The Librarian of Auschwitz

Along with Elie Wiesel's Night, this is one of the few books about the Holocaust that views it through the eyes of a teenager. Reader's are drawn inside what has become normal daily life for Dita -- standing for hours in freezing cold to be inspected by the guards, dead bodies carried away from her barracks like so much trash, hunger that never goes away, the senseless brutality of the guards. Inside the novel's front and back covers are aerial photographs of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp taken in August and September 1944 that show the locations of the gas chambers, prisoner barracks, guard towers, and crematorium. So readers can put a face to the librarian of Block 31, a photo of a teenage Dita Kraus (wearing a sweater with a yellow star) is included in her letter to readers at the beginning of the book.

Filled with acts of kindness, generosity, and bravery from characters living in circumstances that could easily have led them to make choices that would benefit only themselves. Parents give up their own incredibly meager rations (a crust of bread as dinner) so their children will have even a tiny bit of extra food. Although it's forbidden, prisoners organize and teach at a secret school for the children. Small gifts are given: a precious piece of soap and a celery stick. Dita and her friends encourage and support one another -- something that sounds so simple but demands an incredible amount of emotional strength. At only 14, Dita could easily have declared herself too young to be the librarian, but she fearlessly took on the responsibility.

It's mentioned that some women prisoners will trade sex for extra food for themselves or their children. One woman is groped and fondled by a guard.