didn't draw me in as easily as the first two books, quite possibly because it didn't have the back story of the Holocaust to have this constant threat to the characters. It did pick up when the bushfire started, which is based on Australia's Victorian Bushfires of 2009. Maybe there is something to be said about background knowledge when reading books because I knew nothing about those fires so I had no connection to that storyline whereas I do know about the Holocaust so I was able to connect more to those books. That's not to say that the third book doesn't have it's positives. When the fires start the story gets bumped up a notch. Zelda also does have a unique voice - she really wants to please her grandfather and is a bit paranoid, which is why she desperately wants to be brave like the original Zelda. She's just not as strong a character or storyteller as Felix.

I really enjoyed this series, especially the first two novels. All of the books are under 200 pages so they're all quick reads but with a lot of depth. The third book is the only one that seems to lack something but this is definitely a series that should be read.
MMK