The deportation and incarceration of the Jewish people was a significant guide to the times attitudes towards other human beings. Since they were seen as inferior to other more "pure" races, it was permissible to degrade, beat and kill innocent people without consequence. When the Wiesel family was shipped off in cattle cars with their peers to the concentration camps, they knew nothing of what was to become of them. Further into the experience they learned what utter cruelty could be done to people, and how in the face of such evil there seemed that there could be no God. Their faith in humanity was challenged, and by simply reading about such experience mine was as well. It is hard to imagine that the actions displayed in the book and movies are real, it leaves a bitter taste of reality behind.

With the control the Kommondant and his staff has over so many people it was near impossible to retain any hope. However, several people provided enough instances of kindness to keep what sanity the prisoners had. Some provided simple necessities or even a few kind words from one human being to another, and it was enough to spark a degree of hope. The Kapo who wished the prisoners a good night; Jakob who took in a child; the Frenchwoman who spoke to Eliezer, they all did something that proved that there still was good in the world. Those little rays of goodness were enough to alleviate the sheer numbing comes across with the ghastliness of the time.

I was alternately sickened and inspired by the suffering of those locked away in those specially designed hells. Every experience I heard or read of simply dug a hook into me until I was so drawn into the brutality that it fascinated and disgusted me. On one side, such immorality severely challenged my perception of the potential people have to good and evil. I know that there are and have been terrible people in the world, and there always has been intolerance. To come into contact with actual accounts of such an appalling past as what we have seen opened my eyes open further and informed me of what has and can happen. The fascination involved with this unit comes from the interminable strength of the human spirit.

Witnessing the holocaust through people both fictional and real was enough to open my eyes further to the range of acts humankind is capable of. In the best of times it is hard to see the worst in people, and in the worst of times it is hard to see the best. The treatment of those in the camps, between staff and prisoners and between the prisoners themselves was enough to prove the scope of behavior people can have. Eliezer and his relationship with his father, the instinctual drive to live and the lies spread to generate hope were enough to prove the existence of what little good was there present. Seeing the narration of the dire times portrayed offered an insightful enough look that the entire spectrum of humanity was visible to scrutiny.

An enormous amount of Holocaust literature is available for those who desire to comprehend the dimensions of the Holocaust. Some are left behind by victims in the form of journals, letters and diaries, while others were written by Holocaust survivors. There are also accounts of resistance and stories of heroic rescues. The most important goal of learning about the Holocaust is to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again.

Here are six classic holocaust-themed books:

1. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

   
   
   A book comprising of excerpts from diaries written by Anne Frank, beginning from her thirteenth birthday in June 1942 which was a mere three weeks before she and her family went into hiding from the Gestapo in a building's tiny room in Amsterdam until their eventual betrayal in August 1944 when they were transported to Bergen-Belsen camp, where she died of typhus in 1945. It provides a glimpse of daily life under the Nazis and her expression of faith in human goodness in the hope of living in a world without hate.

2. Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi

   
   
   Originally titled "Se Questo e un Uomo" (Italian for "If This Is a Man"). This memoir recounts the author's two agonizing years at Auschwitz with his life spared mainly because of his scientific expertise being a chemist by profession, making him valuable to the Nazis. It was written to expose the atrocities perpetrated by the German Nazi regime.

3. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

   
   
   Initially published in 1946 under the title "Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager"(literally "A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp" in German). Viktor Frankl chronicled his three torturous years of experience in Nazi death camps where he lost his wife and parents; and discussed logotherapy, a new psychotherapeutic method developed to assist people find a reason for living, even in the most painful circumstances including suffering and death.

4. Night by Elie Wiesel

   
   
   Originally published in Yiddish in 1956 entitled "Un di Velt Hot Geshvign" ("And the World Remain Silent"). Elie Wiesel, after having endured through four concentration camps, vowed never to speak of his holocaust experience but decided after a decade to finally break his silence when Nobel laureate Francois Mauriac encouraged him to write a memoir about it; and had since written more than 30 works dealing with Judaism, Holocaust and the moral responsibility to battle racism and genocide. It somehow enabled people to understand the horrors of the Holocaust.

5. They Fought Back by Yuri Suhl
   
   

   A book featuring a collection of more than 30 amazing stories, detailing accounts of women including teenagers, wives and widows; and of many Jewish people of diverse political beliefs who courageously conducted anti-Nazi operations in Berlin at the height of the war. It was written to in an effort to dispel the Holocaust myth that Jews did not resist their tormentors, because the truth is, many did.

6. Their Brothers' Keepers by Philip Friedman

   
   
   A scholarly work by the "Father of Holocaust History" for the purpose of keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive after more than a decade of extensive research through interviews, eyewitness accounts and official documents. It features objective accounts of many ordinary individuals, who, at great personal risks, displayed great compassion and courage in aiding Jews during the Nazi occupation.

Other Holocaust themed series

·        Famous Holocaust Survivors

·        Heroes of the Holocaust & Their Stories of Courage 1

·        Heroes of the Holocaust & Their Stories of Courage 2