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asourceoffiction's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Iturbe says in an afterword to the book that the facts and history are the bricks in his story, and the fiction is the mortar that he uses to hold it all together. I think this is an important distinction from some other fictional Auschwitz stories, which have been found to have more inaccuracies and controversy regarding "sensationalising" people's real stories. That's not to say that keeping the reality alive isn't important (which it so obviously is), but this book handles the information as sensitively as I think it's possible to do with anything that includes fiction.
The idea of using books for a sense of escape or normality even at the very worst moments of humanity is incredibly humbling. And the "living books" on offer come so close to creating beauty in this bleak landscape. That there are more books on offer than the physical ones in Dita's meagre library, thanks to the vivid memories of some of the teachers and their retellings of popular stories. It's astonishing the lengths adults (and older children like Dita) would go to in order to give the younger prisoners opportunities and education.
Of course the emotion is so raw throughout, as the dates and the number of dead are all taken from accurate records. It's a really difficult book but gives as much information as it can about what happened to all of the people mentioned after the events of the story. The biographies at the end are fascinating - in particular it was astonishing to me how long Joseph Mengele was able to evade capture and live a relatively normal life, after the atrocities he committed and oversaw. I think because of all that it's an important book for keeping stories alive for all the victims, whether they survived or not.
The idea of using books for a sense of escape or normality even at the very worst moments of humanity is incredibly humbling. And the "living books" on offer come so close to creating beauty in this bleak landscape. That there are more books on offer than the physical ones in Dita's meagre library, thanks to the vivid memories of some of the teachers and their retellings of popular stories. It's astonishing the lengths adults (and older children like Dita) would go to in order to give the younger prisoners opportunities and education.
Of course the emotion is so raw throughout, as the dates and the number of dead are all taken from accurate records. It's a really difficult book but gives as much information as it can about what happened to all of the people mentioned after the events of the story. The biographies at the end are fascinating - in particular it was astonishing to me how long Joseph Mengele was able to evade capture and live a relatively normal life, after the atrocities he committed and oversaw. I think because of all that it's an important book for keeping stories alive for all the victims, whether they survived or not.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Death, Death of parent, Antisemitism, Genocide, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, War, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Murder, Hate crime, and Deportation
sowski's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, War, Violence, Torture, Death of parent, and Antisemitism
booksbyashleigh's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Racial slurs, Genocide, and Racism
chronicallyplotting's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This book was… It’s hard to put into words how powerful this book and the characters are. Such an amazing story; full of heart ache and truth behind real people who literally survived hell.
You know a book is amazing when you become invested and feel at times as if you are with the characters. I cried, I found myself gasping when things were revealed, I had to put my cheez-its down because i couldn’t eat while some parts where explained. This is a must read for everyone. History repeats itself, and education is a powerful weapon; the Nazis’ knew this and tried to destroy knowledge and truth.
You know a book is amazing when you become invested and feel at times as if you are with the characters. I cried, I found myself gasping when things were revealed, I had to put my cheez-its down because i couldn’t eat while some parts where explained. This is a must read for everyone. History repeats itself, and education is a powerful weapon; the Nazis’ knew this and tried to destroy knowledge and truth.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
inkell's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Excrement, Genocide, and Xenophobia
ems_rxlibrary's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This book was beautifully written and a haunting tale of rebellion even when your life is on the line.
Dita and her mother were a couple of the prisoners in Block 31 in Auschwitz. This block in particular was set up to try and fool the world that these camps were not death camps, so the children had a barrack where they would go every day and play with the other children. Even though it was forbidden, some books were smuggled in and it became Dita’s job to protect and hide them.
I was hooked from the foreword, honestly. The author told Dita before they parted, “Everyone knows about the largest library in the world. But I am going to write about the smallest library in the world and its librarian.”
I could tell how much time and effort this author put into researching this novel.
I did feel like the novel suffered a little from the shifting POVs. Sometimes it was from one paragraph to the next with no break to let you know that we were shifting to another POV, so it was easy to get lost at times, but it was still worth it.
This book made my list of must read books about the holocaust! So good. If you are a lover of historical fiction and a lover of books, I can’t imagine that you won’t like this.
Dita and her mother were a couple of the prisoners in Block 31 in Auschwitz. This block in particular was set up to try and fool the world that these camps were not death camps, so the children had a barrack where they would go every day and play with the other children. Even though it was forbidden, some books were smuggled in and it became Dita’s job to protect and hide them.
I was hooked from the foreword, honestly. The author told Dita before they parted, “Everyone knows about the largest library in the world. But I am going to write about the smallest library in the world and its librarian.”
