Moments in History: World War II, the Holocaust, and Japanese Internment

Prisoner of night and fog / Anne Blankman

In 1930s Munich, the favorite niece of rising political leader Adolph Hitler is torn between duty and love after meeting a fearless and handsome young Jewish reporter.

The boy who dared / Susan Campbell Bartoletti

In October 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hübener, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people.

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I am David / Anne Holm ; translated from the Danish by L.W. Kingsland

After escaping from an east European concentration camp where he has spent most of his life, a twelve-year-old boy struggles to cope with a strange world as he flees northward to freedom in Denmark.

This light between us : a novel of World War II / Andrew Fukuda

In 1935, ten-year-old Alex Maki of Bainbridge Island, Washington, is horrified to discover that his new pen pal, Charlie Lévy of Paris, France, is a girl, but in spite of his initial reluctance, their letters continue over the years and they fight for their friendship even as Charlie endures the Nazi occupation and Alex leaves his family in an internment camp to join the Army.

Whistling in the dark / Shirley Hughes

Thirteen-year-old Joan's home is under constant threat from the Nazis' terrifying nightly air raids. Everyone is on edge, faced with strict food rationing, curfews, and blackouts. It's not an easy time to be a teenager. Even more unsettling, as the Blitz worsens, Joan and her friends make a discovery down by the old mill that will tear the whole community apart.

The librarian of Auschwitz / Antonio Iturbe ; translated by Lilit Žekulin Thwaites

Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious volumes the prisoners have managed to sneak past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the librarian of Auschwitz.

We are not free / Traci Chee

For fourteen-year-old budding artist Minoru Ito, her two brothers, her friends, and the other members of the Japanese-American community in southern California, the three months since Pearl Harbor was attacked have become a waking nightmare. They’ve been attacked, spat on, and abused with no way to retaliate and now things are about to get worse. Their lives will forever change by the mass incarcerations in the relocation camps.

When the world was ours / Liz Kessler

Three young friends-Leo, Elsa, and Max-spend a perfect day together, unaware that around them Europe is descending into a growing darkness and that they will soon be cruelly ripped apart from one another. With their lives taking them across Europe-to Germany, England, Prague, and Poland-will they ever find their way back to one another? Will they want to?

They called us enemy : written by George Takei, Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott ; art by Harmony Becker

Actor/author/activist George Takei revisits his haunting childhood in American concentration camps, as one of 120,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned by the U.S. government during World War II.

The blossom and the firefly / Sherri L. Smith

In 1945 Japan, Taro, a talented kamikaze pilot, believes he is ready to die for his country until he meets fifteen-year-old war worker Hana. Hana hasn't been the same since the day she was buried alive in a collapsed trench during a bomb raid. She wonders if it would have been better to have died that day until she meets Taro.

Within these lines / Stephanie Morrill

Italian-American Evalina and Japanese-American Taichi's vow to be together, although interracial marriage is illegal in 1941 San Francisco, is tested when Taichi's family is sent to Manzanar internment camp.

The Enigma game / Elizabeth Wein

Told in multiple voices, fifteen-year-old Jamaican Louisa Adair uncovers an Enigma machine in the small Scottish village where she cares for an elderly German woman, and helps solve a puzzle that could turn the tide of World War II.

Infinite hope : a black artist's journey from World War II to peace / Ashley Bryan

Tells the true life story of artist Ashley Bryan's experience as a Black soldier in the segregated army of WWII.

Alias Anna : Zhanna Arshanskaya: a biography in verse : a true story of outwitting the Nazis / Susan Hood with Greg Dawson

An inspirational nonfiction novel-in-verse about Zhanna Arshanskaya, a young Ukrainian Jewish girl using the alias Anna, whose phenomenal piano-playing skills saved her life and the life of her sister, Frina, during the Holocaust.

Flowers in the gutter : the true story of the Edelweiss Pirates, teenagers who resisted the Nazis / K.R. Gaddy

The Edelweiss Pirates were a loosely organized group of working-class young people in the Rhine Valley of Germany. They faced off with Nazis during the Third Reich and suffered consequences for their resistance during and after World War II.

Atomic women : the untold stories of the scientists who helped create the nuclear bomb / Roseanne Montillo

Meet the World War II female scientists who worked in the secret sites of the Manhattan Project. Recruited not only from labs and universities from across the United States but also from countries abroad, these scientists helped in the development of the atomic bomb, taking starring roles in the Manhattan Project.

Rose under fire / Elizabeth Wein

When young American pilot Rose Justice is captured by Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious women's concentration camp, she finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery, and friendship of her fellow prisoners.

When can we go back to America? : voices of Japanese American incarceration during WWII / Susan H. Kamei ; forward by Secretary Norman Y. Mineta

A narrative history of Japanese Americans before, during and after their World War II incarceration, including the voices and stories of over 130 individuals who lived through this episode, most of them as young adults.

Uprooted : the Japanese American experience during World War II / Albert Marrin

The American government rounded up over 100,000 Japanese American citizens based on nothing more than their ancestry and, suspicious of their loyalty, kept them in concentration camps for the better part of four years.

Spearhead : an American tank gunner, his enemy, and a collision of lives in World War II, adapted for Young Adults / Adam Makos

The story of a World War II tank platoon and the gentle soldier behind the immortalized film footage of history's iconic duel at the great cathedral in Cologne.

Moments in History: World War II, the Holocaust, and Japanese Internment

Prisoner of night and fog / Anne Blankman

The boy who dared / Susan Campbell Bartoletti

I am David / Anne Holm ; translated from the Danish by L.W. Kingsland

This light between us : a novel of World War II / Andrew Fukuda

Whistling in the dark / Shirley Hughes

The librarian of Auschwitz / Antonio Iturbe ; translated by Lilit Žekulin Thwaites

We are not free / Traci Chee

When the world was ours / Liz Kessler

They called us enemy : written by George Takei, Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott ; art by Harmony Becker

The blossom and the firefly / Sherri L. Smith

Within these lines / Stephanie Morrill

The Enigma game / Elizabeth Wein

Infinite hope : a black artist’s journey from World War II to peace / Ashley Bryan

Alias Anna : Zhanna Arshanskaya: a biography in verse : a true story of outwitting the Nazis / Susan Hood with Greg Dawson

Flowers in the gutter : the true story of the Edelweiss Pirates, teenagers who resisted the Nazis / K.R. Gaddy

Atomic women : the untold stories of the scientists who helped create the nuclear bomb / Roseanne Montillo

Rose under fire / Elizabeth Wein

When can we go back to America? : voices of Japanese American incarceration during WWII / Susan H. Kamei ; forward by Secretary Norman Y. Mineta

Uprooted : the Japanese American experience during World War II / Albert Marrin

Spearhead : an American tank gunner, his enemy, and a collision of lives in World War II, adapted for Young Adults / Adam Makos

Book List: Moments in History: World War II, the Holocaust, and Japanese Internment

Sachem Public Library

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Moments in History: World War II, the Holocaust, and Japanese Internment

Book List: Moments in History: World War II, the Holocaust, and Japanese Internment

Sachem Public Library