Heroes of the Holocaust: True Stories of Rescues by Teens

Author: Allan Zullo & Mara Bovsun
Recommended Age: 12 +
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0-439-67608-8
Year Published: 2005
No. Pages: 183
Genre: Informational
Main Character Gender: Mixed
Read & Reviewed by: Nicole


 
Do stories about the holocaust capture your attention and heart? Would you want to read a book about real teens rescuers who help others escape harm?

The Heroes of the Holocaust includes the stories of six teens who live in different parts of Europe such like France, Denmark, Poland, and Holland and risk their lives to save innocent people during World War II. Some almost lost their lives and everything they had, to save the lives of others.
 
One that particularly touched me was the story was Maria Andzlem. She was a Catholic teenager growing up in Nazi-occupied Poland. Maria’s friend and neighbors were hauled away to an undisclosed location, never to be seen or heard from again. Maria’s family took in two Jewish men. Her family hid them in a box under the barn, Everyday, for two years, Maria brought them food and water as well as books. Maria kept them hidden and alive so the Nazis don’t find them and send them to a concentration camp.

If you read Maria’s amazing story, as well as these of the five others teenagers, You will be as inspired as I was. I am more polite to different people no matter where they’re from or what religious beliefs they hold.

What I like about this book is how the authors Zullo and Bovsun weaved in information that was sad and nearly moved me to tears. For example, the shocking reality that six million people were killed for their religious beliefs and six million as they were murdered or died from starvation. I really liked how Zullo and Bovsun put the teenagers thoughts and letters in italics so that the reader knew what was quoted directly from the teens.

Zullo and Bovsun interviewd these heroic teenagers and wrote their stories using first person narrative so I experienced these acts of courage with them. Reading a first person narrative enabled me to see more than some history lesson and gave me a more personal perspective. As I was reading this book, I was shocked at these stories and found it difficult to believe people suffered so much. I felt sad that the Nazis took the kids and adults away to be locked up simply for their religious beliefs. It also made me angry towards the Nazis and how they treated the Jewish people so horribly.

I rated this book nine out of ten because of how powerful the stories were. The description used in the stories brought me into the story so that I felt like I was there. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a quick read that will pull at your heart strings but teach you about the Holocaust.