Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide. Get started Close Not only is the novel as powerful as any novel from this era is, it also holds a special power. It spreads the love and passion of books that only those with a true adoration can admire. Dita is a spectacular character, brave and compassionate, but also stubborn and caring. Based on a real person, Dita is someone a reader can easily root for.

By 1941 they were evicted again from the rented flat where they lived with her grandparents. By now they were squashed into a room in an apartment shared by another family in the part of the city which in the past had been the Jewish ghetto. Adults are corrupted. That's why young people are so important. You can still shape them, improve them.” Life, any life, is very short. But if you've managed to be happy for at least an instant, it will have been worth living.”Los libros guardan dentro de sus páginas la sabiduría de quien los escribió. Los libros nunca pierden la memoria.” It wasn't an extensive library. In fact, it consisted of eight books and some of them were in poor condition. But they were books. In this incredibly dark place, they were a reminder of less sombre times, when words rang out more loudly than machine guns...' Os livros conservam nas suas páginas a sabedoria de quem os escreveu. Os livros nunca perdem a memória.” 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.”

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. Dita’s father Hans died of starvation at the camp aged 44. In July 1944, Dita and her mother were among 1000 women sent by Mengele to a work camp in Hamburg. From there she was sent to Bergen-Belsen. “Even without gas chambers, the camp was a horrific killing machine, where the starving prisoners died by the thousands.” Violence: Nazis beat men, women, and children; deaths due to illness and starvation; constant fear and threats from soldiers and Nazi doctor (Mengele) 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.

In the following months Dita found a home with her friend Margit in the spa town of Tepice. Otto wrote to her every day. A year after they had first bumped into each other he said: “Why don’t you come to Prague? I can’t love you from a distance.” They married in 1947. But Dita's passion for learning and books shone through and despite the immediate danger she accepts the position.

The Librarian of Auschwitz graphic novel is based on an adult title of the same name. The topic is difficult, as are some of the illustrations, but this book is great for high school libraries. The illustrations are historically-accurate to life in concentration camps and help underscore how desperate life in Auschwitz was. Highly-recommended for Grades 8+. 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. 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.

Like Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, it’s a sophisticated novel with mature themes, delivering an emotionally searing reading experience. An important novel that will stand with other powerful testaments from the Holocaust era." — Booklist, starred review, on The Librarian of Auschwitz This graphic novel is the same story as the novel by the same name and written by Antonio Iturbe, so I'm not going to summarize it again. Suffice it to say it is the story of teenage Dita Adlerova, who was first sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia with her parents and other Jews, and who were all later transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau. There, they were living in a separate area of Birkenau, called BIIb and referred to as the Theresienstadt Family Camp. These Jewish prisoners were allowed to keep their clothing and their hair wasn't shaved, though living conditions were still as deplorable as in other parts of Auschwitz. If you haven't read the novel, you can read what I originally wrote HERE. The novel is a big book but one that is totally worth spending time with, IMHO. 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. Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this graphic novel tells the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust. overall, not quite the execution i would have like from this, but still a really important story that i am grateful was told.

Iturbe includes a moving postscript which explains his reason for writing the book and his meeting with the woman that inspired this story, Dita herself, who is still as strong, outspoken and passionate in her eighties as she was as a young girl. Holocaust, Nazis, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Auschwitz, books, book banning, censorship, oppression, fear, death of both parents, librarians In a place like Auschwitz, where everything is designed to make you cry, a smile is an act of defiance.” Conocemos a Dita cuando tiene 14 años y ve que su mundo se empieza a desmoronar. La llegada de los nazis a Checoslovaquia y sus acciones para someter a los judíos harán que pase de tener una infancia normal a acabar en el infierno. Al igual que muchas otras personas, ella y sus padres son obligados a portar marcas que les señalan como judíos y se ven sumergidos en una situación de terror e incertidumbre. El futuro es incierto e intentar sobrevivir cada día es el único plan que se puede tener. Tras ser obligados a vivir en un gueto, acaban siendo trasladados a Auschwitz. Y nada volverá a ser igual. Aunque no entienden muy bien el motivo, Dita y su madre acaban en un barracón en el que las condiciones son ligeramente menos deplorables que en los demás. Y es ahí donde su amor por los libros la ayudará a convertirse en la bibliotecaria de Auschwitz...She told us of the carefree childhood she’d had in a secular home. Until she was eight she didn’t even know she was Jewish. “When I was in second grade, I found a piece of paper on my desk with the words, ‘You are a Jew’. I went home and asked: ‘Mum, what is a Jew?’ She explained that people have different religions, Christians, Protestants and Jews in Czechoslovakia. I said: ‘And we are Jews?’ The answer was a simple ‘yes’.” As a summarized version of the novel, it did incredibly well at introducing some really complex characters and stories that have me immediately adding the full length to my TBR.