Chuck's Choice - Vincent's Choice - Your Suggestions

We have received several messages from visitors asking for more documentation about the Holocaust. It is impossible for us to cover all the aspects of the Holocaust in this site. You'll find in this list all the books we own on this subject. Even if these books are not covering everything about the Holocaust, they will certainly give a person a pretty good understanding of what the Holocaust was all about.

If you want, feel free to contact us if you think a book should be added to the list.

Note: most of these books were published in the U.S.A. Titles are in alphabetical order.

• Abe's Story: A Holocaust Memoir A True Story by Abraham Korn Survivor of Nazi Death Camps
• Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth by Gita Sereny
• Atlas of the Holocaust By Martin Gilbert (any Holocaust books by Gilbert are good)
• Auschwitz By Dr. Miklos Nyiszli (A Doctor's Eyewitness Account)
• Belsen in History and Memory, edited by: Jo Reilly, Tony Kushner, David Cesarani, Colin Richmand. Published in 1997 by Frank Cass & Co.LTD
• Denying the Holocaust By Debora Lipstadt
• Eichmann Interrogated: Transcripts of The Israeli Police Edited by Jochen Von Lang
• Elder of the Jews By Ruth Bondy (this really shows how the Nazis and SS worked to rid Europe of Jews, also the best story about the camp: Theresienstadt One of my favorites).
• Hitler's Willing Executioners... By Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (ordinary Germans and the Holocaust) Deniers don't like this book, but for me it is entirely credible. From experience and by research.
• Holocaust Journey: by Martin Gilbert Traveling in Search of the Past. Published 1997
• I am a Star: Child of the Holocaust A True Story by Inge Auerbacher Survivor of Theresienstadt
• Inside the Vicious Heart By Robert H. Abzug (Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps).
• KL Auschwitz (seen by the SS) Rudolf Hoss...Pery Broad...Johann Kremer Hoss, Commandant of Auschwitz Autobiography, Broad, SS officer working for Hoss, Kremer, SS worked for Hoss. (This may be difficult to find. I bought mine at Auschwitz)
• Ordinary Men (reserve police battalion 101 and the final solution in Poland). By Christopher R. Browning
• Perpetrators Victims Bystanders (the Jewish Catastrophe 1933-1945) By Raul Hilberg
• Tapestry of Hope: A True Story by Alice Kern Survivor of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen
• The Good Old Days (The Holocaust as seen by it's Perpetrators and Bystanders) Ernst Klee, Willi Dressen, and Volkers, editors....Forward By Hugh Trevor
• The Holocaust (a history of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War) By Martin Gilbert
• The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry by Leni Yahil
• The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry 1933-1945 by Nora Levin
• The Last Sunrise: by Harold Gordon A Survivor of Nazi Death Camps
• The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (complete and unabridged). By William L. Shirer
• The Secretary: Martin Bormann, The Man Who Manipulated Hitler by Jochen Von Lang
• The Theory and Practice of Hell By Eugen Kogon (how the SS and camps worked.) Very Good!
• What If: Edited by Harold Deutsch and Dennis E. Showalter Strategic Alternatives of WW-II
• Why my Father Died By Annette Kahn (Daughter of Robert Kahn, a famous French Freedom Fighter killed by Klaus Barbie ) Good because it shows the Freedom Fighters, and Barbies Trial and crimes.

Note: the original French titles are in red. A star means that the book has also been published in English (you'll find some of them in the previous section "Chuck's choice"). In this case, I have tried to give the original English title.