I could tell how much time and effort this author put into researching this novel.
I did feel like the novel suffered a little from the shifting POVs. Sometimes it was from one paragraph to the next with no break to let you know that we were shifting to another POV, so it was easy to get lost at times, but it was still worth it.
This book made my list of must read books about the holocaust! So good. If you are a lover of historical fiction and a lover of books, I can’t imagine that you won’t like this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Hate crime, Homophobia, Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, and Torture
Moderate: Death of parent and War
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment
lauramcc7's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, War, Racism, Murder, Hate crime, Antisemitism, Excrement, Homophobia, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, and Suicide
delz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
It must not be an easy task to write a respectful yet entertaining Holocaust story, but The Librarian of Auschwitz is one such novel. The framework of the story is based on a real Jewish girl, Dita Kraus who was 9 years old when the Nazis started their “final solution.” As a 15 year old, Dita became the Librarian of Auschwitz’s, very secret makeshift library that held 8 books. She was part of a secret school in the only camp that housed children, The Family Camp. It was a “front,” so that if a humanitarian group like the Red Cross were to do inspections the Nazis would show this camp where, they believed they were treating the inmates well. Many times survival was just a matter of chance, but on occasion if you were very clever you could workout a way to survive another day. While people lost faith in god and even their fellow man, someone would come along and surprise Dita in their humanity. This is a powerful story of strength and love, love of family and the power of friendship.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Confinement, Genocide, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Antisemitism, Body horror, Death, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Excrement, Hate crime, Murder, and War
mjwilliamson's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
I enjoyed this book, though saying that makes me feel weird. It was very sad and thought provoking. The idea that these were real people, a real place and real stories was probably the most terrifying thing about it all. But that was also what kept me engaged. I needed to know what happened to these people through it all. Their surroundings were so desolate and depressing that it, in a way, made it feel like I needed to protect them. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Excrement, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Murder, and Racial slurs
enmcurrie's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This was such a powerful and beautiful book. It wasn’t without flaws, but that didn’t matter. The core of the story carried all the way through. The pace is quite slow but it definitely picks up towards the end, and the last 100 pages are definitely the most harrowing. While at times it was a little hard to completely follow along, everything threaded together by the end to create such a bittersweet storyline. It’s based on this young girl, Dita Kraus, or Dita Adler in the book, who ends up running this secret little “library” made up of 8 old books in Aushwitz, in a makeshift Jewish family camp, set up by the Nazis as a front to cover up the atrocious mass murdering they were doing from any visiting foreign representatives. Many of Dita’s peers and Dita herself do end up being transferred or moved around later on though. In the background of the plot, the book also follows a couple of young men in the SS (also real people) who manage to escape Aushwitz and its horrors.
What was so emotive about this book is how of all these poor people (from children to elderly), in the most dire and horrific of circumstances, could find happiness in the smallest of things. I also loved the message that humans simply surviving is not enough, and that we need things like literature to keep humanity alive, hence why 8 old and tattered books in a place as awful as Aushwitz-Birkenau was so important. It was incredibly sad and heart-wrenching throughout, and hard to read at times. The vivid imagery of the concentration camps and the novel’s use of free indirect speech allowing you into the other characters’ thought processes made it incredibly compelling, and knowing that so many of them don’t end up with the freedom they deserve is the worst part. I think it’s a wonderful read and all of the characters were great, but Dita will most definitely stay with me for a long time. I’m very glad she could tell her story, she’s truly remarkable. The ending was beautiful. It left you feeling incredibly sad for all the loss Dita had faced, but incredibly relieved and content that she achieved all that she did.
What was so emotive about this book is how of all these poor people (from children to elderly), in the most dire and horrific of circumstances, could find happiness in the smallest of things. I also loved the message that humans simply surviving is not enough, and that we need things like literature to keep humanity alive, hence why 8 old and tattered books in a place as awful as Aushwitz-Birkenau was so important. It was incredibly sad and heart-wrenching throughout, and hard to read at times. The vivid imagery of the concentration camps and the novel’s use of free indirect speech allowing you into the other characters’ thought processes made it incredibly compelling, and knowing that so many of them don’t end up with the freedom they deserve is the worst part. I think it’s a wonderful read and all of the characters were great, but Dita will most definitely stay with me for a long time. I’m very glad she could tell her story, she’s truly remarkable. The ending was beautiful. It left you feeling incredibly sad for all the loss Dita had faced, but incredibly relieved and content that she achieved all that she did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Death, War, and Torture
Moderate: Slavery, Medical content, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Suicide