Embedded Files
The Tattooist of Auschwitz (YA Edition)
The Tattooist of Auschwitz (YA Edition)
by Heather Morris
This novel is based on the true story of Lale and Gita Sokolov, two Slovakian Jews, who survived Auschwitz and eventually made their home in Australia. In that terrible place, Lale was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival - literally scratching numbers into his fellow victims' arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust.
Lale used the infinitesimal freedom of movement that this position awarded him to exchange jewels and money taken from murdered Jews for food to keep others alive. If he had been caught he would have been killed; many owed him their survival.
When the world was ours
When the world was ours
by Liz Kessler
Three friends. One memory.
Vienna. 1936.
Three young friends—Leo, Elsa, and Max—spend a perfect day together, unaware that around them Europe is descending into a growing darkness and that they will soon be cruelly ripped apart from one another. With their lives taking them across Europe—to Germany, England, Prague, and Poland—will they ever find their way back to one another? Will they want to?
Inspired by a true story, When the World Was Ours is an extraordinary novel that is as powerful as it is heartbreaking and that shows how the bonds of love, family, and friendship allow glimmers of hope to flourish, even in the most hopeless of times.
ANZAC Boys
ANZAC Boys
by Tony Bradman
A gripping historical tale based on a tragic episode of World War One.
Bert and his little brother Frank are orphans. Determined to stay together, tragedy strikes when they are transported out of the country to serve as cheap labour in the British colonies and end up separated; Bert to Australia and Frank to New Zealand.
Years pass. As the Great War dawns in Europe, the ANZACs send their soldiers to storm Gallipoli, but can the battlefield also serve as a reunion for the two brothers?
Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers.
The Gallipoli Story
The Gallipoli Story
(YA Edition)
(YA Edition)
by Patrick Carlyon
The men were huddled in lifeboats. Some prayed that their legs would work. Some smiled to show they weren't scared. They peered into the darkness ahead and saw nothing. Then, the dark shape of a man standing on a hill. A shout from the shore. A single shot rang out and a bullet hissed overhead.
The Gallipoli campaign had begun
Anzac soldiers fought on Turkish soil nearly a century ago. So why do we still care about what happened there? Why do we celebrate a battle lost?
The Gallipoli Story takes young people on an unforgettable and tough journey deep into the heartland of war. Patrick Carlyon digs past the myths to explore the lives and choices of the men - soldiers, politicians and generals alike - who found themselves caught up in a battle fought far from home.
A powerful piece of storytelling that brings history to life - and shows us the human faces behind the grand story.
Promise
Promise
by Alexandra Alt
At 15, Lene is questioning everything. She is sick of the compulsory League of German Girls meetings, and everyone being made to fight for a final victory that never seems to come. She is in love with Ludwig who lives upstairs and listens to enemy broadcasts. Like Lene, he rejects the war and the endless Nazi indoctrination.
But he has caught the attention of his ruthless Hitler Youth squad leader, Kurt. Unwittingly drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse, Lene has to watch every step, every word to protect those she loves.
When Ludwig is ordered to the Eastern Front, can Lene and Ludwig hold on to their promise to one another and resurface from the darkness of the abyss in post-war Berlin?
Over the Line
Over the Line
by Tom Palmer
It's 1914 and Jack is making his debut as a pro footballer. But his first match is marred by a demonstration demanding that the teams sign up to do their duty in France.
What should Jack do? Word of the Footballer's Battalion and a cup in Flanders provides a glimmer of hope that Jack can keep his dream of playing for England alive, so he signs up and is soon shipped off to the front line.
There he discovers the horrible reality of life as a soldier, and as the war drags on, Jack is thrown into a nightmare that he will be lucky to survive. ...
Based on the real-life experiences of footballer Jack Cock.
Code Name Verity
Code Name Verity
by Elizabeth Wein
Oct. 11th, 1943 - A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun.
When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.
As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage and failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?
Harrowing and beautifully written, Elizabeth Wein creates a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other. Code Name Verity is an outstanding novel that will stick with you long after the last page.
The Librarian of Auschwitz
The Librarian of Auschwitz
by Antonio Iturbe
Follows Dita Kraus from age fourteen, when she is put in charge of a few forbidden books at Auschwitz concentration camp, through the end of World War II and beyond.
Based on a true story.
Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this is the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust. Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terez�in 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.
The Boy on the Wooden Box
The Boy on the Wooden Box
by Leon Levson
Leon Leyson (born Leib Lezjon) was only ten years old when the Nazis invaded Poland and his family was forced to relocate to the Krakow ghetto. With incredible luck, perseverance and grit, Leyson was able to survive the sadism of the Nazis, including that of the demonic Amon Goeth, commandant of Plaszow, the concentration camp outside Krakow.
Ultimately, it was the generosity and cunning of one man, a man named Oskar Schindler, who saved Leon Leyson's life, and the lives of his mother, his father, and two of his four siblings, by adding their names to his list of workers in his factory - a list that became world renowned: Schindler's List.
Young Digger
Young Digger
by Anthony Hill
A true story of hope and renewal from the award-winning author of Soldier Boy. The dark clouds returned and gathered about the boy. His eyes grew distant, and he began to tremble. He heard not only shells exploding, but the cries of dying men... He was stumbling over churned earth, looking into the face of an officer, bloodied red as the poppies, ripped apart in the Flanders mud...
A small boy, an orphan of the First World War, wanders into the Australian airmen's mess in Germany, on Christmas Day in 1918. A strange boy, with an uncertain past and an extraordinary future, he became a mascot for the air squadron and was affectionately named "Young Digger".
And in one of the most unusual incidents ever to emerge from the battlefields of Europe after the Great War, this solitary boy was smuggled back to Australia by air mechanic Tim Tovell, a man who cared for the boy so much that he was determined, however risky, to provide Young Digger with a new family and a new life in a new country, far from home.
The boy and the spy
The boy and the spy
by Felice Arena
A thrilling wartime story. Life has never been easy for Antonio, but since the war began, there are German soldiers on every corner, fearsome gangsters and the fascist police battle each other in the town, and no one ever has enough to eat.
But when Antonio decides to trust a man who has literally fallen from the sky, he leaps into the adventure of a lifetime.
An adventure that will change his life and maybe even the future of Sicily
Tilly's Promise
Tilly's Promise
by Linda Newbery
When war breaks out, Tilly Peacock and her sweetheart Harry are keen to do their bit - Tilly as a nurse and Harry as a soldier in France.
But the war drags on and soon even Tilly's brother Georgie has been called up to fight, even though his mind is much younger than his body.
Can Harry look after Georgie in the danger of the trenches?
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