• * Le Troisième Reich ("The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich") by William L. Shirer., Livre de Poche: certainly one of the best book you could read about the history of the Third Reich.
• * La chute de la IIIème République ("The Fall of the Third French Republic") by William L. Shirer, Stock, collection Pluriel. It is a excellent investigation over the reasons of the French defeat in 1940.
• * Adolf Hitler ("Hitler, a study in tyranny") by Alan Bullock, Marabout Université: a perfect complement to William L. Shirer's book "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich".
• Le dossier Hitler by Frederic V. Grunfeld, Robert Lafont: A big book published in 1974. It cover the history of the nazism from 1919 to 1945. Also contains several documents and rare color photos about Hitler's private life.
• La Montée du Nazisme by Christian Bernadac, France-Empire (série "Le glaive et les bourreaux): excellent book! It shows how the German industry has helped Hitler in his rise.
• * Au coeur du Troisième Reich ("Inside the Third Reich") by Albert Speer, Livre de Poche: The Third Reich as seen by Hitler's Minister of Armament.
• * Ribbentrop by Michael Bloch, Plon: a very good biography of Hitler's Minister of Foreign Affairs.
• "La société allemande sous le IIIème Reich", Pierre Ayçoberry, Editions du Seuil, collection Points, Série Histoire, N° H246: Writen by Pierre Ayçoberry, professor at the "Université des sciences humaines" in Strasbourg, France, this si one of the best book I have about the dayly live of the German citizens in the Third Reich.

• L'Italie de Mussolini by Max Gallo, Marabout Université: The rise, the evolution and the fall of fascism in Italy. Also a very good psychological description of Mussolini.

• Histoire de la Gestapo by Jacques Delarue, Marabout Université: History of the Gestapo, the German secret police, from its creation by Hermann Göring in 1933 to its end in 1945. A good book.

• Le Livre Noir by Ilya Ehrenbourg and Vassili Grossman, Solin Actes Sud, collection "Hébraïca": End of 1942, Albert Einstein suggested to the members of the Antifascist Jewish Committee to collect in a "black book" the testimonies and proofs of the Nazi crimes committed in occupied USSR. This book contains dozens testimonies of survivors about the Nazi atrocities in Russia.
  (Note: This book was published in New York in 1946 under the title "The Black Book")
• Les Assassins by Christian Bernadac, France-Empire: Based on the victims and perpretrators testimonies during the Nuremberg Trials.This book shows how hundreds thousands of innocents people were deliberately murdered by the regular German Army and the SS extermination squads in Poland and Russia.
• Au Nom de la Race by Marc Hillel, Le Livre de Poche: As far as I know, it is the only book about one of the most secret SS organisation: the "Lebensborn" (Spring of Life). In order to create a pure Aryan race, centers were build in Germany where SS officers and "racially pure" German women could meet and make "pure Aryan" childs. The childs who were "not good enough" were sent to the camp of Lodz for work and later gased at Auchwitz. During the war, the SS and the Werhmacht kidapped thousands of childrens who where considered as "good enough" to be aryanised (blond children with blue eyes, etc...). This kidnapping policy was one of the worst and most secret crime commited by the nazies. 250.000 childs were kidnapped by the nazies and sent to Germany. After the war, only 25 or 30.000 were retrieved...

• Dans les dossiers de la Gestapo by Jacques Bacelon, Jacques Grancher Editeur: A book about a very sensible subject: the collaboration between the French Administration and the Gestapo. Excellent book.
• * L'Affaire Pétain ("Petain's Crime, The full story of French collaboration in the Holocaust") by Paul Webster, Editions du Félin: an excellent and very documented book about Pétain, the chief of the Vichy government. This book explain how much Pétain agreed with the worst anti-jews law passed by the nazies in France.
• La Rafle du Vel d'Hiv by Claude Lévy and Paul Tillard, Editions Robert Lafont: The history of the "Great Raid of the 'Vel d'Hiv'" - This police operation had been organized after several discussions between the government of Petain and the Nazi occupation administration. Originally, only the Jews who were older than age 16 had to be arrested. It is under the proposal of the Prime Minister Laval that all the children were arrested.
• Il était des femmes dans la résistance, Ania Francos, Stock, collection "Les grands sujets", 1978: There were thousands of women in the French Resistance but their role has been ignored after the Liberation. This excellent book covers the history of some of these forgotten women.

