Recommended Reading
The books listed below are available at our library. Additional recommendations relevant to the exhibition are listed on this bibliography from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple's Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany by Call Number: D810.C4 P74 2014Based on the HBO documentary, the astonishing true story of how one American couple transported fifty Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Austria to America in 1939—the single largest group of unaccompanied refugee children allowed into the United States.
FDR and the Jews by Call Number: E807 .B745 2013A contentious debate lingers over whether Franklin Delano Roosevelt turned his back on the Jews of Hitler's Europe. FDR and the Jews reveals a concerned leader whose efforts on behalf of Jews were far greater than those of any other world figure but whose moral leadership was tempered by the political realities of depression and war.
Hell Before Their Very Eyes by Call Number: D805.G3 M4297 2015Drawing on a rich blend of archival sources and thousands of firsthand accounts―including unit journals, interviews, oral histories, memoirs, diaries, letters, and published recollections―Hell Before Their Very Eyes focuses on the experiences of the soldiers who liberated Ohrdruf, Buchenwald, and Dachau and their determination to bear witness to this horrific history.
Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939 by Call Number: PN1995.9.N36 D65 2013As Europe hurtled toward war, a proxy battle waged in Hollywood over how to conduct business with the Nazis, how to cover Hitler and his victims in the newsreels, and whether to address or ignore Nazism in Hollywood feature films. Recapturing what ordinary Americans saw on the screen during the emerging Nazi threat, Thomas Doherty reclaims forgotten films of the era.
Rescue Board: The Untold Story of American's Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe by Call Number: D809.U5 E73 2018America has long been criticized for refusing to give harbor to the Jews of Europe as Hitler and the Nazis closed in. Now a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum scholar tells the extraordinary story of the War Refugee Board, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's little-known effort late in the war to save the Jews who remained.
The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught in Between by Call Number: D804.3 .D63 2019This is the story of a small village in Germany whose Jewish families pursued US visas to flee the Nazis. Battling bureaucratic obstacles, some make it to the United States, but others cannot get the necessary documents. Some die in Auschwitz, their applications for visas still "pending."
Why? Explaining the Holocaust by Call Number: D804.3 .H387 2017Why? explores one of the most tragic events in human history by addressing eight of the most commonly asked questions about the Holocaust: Why the Jews? Why the Germans? Why murder? Why this swift and sweeping? Why didn’t more Jews fight back more often? Why did survival rates diverge? Why such limited help from outside? What legacies, what lessons?
Ken Burns - The U.S. and the Holocaust
Based partly on the Americans and the Holocaust exhibition, Ken Burns' new series looks at the response of America's government and its citizens to Hitler and the events taking place in Nazi Germany. The series will air September 18, 19 and 20, at 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Recommended Viewing from the USHMM
Americans and the Holocaust: A Traveling Exhibition for Libraries is made possible by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association.
Americans and the Holocaust was made possible by the generous support of lead sponsor Jeannie & Jonathan Lavine. Additional major funding was provided by the Bildners — Joan & Allen z”l, Elisa Spungen & Rob, Nancy & Jim; and Jane and Daniel Och. The Museum's exhibitions are also supported by the Lester Robbins and Sheila Johnson Robbins Traveling and Special Exhibitions Fund, established in 1990.