The Librarian of Auschwitz: The heart-breaking Sunday Times bestseller based on the incredible true story of Dita Kraus

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Told with all the horror of their lives and yet with a tenderness, love, and hope for the future that books often provide, this was a wonderful story that highlighted the courage of many especially that of a young fourteen year old child.

Families can talk about how The Librarian of Auschwitz uses the comics medium to tell its story. How might the storytelling change in another medium? Inspections are another matter altogether. Lines must be formed, and searches are carried out. Sometimes the youngest children are interrogated, the guards hoping to take advantage of their innocence to pry information out of them. They are unsuccessful. Even the youngest children understand more than their snot-covered little faces might suggest. Dita Strauss was a mere fourteen years old when she and her parents arrived at Auschwitz. They were assigned to the family camp and as all were assigned to work, Dita went to work in the school. There she meets Freddy Hirsch, the Jewish leader in charge of the children of Auschwitz. He gives her an assignment. She is to be the protector of books that have been hidden. Dita is only fourteen and yet she strives to do her job as the books are a link to a world of sanity. She secrets the books away as she carries them to others. Fourteen year old Dita is imprisoned with her family in an Auschwitz concentration camp. When she is asked by a Jewish leader to take on the role of handling the books for the makeshift school, Dita immediately agrees. Books are hard to come by, as many of them have been burned and deemed ‘blasphemous’ and ‘against the Fuhrer’, so Dita knows the job is a dangerous one. But her love of books and the joy she knows they can spread to others surpasses her fears.Os livros conservam nas suas páginas a sabedoria de quem os escreveu. Os livros nunca perdem a memória.” I love that books are precious. We are facing censorship in the USA, where some individuals, groups, and politicians are pushing to censor or ban books from schools. While this has always happened to some extent, the increase of it is alarming to those of us who value the freedom to read. Meter todos los millones de kilómetros cuadrados de mares, de bosques, todas las cordilleras de la Tierra, todos los ríos, las ciudades y todos los países en un espacio tan minúsculo era un milagro sólo al alcance de un libro.” I highly recommend this book, it is the story of Dita Kraus but It is also a story of survival. This book has shown how books can be a little beacon of Hope and escape from an awful situation.

So Dita’s story will be an important one for teachers and school librarians. This graphic novel is based on an adult novel, which I already put on-hold in OverDrive. I’m excited to read the full novel version of Dita’s story. This story is based on real history, from the holocaust survivor who became the main character in this book. I understand that this graphic novel is only potraying a small friction of the novel, let alone the real event. But oh God, horrible is an understatement. I can't imagine that atrocity really happened in the past, and the idea of the terror they had to endure saddened me. however, i found the story of dita to be very encouraging. as a fellow bookworm, its quite heartening to read about how books were the source of her courage, inspiration, and escape. i thought the epilogue, author postscript, and 'what happened to…' sections at the end were highly redeeming, so much so that i feel justified enough to round up my rating. these sections are the personalisation and connection i so desperately needed to these people and story, so it is a shame that it came so late in the book. In due course she gets selected to manage a small library in the camp ( in hiding of course ). Joseph Mengele is shown in the graphic novel and is as horrible as we know him to be. He somehow lets her out his radar and when the war ends she is relieved to be free. Her Father unfortunately falls ill and dies while in the camp.

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Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this is the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust. La real historia de Dita Dorachova una niña de 14 años que durante su encierro en el campo de concentración de Aushwitz, arriesgo su vida para convertirse en la guardiana de 8 libros que eran utilizados en el pabellón 31 para enseñar, entretener o distraer a los niños durante el infierno nazi.

La lectura te mantiene en vilo en todo momento y, a pesar de que Dita es prácticamente una niña, su relato no es infantil. Tiene cierta inocencia que es acorde a su edad y a sus circunstancias, pero se va viendo cómo se ve obligada a madurar a la fuerza y a hacer frente a la tragedia, a la muerte, a la búsqueda de la esperanza cuando todo parece perdido, al miedo a confiar en la persona inadecuada, etc. Lo de su papel como bibliotecaria en medio de tanta desolación es un pequeño detalle dentro de la trama, algo que le da un toque de ternura a un lugar lleno de oscuridad.

It took a few chapters to get that ‘hooked’ feeling...(part of it might’ve been my mental debate)....I’ve owned the ebook since it was released - but when one has read as many books about the holocaust as I have ( as many of us have)....we begin to tiptoe cautiously —

While waiting for the quarantine to be lifted so they could return to Prague, Dita’s mother became ill on June 27 1945. She died two days later, leaving her daughter an orphan, a few weeks short of her sixteenth birthday. There are those who might think that this was an act of useless bravery in an extermination camp when there were other, more pressing concerns-- books don't cure illnesses; they can't be used as weapons to defeat an army of executioners; they don't fill your stomach or quench your thirst. It's true: culture isn't necessary for the survival of mankind; for that, you only need bread and water. It's also true that with bread to eat and water to drink, humans survive; but with only this, humanity dies. If human beings aren't deeply moved by beauty, if they don't close their eyes and activate their imaginations, if they aren't capable of asking themselves questions and discerning the limits of their ignorance, then they are men or women, but they are not complete persons.”

Who knew that a family unit existed at Birkeneau? For what purpose would such a unit exist??? In an environment in which people are being killed daily and survival rate is low, unit 31 provided at least a small portion of the prisoners with a moment to disconnect with their reality. Books - a contraband punishable by death - are used to teach the children in unit 31, to escape the harsh reality and feel a sense of normalcy. Dita, a 14-year-old girl, arrives at the family compound and is given the risky yet prestigious job as librarian at the secret school. The SS are unaware of the library's existence so everyday brings the risk of discovery; yet Dita would have it no other way. To her, books are a saviour and a reason to keep fighting and living. What other books or movies about the Holocaust have you read or watched? Why is it important to remember and learn about this period in history? She has featured in books herself. Alberto Manguel mentioned her “clandestine children’s library” in his book about the great libraries of the world. This piqued the interest of Spanish writer Antonio Iturbe who wrote The Librarian of Auschwitz, a semi-fictionalised version of Dita’s story, based on many conversations. An English translation is now available, published a few months ago. The strongest athlete isn’t the one who finishes first. That athlete is the fastest. The strongest athlete is the one who gets up again every time he falls, the one who doesn’t stop when he feels a pain in his side, the one who doesn’t abandon the race, no matter how far away the finish line is. That runner is a winner whenever he reaches the finish line, even if he comes in last.”