Holocaust Literature

We talk a lot about holocaust literature around here, mostly because we (perhaps morbidly?) really enjoy reading about it.  There are probably three major types of that you can pick up about it.

Memoirs

We've read a lot of memoirs.  They're first hand accounts of the things that go on. The Diary of Anne Frank is probably one of the most well known first hand accounts.  I've also talked about The Girl in the Red Coat and, while Maus isn't a first hand account technically, it's someone taking down a first hand account of what happened almost word for word.  You get a lot of memoirs in holocaust fiction.  In fact, it's probably the most prevalent, probably because a lot of people I think need to get their experiences out of them.  They need to get it down on paper and let people know what happened.




Non-Fiction text

These are essentially like history books.  Biographies or just general history books.  Anything that tells about the time, but isn't a first hand account of what happened.  They tell about what's going on, but they aren't through anyone's eyes.  They stick to the facts.  They are (supposed to be) unemotional and unbiased.  Schindler's List is a good example of this.  While the book is mostly about Schindler and what he did, it tells you a lot about what went on in the time period and during the war.

Fiction

These are books that give us fictional accounts, but still relate the horrors of what happened during the time period.  Our book this week, Once, is a good example of that.  The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is also a good example of that, and rare because it's told from the German side of things, from a very innocent point of view.  The stories are a little more embellished, but often based on things that actually happened.