The Holocaust has become a staple of the publishing industry. As it begins to fade from living memory into history ( the events took place some 80 years ago), the Shoah movement has rightfully and needfully endeavored to record the testimony of as many survivors as possible so that such events can never happen again. From this a remarkable flood of memoir , autobiography, and history has ensued. It has also impacted the fiction market, especially the YA field; hardly a year goes by without several Holocaust related novels hitting the best seller lists. Sadly, many of them have become formulaic to the point where there is now a growing set of Holocaust literature cliches.
Even so, there remain many brilliant, innovative, and unexpectedly original novels, stories, and plays that illuminate the Holocaust as only art can. Here, a maverick lit. teacher looks at 30 of the most striking works out there. Some are well known; most are not. They are all, however, worth reading.
