The word "Holocaust," from the Greek words "holos" (whole) and "kaustos" (burned), was historically used to describe a sacrificial offering burned on an altar. Since 1945, the word has taken on a new and horrible meaning: the ideological and systematic state-sponsored persecution and mass murder of millions of European Jews (as well as millions of others, including Romani people, the intellectually disabled, dissidents, and homosexuals) by the German Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945.
![Book cover for The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2022/664bf23e3ffd1ff349e883786b81df41.jpg?itok=UTRPVUno)
![Book cover for Boy From Buchenwald: The True Story of a Holocaust Survivor](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2022/961e991b0a1772bf61475c414096b510.jpg?itok=XmtlwYqp)
![Book cover for A Boy in Winter: A Novel](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/4eceb7dc470fc335babe99872eff764b.jpg?itok=GxWoj-SF)
![Book cover of Code name Sapphire](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/958844ede6bdd3a100b485debbde649a.jpg?itok=RwIf5J4I)
![Book cover for Countrymen](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/9a10a0a3279bd6c5c107859a0cde2bf9.jpg?itok=o1cLbdP8)
![Book cover for Darkness over Denmark: the Danish Resistance and the Rescue of the Jews](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/0ab236c172572ad89ca0a8b1d54bda32.jpg?itok=4jkvxsZf)
![Book cover for Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terezin](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/65af5da1cd20583fcdc79e44b4601789.jpg?itok=2AeOECkL)
![Book cover of The ghost tattoo : discovering the hidden truth of my father's Holocaust](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/c206ed1fbdb93fe82b81ac3a00139769.jpg?itok=q3InUosR)
![Book cover for The Girl from the Train](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/e7502de3b462539d7cda3b68aafe4882.jpg?itok=HIzA6Jgx)
![Book cover for Girl in the Blue Coat](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/3adb0bec357e9cbd3cde0fb9cf7b832b.jpg?itok=r3WGR0wb)
In 1943 Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, teenage Hanneke—a 'finder' of black market goods—is tasked with finding a Jewish girl a customer had been hiding, who has seemingly vanished into thin air, and is pulled into a web of resistance activities and secrets as she attempts to solve the mystery and save the missing girl.
![Book cover of The girl who sang : a Holocaust memoir of hope and survival](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/c2a199a2bd004269fb5d93e0aab390e0.jpg?itok=TivGifit)
![Book cover of Impossible escape: a true story of survival and heroism in Nazi Europe](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/97df1457f49df0057221118f5df4141d.jpg?itok=fgRUGnBD)
![Book cover for In Memory's Kitchen: A Legacy from the Women of Terezin](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/7f2f4762738e2b41b0753a6c119b52d4.jpg?itok=aUYQQV5N)
![Book cover for Into the Forest: A Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph, and Love](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2022/380036d6e72ebc6beccb8fe761bbf160.jpg?itok=4A_VPmPl)
![Jews in the Garden book cover](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/81n1btsshwlacuf10001000ql80.jpg?itok=5uEwC94S)
![Book cover for The Librarian of Auschwitz](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2022/3ebf32b8ad2f2174876c44142eaa785e.jpg?itok=18vv2nIo)
![Book cover for Lilac Girls](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2022/a7ce96fb84efc0a01135bb911d3bb8ff.jpg?itok=f3ahBqhT)
![Book cover for Mischling](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2022/fccf4d18bbaf6de02c0002c4bff717cb.jpg?itok=_H3hjOct)
![Book cover for Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2022/de17996e2c9e5cbca36164bf4e7c3fe4.jpg?itok=6N0uNtgv)
![Book cover for Number the Stars](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2022/45088692e6e529f7c501f2cf732b84cc.jpg?itok=oLeHFwNS)
![Book cover for The Orphan's Tale](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/6eb3369e2746765961ede9ee0c1fadcb.jpg?itok=JjeA_jYu)
![Book cover of Remember my story : a girl, a Holocaust survivor, and a friendship that made history](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/d78ae578dabedf3618d91a2cd71915a8.jpg?itok=qR3YotJQ)
![Book cover for The Shelter and the Fence: When 982 Holocaust Refugees Found Safe Haven in America](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2022/44badd902aba0ba6a810369f681a6030.jpg?itok=F7IB0OGJ)
![Book cover for Somewhere There is Still a Sun](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/d35a5381688ea7438e06da7d5ad55b14.jpg?itok=9bWXZy84)
![Book cover for Survivors of the Holocaust: True Stories of Six Extraordinary Children](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2022/9bc47a68070d5ff30abc2454e245ef49.jpg?itok=mqQEhrkf)
![Book cover for Terezin: Voices from the Holocaust](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/0a5a0c70eb7bb5cb9122288981a1834d.jpg?itok=2aVOuHaz)
![Book cover for Then](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/e6fd8ba3bd83c14844271727f34ecd67.jpg?itok=zjIv61T1)
![Book cover for They Went Left](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2021/a2934e5c4001597b723a26ae4f658e1c.jpg?itok=pBSX_yot)
World War II has just ended and concentration camps have been liberated. 18-year-old Zofia is free but traumatized and malnourished, without a home, money, possessions or family. She is determined to find her missing brother and make a new life for herself. This is a beautifully written historical novel that portrays a young woman who comes to terms with the past, her scars and slowly picks up the pieces of her shattered life.
![Book cover of Time's echo : the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the music of remembrance](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/505d05ecaaa70ac9f62459e309baa91b.jpg?itok=ESK9Ct91)
![Book cover of Undesirables : a Holocaust journey to North Africa](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/718e0ee022b49271be44bf05b71e1290.jpg?itok=tsFM1K_z)
![Book cover of Unearthed : a lost actress, a forbidden book, and a search for life in the shadow of the Holocaust](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/41f6bdc1741caba97ac35c364d581f7f.jpg?itok=6iiLsWVs)
![Book cover for What the Night Sings](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2022/eef7013961c0f16de376fe7f59af2077.jpg?itok=0M1LG8An)
![Book cover for The Whispering Town](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/6fc81fa79b1898214b88accfa4940114.jpg?itok=oeiYLaRk)
![Book cover for Wildflowers of Terezin](https://www.lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/7f94a4364ce78eae1eb3118c0291f51f.jpg?itok=J102mPqT)