Mumsnet Talk

Primo Levi is the most incredible writer. I would second If this is a Man, and also If Not Now when, and The Periodic Table.
Schindler's Ark is also excellent.
I'd like to unreccommend The Book Thief. It is dire.

please please please read night by elie wiesel.
such an incredible author.
very depressing subject matter just to warn you.

"The past is myself" by Christabel Bielenberg (not sure of spelling)
She was Anglo irish married to a German man and lived in Berlin through the rise of Hilter - her husband fell foul of the regime..

I read a book called Dry Tears, on the same theme, when I was 12 shortly after I read Diary of Anne Frank. It was amazing as I recall.

And then there's this one, not about the Holocaust, it's about the Japanese camps in WW2: have you read The Way of a Boy by Ernest Hillen? I thought it was beautifully written. And I know people who were in the camp he was in, which made it so real and so poignant for me...

I am also reading Alone in Berlin and it is fascinating.
Schindler's Ark is also an amazing read.

I would also recommend Viktor Frankel's Man's Search for Meaning which is a story about how he developed his form of psychotherapy in the concentration camps but it is an incredible read. Truly inspiring.

elie wiesel wrote 'Night' - about his time as a boy in the concentration camp. beautiful, horrific, amazing writer.
please read this book.

A woman in Berlin - also a diary.

Have you read Anne's own stories - tales from the house behind? May be out of print but is on Amazon for sure ...

Mein Kampf. The message is abhorrent but a fascinating read! lol

If you want to read the diary of a young girl inspired by Anne Frank then I recommend this diary by Zlata Filipovic, who wrote her diary during the war in Bosnia.

www.amazon.co.uk/Zlatas-Diary-Puffin-Non-fiction-Filipovic/dp/0140374639

Try Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. It was written by a German in 1946. It's very bleak but worth reading.

The Pianist by Wladislaw Spielman (excuse sp please!) - Adrian Brody won the Oscar for Best Actor in the movie. It's an amazing story of survival and, as all the momoirs show, how courageous people are in the most traumatic circumstances.

There are some fantastic books mentioned on this thread.

For the story of British and Australian women the Japanese POW camps, Women Beyond the Wire is a very good read too.

I read a book a couple of years ago that imagined the life of Peter Van Damm if he hadn't died - he ended up in New York and tried to keep his true identity secret once Anne's diary was published, but the truth came out. It was really good - anyone know what it's called?

Zlata's Diary - about a different war though, the Bosnian war. She is described as the Anne Frank of Sarajevo

Eva's Story by Eva Schloss. Ann franks Stepsister who survives. Descriptions of her survival in the camp

Would second Alicia by Alicia Appleman-Jurman, just finished reading it, a truly shocking memoir of destruction and survival.

Also, The Bookthief, just a wonderful tale, beautifully told and strangely uplifting too. Probably one of the loveliest books I've read in recent years.

Loved When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, read it as a child and found it very powerful, I'm not sure how it would read to an adult though.

White Swans (can't remember the author)

I have just read The Book Thief, on the recommendation of a friend. It's a brilliant book - not often I find one that I can't put down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheBookThief

A time to speak by Helen Lewis- amazing book and an amazing lady.

Have you tried Hannah's suitcase. A true story of a suitcase from a concentration camp ended up in Japan. A teacher found a letter in it and tracked down the brother of Hannah who had died in the camp and returned the letters.

"A square of sky" by Janina David. I loved it when I read it the first time (I was 12). I still re read it once every couple of yrs, I know it by heart.

The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig

Mischling Second Degree by Ilse Koehn

Alicia by Alicia Appleman-Jurman is an amazing memoir. I read it as a teenager not long after reading Anne Frank.

Alicia

There is a book called Edith, it is quite similar, i recommend it.

The Boy in Striped Pyjamas is a good read (again, a children's book so I read it easily in a couple of hours). It's also been made into a film very well - it keeps the feeling of the book.