This is an absolutely amazing book. I am an avid reader of WWII historical fiction and narrative nonfiction, and I learned so much about Auschwitz that I did not know. This is a haunting must-read, based on a true story. I couldn't put it down, and I can't forget the people of Block 31. This would be an excellent companion to the Diary of Anne Frank. or Night.

I did not finish The Librarian of Auschwitz because it was too slow. I understand that a lot does not happen in the day-to-day happenings in a concentration camp, but I just could not get invested in the story.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read an eARC of this book. The Librarian of Auschwitz tells the story of Dita, a 14 year old from Prague and then the Terezin ghetto, who is given the job of Librarian in the family camp at Auschwitz. In Auschwitz where books considered to be dangerous as weapons, guarding them is a risky task for Dita. However she does this because books and stories can give hope. The Librarian of Auschwitz is a fictional account based on actual events and the real people behind the story made it even more

Writing a story set during the Holocaust can be really tricky and this one didn't work for me. The tone felt a bit too disconnected for some reason, possibly the translation, but I just didn't get into it.

This was a great novel to read about the people of Auschwitz and how a library was created. i didn't know about The library or family camp before reading this novel. The characters of the book, dita particularly, show such bravery again and again. My heart ached reading this novel and I will definitely recommend it.

The Holocaust is always such a difficult topic to read about, but many authors have had great success in bringing this horrific time in history to readers. The Librarian of Auschwitz had such potential, but it just seemed mechanical. I don’t know if the emotion of the time and topic was lost in the translation, or if the writing was simply lacking passion. I rated it a 4 because I truly was moved by Dita and her strength. I appreciate the publisher and NetGalley giving me an opportunity to be an early reader in exchange for my fair and honest review.

Not only is it wonderful to find a book that I know our students in grade 8 would be excited to choose for their novel study on war, it's exciting to have such a well written book to share with all the grades at the school. We have quite a number of students who are interested in books set in World War 2 so it's a win win. Great book to be able to recommend to all students that also happens to cover a year round interest of all students at the school!

I'd have to give about 3-1/2 stars on this one. There were many parts of the book that were moving, heartbreaking, terrifying, and more. But there were also many factual interjections -- trying to put a non-fiction face on this work of historical fiction -- that just didn't flow, just didn't work. Those portions sounded like they were cut-and-pasted from a mediocre social studies textbook. And that really ruined the flow of the narrative. A defter hand would have made this element work, and then the book would have been much more successful for me.
Having said all that, this was a book that I wanted to finish, because I wanted to know if this brave young woman survived the Holocaust.

I knew that this book was going to break my heart by the time I had finished the first page. I mean, for one thing, I had absolutely NO IDEA about the family camp in Auschwitz, so this book led me down a whole tunnel of research because I wanted to know everything about it. The entire premise just makes me shutter, but then again, everything about concentration camps does that (for good reason). 

This book is a bit on the slow side, storywise, but the subject matter is so good and the stakes so high, that it didn't bother me. It's a loooooong book, but there is a lot of interesting information and even though I had an inkling as to how it would end, I couldn't tear myself away or keep myself from getting attached. 

Dita is the unofficial (as in: illegal) librarian of Auschwitz. She risks her life every day to keep a few barely-held-together books thriving and circulating throughout the family camp. The stakes get even higher (as if they weren't already high enough) when the imfamous Josef Mengele singles her out and tells her that he's watching her. Faced with her fear of being discovered by Mengele and her desire to keep the books safe, Dita decides to continue guarding the books at great personal risk. The resulting story is extraordinary. 

It's a story of hope, of love triumphing in the most unlikely of places (and ways). It's a story of human suffering. It's a story that will take your breath away, and remind you to be a little kinder, a little more human every single day. 

Don't miss this one. 

Rating: 5/5 stars

Historically based WWII concentration camp event of a special project that allowed Jewish children to attend school with a hidden "library". Heart warming, intriguing and sad!!

This was a fabulous read about a brave young girl not only defying the odds by surviving in a concentration camp but hiding books from the SS guards so that the prisoners in her section could continue to learn and hope. The book wasn’t just about Dita, the librarian of Auschwitz, there were other true stories interspersed throughout the story. There were the teachers that continued to teach the children, the infamous Dr. Mengle that performed horrible experiments on Jewish prisoners, and Rudi Rosenberg, a prisoner who attempts to escape. All these stories are true stories and are ingeniously woven together. As with most Holocaust stories, there are some tough parts to read, but I feel it was written appropriately for teens. The only criticism I have is that I felt the book was a bit too long. Overall, an interesting and important read about a time in history that should never be repeated or forgotten.

