Children Of The Slaughter:Young People of the Holocaust

by Ted Gottfried

An addition to a well-researched series tells the stories of the youngest victims of the Holocaust, including Jews and other victims of the Nazis, as well as the Hitler Youth, themselves exploited by power-hungry adults.

Genres: Holocaust

112 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2001

Reviews

[Trixi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a nice job of covering various topics that lead up to the Holocaust, what happened during and then after, while focusing on how children were affected. It also relates how some of the very things that attributed to the Holocaust still exist today and why it is so important for people to be taught about the Holocaust. This teen book first starts the antisemitism that was prevalent in Europe before the war, how Hitler used youth to his advantage and how those who were being persecuted were treated and how the Nuremberg laws were enacted. It then moves into a chapter on the Hitler Youth and a chapter on Jewish children and the childhoods they lost. Moving forward, there is a chapter on the Final Solution and various aspects of that solution including the transports and camps. After that, there is a chapter on the survivors, what they did, how they were treated and how hard it was for them to find refuge in other countries. Another talks about how the various generations after the war dealt with the events of the Holocaust--whether it was discussed or not, how the various groups deal with the events and even how it is viewed today. Throughout the book, quotes from primary sources are included. I feel that this book does a pretty decent job of hitting all the components that made up the Holocaust, but it is truly an overview and will not overwhelm the reader with lots of in depth information. There is a bibliography included that will allow the reader to learn more about any of the topics that they may be interested in.

[Ralph · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short (<100 pages) account of the horrors endured by Jews, mainly focused on the children as evidenced by the title, before, during and after WWII.

How can this have happened?; Did it happen at all?; What do the survivors, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of the Jews as well as the non-Jewish Germans Poles, French, Dutch, Austrian, and even US handle the reality of the Holocaust?

At times difficult to read due to the descriptions of what people had to face yet ultimately hopeful in looking forward to an understanding of what occurred and obtaining and how to move past the prejudices of the past.