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The librarian of Auschwitz / Antonio Iturbe ; translated by Lilit Zekulin Thwaites.

The librarian of Auschwitz / Antonio Iturbe ; translated by Lilit Zekulin Thwaites.
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Item Information
Barcode Shelf Location Collection Volume Ref. Branch Status Due Date Res.
002778967 YA ITU
Young Adult   Temporary Library . . Available .  
. Catalogue Record 44732 ItemInfo Beginning of record . Catalogue Record 44732 ItemInfo Top of page .
Catalogue Information
Field name Details
Record Number 44732
ISBN 9781250217677
1250217679
Name Iturbe, Antonio, 1967- author.
Uniform title Bibliotecaria de Auschwitz English.
Title The librarian of Auschwitz / Antonio Iturbe ; translated by Lilit Zekulin Thwaites.
Edition First Australian edition.
Published New York : Goodwin Books/Henry Holt and Company, 2018.
©2017.
Description 423 pages ; 20 cm.
Notes "Based on the true story of Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus" -- Cover.
First published in Spanish as "Bibliotecaria de Auschwitz". Spain : Editorial Planeta, 2012. Translation first published: New York : Goodwin Books, 2017.
Note Includes bibliographical references.
Summary Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezn ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious volumes the prisoners have managed to sneak past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the librarian of Auschwitz. Out of one of the darkest chapters of human history comes this extraordinary story of courage and hope.
Target audience note Adolescent.
Language note Translated from the Spanish.
Subjects Kraus, Dita, -- 1929-Fiction
Auschwitz (Concentration camp) -- Fiction
Child concentration camp inmates -- Fiction
Jews -- Germany -- History -- 1933-1945 -- Fiction
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Germany -- Fiction
Concentration camps -- Fiction
Books and reading -- Fiction
Jews -- Czechoslovakia -- History -- Fiction
Germany -- History -- 1933-1945 -- Fiction
Czechoslovakia -- History -- 1938-1945 -- Fiction
Genre Historical fiction.
Young adult fiction
Biographical fiction.
War fiction.
Young adult fiction
Added Names Thwaites, Lilit Zekulin translator.
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039272724 Jul 2020 10:47 am4This is a book about what may be arguably the smallest collection of books to have been coined as a library to occur in the world; what distinguishes it, is its occurrence at all. Also highlighting how literature and storytelling can illuminate life in the darkest times.
Librarian of Auschwitz, written by Antonio Iturbe, is based on the true story of a young girl, Dita Kraus. We follow her family through their displacement; from the Terezin settlement to Auschwitz. Distinguishing their story from millions of others, is their placement in the experimental family camp; Block 31.
Block 31 was designed to represent a false image, one that was hoped to minimise to the wider world, the depths of genocide in the Nazi concentration camps. However, the camp did not allow special privileges regarding the environment or conditions, their suffering was still immense; regardless of the fact the world may see it. Interestingly, there was a few differences due to the nature of the camp, primarily families were able to intermingle to an extent, with a children’s block.
To make it easier for the parents to work, games and activities were permitted; though, not school. So, hidden from the Germans, learning occurred within invisible walls and blackboards. Children would cluster around ‘teachers’ who would whisper their lessons to them.
“It doesn’t matter how many schools the Nazis close. Each time someone stops to tell a story, and children listen, a school has been established”
To complement this forbidden school there was a tiny assortment of tattered books. To which Dita undertook the role of librarian, circulating the forbidden books to the teachers for their lessons. She manages to keep the books hidden from the regime, understanding the brevity of the task she is entrusted, protecting them with her life.
Dita enthusiastically enlists “living” books, who would tell stories to the children, providing an insight into a variety of traditional stories and oral stories emanating from the mixed cultures within the camp. This is now seen in some libraries where people can borrow “living books” often focusing on elements of contemporary issues to increase awareness; for example, a refugee’s story.
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