The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe tells the story of Dita Krauss, who acted as a librarian in Auschwitz (where books were forbidden), and how she coped. The story tell about the a harrowing look at what life was like in a concentration camp.

Dita Kraus, a fourteen-year-old, is imprisoned at Auschwitz with her parents. In Auschwitz, Dita and her parents lived in the family camp, known as Block 31. Dita was put in charge of eight precious books smuggled inside. It was a small collection. some were stained. Some were falling apart at the spine. The books helped the prisoners hang on to their humanity.

This book is an important work of historical fiction, detailing a dark time in European history, but it also celebrates heroes like Dita, and the other prisoners who held on to life as long as they could, and worked to instill this value in the children. As the author commented, true, people can consume bread and water and their bodies will survive., but they’re not complete persons unless they also learn and debate, are moved by beauty, and feed their imagination. Along with Dita’s story, the author fictionalizes another incredible true account of Rudolph Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, who managed to escape from Auschwitz and provide detailed reports of what was happening inside the camp.

I recommend this book for middle grade readers, and people interested history and the holocaust. I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley via Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

The Librarian of Auschwitz is based on the true story of Dita Adlerova and her time in Auschwitz concentration camp. Dita was only nine years old when the war started and her family was forced to leave Prague for the Terezin ghetto and then Auschwitz. They were placed in the “family camp” of Auschwitz, an experimental camp set up for when Red Cross inspectors came. Dita became the librarian of the eight books smuggled into the camp and used to teach the children.

This is primarily Dita’s story of survival, but it also touches on others in the camp. Freddy Hirsch is the director of the school in the family camp. He is a young German Jew struggling with the fact that he is a homosexual, but he is also a leader in the community and the resistance. Viktor Prestek is a SS officer, but in love with a Jewish girl in the camp. He can’t stand it anymore when she is sent to the gas chamber. We also meet countless other victims and survivors in the camps as Dita survives Auschwitz and is moved to Bergen-Belsen to endure the rest of the war.

Because this is based on a true story it reads more like a biography or memoir than a novel, but that is ok. The story is a powerful one. I don’t think there can be enough stories about the horror of the concentration camps and the depravity of the Nazis lest we forget what we are capable of.

I received this book from netgalley.

The Librarian of Auschwitz is a beautifully written story of a teenaged girl, living in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Dita, a lover of books, volunteers to be the librarian at the camp where she is a prisoner. The roll of librarian gives her purpose and she is serious about keeping the precious few forbidden books safe. Her story is one of deplorable conditions and atrocities no child should ever witnesses. Even though she is only a teenager, she is a very important person to many in the camp. When things are worse than most can imagine, Dita risks her life to make things better for others.
This was a difficult, heartwrenching story to read. The realistic, straightforward writing was graphic and at times, uncomfortable to read. The situations were not softened, and the text was written as if it were a journal entry, making it a more personal journey for the reader.

A heartbreaking and emotional insight into the Auschwitz concentration camp at the height of the Holocaust. Well-written and compelling, The Librarian of Auschwitz keeps you on your toes and fully engages your empathy for every character.

As time passes and Holocaust survivors pass away, it becomes more and more important to pass on their stories. This does that and more.

In short, a very powerful, multi-faceted story that I highly recommend for teens and adults.

This is an amazing story that encompasses several themes. No matter how many stories about the Holocaust I read or hear, I will never stop being shocked at the horror, cruely, and depravity that went on during that period. This book clearly depicts that, yet it also shows some glimpses of "normal" life that went on even amidst the horror, such as the eternal conflict between teenagers who think they are ready to be adults and their parents who want them to stay children just a little bit longer, friendships, gossip, and even love blooming between young couples, daring to dream of a future even while facing almost certain death. But most of all, it shows the determination to maintain dignity and fight to survive, despite the horror, and the risks Dita and others were willing to take to give the children a distraction, some sense of normalcy, and even a little happiness, even if it was for a short time.

There is a quote at the beginning of the book that really resonated with me, and it really sets the tone for the whole story:

"Throughout history, all dictators, tyrants, and oppressors, whatever their ideology—whether Aryan, black, Asian, Arab, Slav, or any other racial background; whether defenders of popular revolutions, or the privileges of the upper classes, or God’s mandate, or martial law— have had one thing in common: the vicious persecution of the written word. Books are extremely dangerous; they make people think."

Even though this is something I already knew, at that moment I found it very moving and profound. I found the idea that Jewish prisoners could have smuggled and hidden not one but several books a romantic notion and thought it was just a device for a good story, not realizing at first this was based on real people and events, and now I find it truly amazing they were able to do what they did, and can't help wondering whatever happened to those books after the camp was dissolved with no opportunity to smuggle them out. It would be amazing if they could be recovered and put in a museum.

