This list offers students a starting point for their White Rose Student Essay Contest research. The list is not exhaustive and teachers are encouraged to help students find additional resources. MCHE urges caution when conducting open web-based searches for Holocaust research. Please require your students to link through trusted sites such as the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Most books and non-linked resources are available in the MCHE Resource Center.
This page is frequently updated so check back for new resources.
By Country
- Baltic Countries – Maps
- Brandon, Ray. The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization.
- Colonizing Poland
- Eckman, Lester. The Jewish resistance : the history of the Jewish partisans in Lithuania and White Russia during the Nazi occupation, 1940-1945.
- Eliach, Yaffa. There Once Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok.
- Estonia
- German Invasion of the Soviet Union
- Greenbaum, Masha. The Jews of Lithuania: A History of a Remarkable Community 1316-1945.
- The Holocaust in Belarus
- The Holocaust in Lithuania
- The Holocaust in Poland
- Invasion of the Soviet Union
- Jewish Partisans in Belarus
- Klein, Dennis. Hidden history of the Kovno Ghetto.
- Kovno
- Kruk, Herman. The last days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania : chronicles from the Vilna ghetto and the camps, 1939-1944.
- Kuznetsov, Anatoly. Babi-Yar.
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Press, Bernhard. The murder of the Jews in Latvia : 1941-1945.
- Riga
- Sakowicz, Kazimierz. Ponary diary, 1941-1943 : a bystander’s account of a mass murder.
- Ukraine
- Vilna
- Vilna Ghetto Manifesto
- War of Annihilation Against Soviet Union
- The War on Jews in Poland
- Zipperstein, Steven. Imagining Russian Jewry : Memory, History, Identity.
Ghettos
- Adelson, Alan, ed. The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak: Five Notebooks from the Lodz Ghetto. New York, Oxford University Press, 1996.
- The Aims of Jewish Youth at the Present Time, From an Underground Publication, 1940
- Appeal of the Jewish Fighting Organization to the Polish Underground, Asking for Arms
- Appeal for Contributions by the Judenrat in Bialystok
- Appeal Not to Go to Labor Camps, from an Underground Publication
- Call to Armed Self-Defense, from an Underground Publication
- The Dilemma of Jewish Self Help
- Edelbaum, Ben. Growing Up In The Holocaust.
- Educational Problems in the Underground Youth Movement in the Ghetto
- From a Report of the Jewish Fighting Organization in the Warsaw Ghetto on its Activities
- From Notes by Hersh Berlinski on the Aims of the Jewish Fighting Organization
- “The Heroic Resistance of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto,” from The Polish Underground Press
- Hilberg, Raul, Stanislaw Staron, and Josef Kermisz editors. The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow: Prelude to Doom. New York, Stein and Day, 1979.
- Jewish Self-Help in Warsaw
- Kaplan, Chaim. Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan. Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press, 1999.
- Klajman, Jack. Out of the Ghetto. London. Vallentine Mitchell, 2000.
- Korczak, Janusz. Ghetto Diary. New York, Holocaust Library, 1978.
- The Last Letter From Mordecai Anielewicz, Warsaw Ghetto Revolt Commander
- Lewin, Abraham. A Cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto.
- Lodz Ghetto Photography of Mendel Grossman
- Meed, Vladka. On Both Sides of the Wall. Washington, DC, Holocaust Library, 1999.
- Photographs from the Warsaw Ghetto
- Response of the Commander of the Armia Krajowa to the Jewish Request For Arms
- Ringelblum On Cooperation Between Jewish Political Parties in the Underground
- Ringelblum, Emmanuel. Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto: The Journal of Emmanuel Ringelblum. New York, McGraw-Hill, 1958.
- The Smuggling of Food Into the Warsaw Ghetto
- Some Ghetto Thoughts on Rescue and Revenge
- Survey of Problems of Jewish Resistance by an Armia Krajowa Officer in Charge of Jewish Affairs Department
- Tory, Avraham. Surviving the Holocaust: The Kovno Ghetto Diary. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1990.
- The Work of a Jewish Political Party, from an Underground Publication, 1940
- Zapruder, Alexandra. Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust.
- Zelkowicz, Josef. In Those Terrible Days: Notes from the Lodz Ghetto. Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, 2002.
Art and Music
- By The Ghetto Gate
- The Lonely Child
- Partisans of Vilna Music
- Poetry in Hell: Yiddish Poetry in the Ringelblum Archives
- There Lies Treblinka
- Verdict
- Yisrolik
Additional Resources
- Adelson, Alan and Robert Lapides. Lodz Ghetto: Inside a Community Under Siege. New York, Penguin Books, 1991.
- Anflick, Charles. Resistance: Teen Partisans and Resistors Who Fought Nazi Tyranny. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 1999.
- Art and the Holocaust
- Art During the Holocaust
- Bauer, Yehuda. “Forms of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust.” In Holocaust: Religious and Philosophical Implications, edited by John K. Roth and Michael Berenbaum. New York: Paragon House, 1989.
- Bialystok Ghetto Uprising
- Brundibar
-
Dobroszycki, Lucjan. The Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto, 1941–1944. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984.
