Recommended Readings

Any list of books about the Holocaust will be incomplete. The amount of material on the subject is too vast to be fully covered in one list of Holocaust books, but this list offers our recommended readings to gain an understanding of the events that unfolded before, during and following the Holocaust.

Outside of books, you can view a timeline of events or listen to survivors tell their own stories through the Oral Histories Project to learn more about the Holocaust and what unfolded.

Recommended Books About the Holocaust

This is a representative sampling of relevant and important reading materials on a variety of Holocaust-related subjects.

• The World Must Know by Michael Berenbaum — Outlines the history of the Holocaust as it’s presented in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC
• The Holocaust as Historical Experience, edited by Yehuda Bauer and Nathan Rotenstreich — A series of essays and discussions of historical events during the Holocaust
• They Chose Life: Jewish Resistance in the Holocaust by Yehuda Bauer — Examines Jewish resistance efforts during the Holocaust
• A History of the Holocaust by Yehuda Bauer — Provides a comprehensive depiction of the Holocaust, including how and why it happened and testimonies from survivors
• The War Against the Jews, 1933-1945 by Lucy S. Dawidowicz — Covers the complete history of the Nazi Holocaust, from the appointment of Hitler in 1933 through the liberation of concentration camps in 1945
• The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War by Martin Gilbert — Intertwines suvivors’ stories and historical research to tell the history of the Holocaust
• Encyclopedia of the Holocaust edited by Israel Gutman — 4 volumes with alphabetically ordered entries that cover the events of the Holocaust, including those leading up to it and the aftermath
• The Destruction of the European Jews by Raul Hilberg, Student Edition — A historical textbook of the Holocaust designed for use in the classroom
• Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders: The Jewish Catastrophe, 1933-1945 by Raul Hilberg — Hear the stories of those who caused, survived and witnessed the Holocaust
• The Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Memoirs by Simon Wiesenthal — Edited and with an introductory profile by Joseph Wechsberg, the book gives an account of Wiesenthal’s search for Nazi war criminals after his liberation from Mauthausen
• The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945 by David Wyman — Explores how earlier action by the US could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives 
• Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1938-1941 by David Wyman — A look at how US refugee policies effected its response to the Holocaust
• The Holocaust: The Face of European Jewry, 1932-1945 by Leni Yahil — A comprehensive account of the Holocaust, including perception and knowledge of the events around the world

Additional Resources

We’ve included a list of trusted resources to further your knowledge of the Holocaust.

• U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Yad Vashem
• Facing History
• Echoes and Reflections
• Midwest Center for Holocaust Education