• Le livre des camps by Ludo Van Eck, Editions Kritak (Belgium): Ludo Van Eck is a Belgian survivor of Dachau. This book is very difficult to find but it is a real encyclopaedia covering most of the concentration and extermination camps. It has been published in French and Dutch and you can purchase it at the museum of Breendonck, Belgium.
• * L'Etat SS ("The Theory and Practice of Hell") by Eugen Kogon, Editions du Seuil: see "Books Published in English" section.
• Dora 1943-1945 by Brigitte d'Hainaut and Christine Somerhausen, Editions Didier Hatier (Belgium): history of the Belgian prisoners in Dora concentration camp, sub-camp of Buchenwald.
• * Atlas de la Shoa ("Atlas of the Holocaust") By Martin Gilbert, Editions de l'aube/Samuelson, 1992.
• * Les bourreaux volontaires de Hitler ("Hitler's Willing Executionners. Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust"), by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Seuil: A study about all these "ordinary" Germans who became killers and executionners.
• Au nom du Führer, Lydia Chagoll, Editions Jacques Antoine (Belgium): A little book with texts and pictures extracted from the documentary "Au nom du Führer".
• La libération des camps, Christian Bernadac, Le Livre de Poche, n° 14566: 1945: An excellent book covering the last weeks of the concentration camps, the Death Marchs and the Liberation of the camps. It contains dozen of rare and unpublished testimonies from survivors.

• * Les assassins sont parmi nous (The Murderers Among Us), Simon Wiesenthal & Joseph Wechsberg, Stock, collection "Témoins de notre temps": A great book writen by the famous Holocaust survivor who has dedicated his life since the war to gathering evidence for the prosecution of Nazi war criminals

• * Procureur à Nuremberg ("The Anatomy of the Nurembergs Trials") by Telford Taylor, Seuil: Telford Taylor was one of the American Attorney at the Nuremberg Trials. A very good book!

• "Concentration Camps, A Traveler's Guide to World War II Sites" by Marc Terrance.: A Must for anyone planning on visiting the Concentration Camps of Europe.Contains street maps showing exact directions to the sites, walking routes, road signs, bus and train information, opening hours and what remains of the camps today. Includes 45 Street Maps, Over 160 Pictures plus many useful websites. The guide covers 39 Sites in Poland, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, France and The Netherlands. This book is available on-line.

• Some books suggested by a Alain Korkos:
• Drancy, un camp de concentration très ordinaire, (F) Maurice Rajfus, éditions Manya.
• La grande raffle du Vel d'Hiv, (F) Claude Lévy et Paul Tillard, éditions Robert Laffont
• La destruction des juifs d'Europe, (F) Raul Hillberg, Fayard, 1988
• Hommes et femmes à Auschwitz, (F) Hermann Langbein, Ed. Fayard,1975 ; puis Ed. 10/18, 1994
• Vichy-Auschwitz, (F) Serge Klarsfeld, Ed. Fayard, 1985
• Etre juif en France pendant la seconde guerre mondiale, (F) Renée Poznanski, Ed. Hachette, coll. La Vie Quotidienne, 1994
• Shoah, (F) Claude Lanzmann, Ed. Fayard, 1985 ; puis Livre de Poche Hachette, 1986. (Il s'agit ici de la retranscription intégrale du fameux film.)

  About negationism and revisionism:

• Eduquer contre Auschwitz - Histoire et Mémoire, (F) Jean-François Forges, ESF Editeur, 1997
• Négationistes: les chiffoniers de l'Histoire, (F) Ouvrage collectif, Ed. Golias et ED Syllepse, 1997

  Three books suggested by Rudolf A. Haunschmied

• Memoires of a teenager saved by Schindler (E) by Abraham Zuckermann,
• Slingshot of Hell (E) by Rabbi Harfeness, Targum/Feldheim , 1988 (Southfield, Michigan)
• Chemin de Croix en 50 Stations, (F) by Berard Aldebert, Bibliothek der Provinz, Weitra, Austria, 1997

  Two bookw suggested by Peter Bishop

• I Shall Live - Surviving the Holocaust (E) 1939-1945 by Henry Orenstein
• I cannot Forgive, (E) by Rudolf Vrba and Alan Bestic, published in 1964 by Bantam Books and Grove Press Inc.

  A book suggested by André Chatel

• SACHSO, Au coeur du système concentrationnaire nazi, (F )Les Editions de Minuit, 1981: The history of Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

  A book suggested by Mathilde Vantroys

• Leçon de ténèbres, (F) by Jean Manson , FNDIR and UNADIF, Ed. PLON