As an almost-librarian and former educator I could readily identify with the desire to retain and protect as many books and as much knowledge as possible, even at great personal risk, and I particularly appreciated the descriptions of Dita lovingly caring for and painstakingly repairing the books, and recognizing that there was value in a seemingly silly and frivolous novel. I also found the idea of the "living books" very intriguing. At first, it made me think of a recent library trend of literally checking out real people (though in this instance it is primarily to learn about other cultures and experiences, rather than for storytelling), but then I realized it was really a return to the original oral storytelling tradition the pre-dates the written word and shows how both are important for the longevity and preservation of stories and information.

For those who might be concerned this book may be too depressing or too much of a tear-jerker, I did not find that to be the case. While it does depict horrific and tragic events, the story is told in a more matter-of-fact way and not in an overly emotional way. Yes, it is shocking and horrifying and sad, but it is also defiant and hopeful and inspiring. While I did get a little teary at times, overall I was left with a feeling of admiriation for the strength and determination of the characters and real people that inspired them.

My only criticism of this book is that at times the writing shifts back and forth from a beautiful, almost lyrical style, to a dry, straightforward reciting of events typical of a history book or biography. I realized later this was likely due to the book being based on real people and events, and trying to stick as closely to the known facts as possible and do justice to all of the people the characters are based on by filling in their stories without detracting from Dita's. While there were only a few passages where this transition was a bit jarring, I do wish a little more editing and re-writing had been done to make it flow a little more seamlessly.

This book is a little hard to place definitively into a specific genre because while it is technically ficition, it very closely follows the known facts, and I think was only fictionalized in order to fill in the gaps and make it easier for the reader to relate to the "characters" on a personal, human level and see what some of them were thinking and feeling, rather than viewing them in a detached way as historical figures.

While marketed as a YA book, I really think it will be a YA/Adult crossover with many adults reading it (and I would probably put a copy in the adult fiction section as well). I would recommend this book to fans of The Book Thief as well as dystopian themes related to censorship such as Fahrenheit 451, and anyone who is interested in historical fiction, non-fiction, or biographies related to Auschwitz specifically, or the Holocaust, WWI, or Jewish history in general, or to those who appreciate good stories about the fight for survival or to preserve knowledge and culture.

There are so many different persepectives from which to view this story, it really could appeal to a wide audience, and I predict it will be on many classroom reading lists, and a likely candidate for the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for outstanding youth literature originally published in another country.

Stories about Auschwitz and Nazi Germany are some of my favorite. Not because they are wonderful stories filled with happiness and joy, but because the reality of that situation is insightful and interesting to read about. Horrifying as well. The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe was fascinating. It was an inside look at the life of those who lived in the camps, dealt with the every day struggle of staying alive, and tried to find the small bright spots in a very gloomy world.

Iturbe told a real life story in a way that read like fiction instead of documentary style. This real life experience Antonio went through was put into a story that anyone would find interesting to read without that overwhelming feeling that is sometimes accompanied by biographies or documentary style stories. The story was incredibly hard to read in a sense of how horrible it must have been to actually live through it, but it also brought me in and made me understand at a greater level what life must have been like. A lover of books myself, I related very much to Dita and her love of the books and wanting to ensure that they stuck around for more to enjoy and learn from. I got emotional many times through this book, which is something a good author can do, pulling the reader in to feel the emotions that the characters are feeling.

While this might not be a light, fun read, this story is one that everyone should read and is written in a way that will keep you engaged and wanting to continue. A must read on all lists, in my opinion.

Iturbe, Antonio The Librarian of Auschwitz, 432 pages. Translated by Lilit Zekulin. Henry Holt (Macmillan), 2017. $20. Language: R (25+ swears, 2 ‘f’); Mature Content: PG (innuendos of prostitution); Violence: PG-13 (Holocaust tortures, deaths)

When Dita and her family are moved from the walled Terezin ghetto to the barracks of Auschwitz, Dita finds a place for herself in Alfred Hirsch’s secret classes for the children of Auschwitz. Her job is to care for the eight printed books and the “living” books (teachers who can tell a vivid remembered story of a book) that the prisoners managed to sneak pass the guards. Interwoven with the story of Dita and the books are the atrocities and cruelties of life in the camps and Dita’s life after she manages to survive long enough for liberation after she is transferred to Bergen-Belsen.

Based on the life of Dita Kraus, a Holocaust survivor, Iturbe adds to the stark, gruesome knowledge that we have of the conditions of survival in the camps. I have been to Terezin in the Czech Republic and Dachau, but I can still only imagine how difficult it was to survive. This will be a pretty challenging book for even a high school student to read, but so interesting.

HS – OPTIONAL. Cindy, Library Teacher