- Female Couriers During the Holocaust
- Friedman, Philip. “Jewish Resistance to Nazism: Its Various Forms and Aspects.” in Anthology of Holocaust Literature, edited by Jacob Glatstein, Israel Knox, and Samuel Margoshes. New York: Atheneum, 1968.
- Ghetto Fighters House Museum
- Grossman, Mendel and Frank Dabba Smith. My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto. San Diego, CA, 2000.
- Gurewitsch, Brana. Mothers, Sisters, Resisters: Oral Histories of Women Who Survived the Holocaust.
- Gutman, Yisrael. The Jews of Warsaw 1939-1943. Harvester Press, Brighton, England, 1982.
- Heartstrings: Music of the Holocaust
- Jewish Councils
- Jewish Fighters in the Cracow Ghetto
- Jewish Resistance
- Jewish Uprisings in the Ghettos and Camps, 1941-1944.
- The Judenrat
- Kassow, Samuel D. Who Will Write Our History?: Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.
- “Let the World Read and Know” The Oneg Shabbat Archives
- Mais, Yitzchak. Daring to Resist: Jewish Defiance in the Holocaust. New York, Museum of Jewish Heritage, 2008.
- Music and the Holocaust
- Partisans in Vilna
- Religious Life in the Kovno Ghetto
- Resistance During the Holocaust
- Resistance in the Kovno Ghetto
- Resistance in the Smaller Ghettos of Eastern Europe
- Resistance in the Vilna Ghetto
- “Resistance is…” Poem
- Rudavsky, Joseph. To Live With Hope, To Die With Dignity: Spiritual Resistance in the Ghettos and Camps. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1997.
- Secret Archives of the Kovno Ghetto
- Shneidman, N.N. The Three Tragic Heroes of the Vilnius Ghetto: Witenberg, Sheinbaum, Gens. Niagara Falls, NY, Mosaic Press, 2002.
- Silverman, J. The Undying Flame: Ballads and Songs of the Holocaust. Syracuse, N.Y., Syracuse University Press, 2002.
- Spiritual Resistance in the Ghettos
- Szner, Zvi and Alexander Sened. With A Camera In The Ghetto. New York, Schocken Books, 1977.
- Theresienstadt: Cultural Life
- Theresienstadt: Spiritual Resistance and Historical Context
- To Live With Honor and To Die With Honor
- Vilna During the Holocaust: Health and Welfare Organizations
- Vilna During the Holocaust: The Library
- Vilna During the Holocaust: Religious Life
- Vilna During the Holocaust: Theatre and Music in the Ghetto
- Volavková, Hana and Celeste Raspanti. I Never Saw Another Butterfly:Children’s Drawings and Poems from the Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944.
- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
- Writers and Poets in the Ghettos
Videos
- Everyday Life in the Warsaw Ghetto
- From Despair to Defiance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
- The Ghettos
- Jewish Responses to the Holocaust – MCHE Documentary
- Lodz Ghetto.
- Not Like Sheep to the Slaughter: The Story of the Bialystok Ghetto.
- Partisans of Vilna.
- Resistance: Untold Stories of Jewish Partisans. PBS Home Video.
- Who Will Write Our History
Einsatzgruppen
- Arad, Yitzhak. The Einsatzgruppen Reports: Selections from the Dispatches of the Nazi Death Squads.
- Babi Yar
- Browning, Christopher. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland.
- Debois, Patrick. The Holocaust by bullets : a priest’s journey to uncover the truth behind the murder of 1.5 million Jews.
- Einsatzgruppen: An Overview
- Einsatzgruppen and other SS and Police Units in the Soviet Union.
- Mobile Killing Units
- Rhodes, Richard. Masters of death : the SS-Einsatzgruppen and the invention of the Holocaust.
- Yahad-In Unum
Video
- Summary Video on Einsatzgruppen from USHMM
- Shooting Action in Liepaja, Latvia
- Einsatzgruppen: The Nazi Death Squads – Netflix
- Designing Destruction
- Nazis Secret Killing Squads
- Hitler’s Hidden Holocaust
- Dina Beitel Ponary testimony
- Babi Yar Survivor Testimony
Final Solution
- Arad, Yitzhak. Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka : the Operation Reinhard death camps.
- Auschwitz-Birkenau
- Belzec
- Browning, Christopher. The origins of the Final Solution : the evolution of Nazi Jewish policy, September 1939-March 1942.
- Byers, Ann. Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Treblinka: The Holocaust Camps (Remembering the Holocaust).
- Chelmno
-
Chrostowski, Witold. Extermination camp Treblinka - Establishing the Killing Centers
- Glazar, Richard. Trap With A Green Fence.
- Killing Centers: An Overview
- Majdanek
- Operation Reinhard
- Sobibor
- Treblinka
Video
- Treblinka Digital Reconstruction
- Belzec
- Shoah
Teaching Resources
- Individual Responsibility and Resistance During the Holocaust
- Jewish Responses to the Holocaust – Testimony-Based Exercise
- Mutual Assistance within the Ghetto Walls
- Spiritual Resistance During the Holocaust: Maintaining a “Normal” Way of Life in an Abnormal World
General Resources – Online
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Holocaust Encyclopedia
- The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students
- History of the Holocaust: An Overview
- Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance
- Jewish Virtual Library
- Yad Vashem – Key Historical Concepts
General Primary Source Materials – Online