Tapestry of Hope: Holocaust Writing for Young People

This is an amazing book that should accompany Anne Frank’s Diary in EVERY library.

It is a compilation of survivors’ stories, poems, and excerpts from novels. It is a great book about the Holocaust; not just giving us a glimpse into the horror and despair, but at the same time capturing the amazing hope. It tells the stories of orphans, Jews in hiding, concentration camp victims, the resistance and survivors. It at times pleased me with their optimism and courage, but also shocked and horrified me with what they had to endure. This worked really well because this is what a book about the Holocaust has to attempt to do, not to hide the truth, but to include every aspect, so we do not simply classify it as a tragedy. This is put perfectly into words in the introduction. The author says that if the Holocaust was only about death and destruction it would be best to bury it away, but because it also contains hope we must refuse to do just that, we must learn from it so that it never happens again.

Georgia B.