Review by Booklist Review
Every minute was a total unknown thing. And not only did we not know what was going to be but we knew that it was going to be bad. Enriched with the moving words of Holocaust survivors and eyewitnesses, provided by Steven Spielberg's Shoah Institute (also available on accompanying DVD), this ambitious pictorial overview will horrify, sadden, and educate a wide range of readers. Wood tackles a massive project, moving from anti-Semitism in world history to a discussion of the Holocaust itself that steers clear of oversimplification stressing, for instance, that many of those murdered were not Jewish, and that outside nations were culpable of postponing intervention. The book is designed in typical DK style, with thematic, clustered facts and images (many gravely disturbing), but much of the information appears in small type that less-patient readers will bypass. Sometimes, too, the book's attempt to cover so much results in statements and diagrams that lack sufficient context. But this succeeds more often than it falters, providing a wide-ranging supplement to the narrower, personal experiences recounted in Holocaust literature's many fine memoirs.--Mattson, Jennifer Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
DK's signature editorial aesthetic, combined with the searing testimony of Holocaust survivors collected by the USC Shoah Foundation Institute of Visual History and Education, makes for a sobering and visually compelling work of history. An extraordinary array of materials-Nazi propaganda, documentary photos, artwork, artifacts-are employed in the service of a broadly sweeping chronicle, beginning with Jewish exile from Jerusalem in 70 CE after Roman occupation and ending with modern-day Holocaust denial and the creation of memorials around the world. Each chapter includes a two-page spread entitled "Voices," devoted largely to excerpts from 23 interviews in the Foundation's video archives (an accompanying 40-minute DVD contains the actual interviews). One survivor recalls the horror of being herded onto dark, overcrowded trains en route to Auschwitz; another describes how her mother told her about "every book she ever read, every movie she'd ever seen" as they hid in a grave-like hole under a pigsty. Wood's prose is economical and reportorial, and she clearly wants to reclaim the individuality and humanity of those devastated by this enormity ("In many ways, numbers, especially very large numbers, mean nothing to us. What matters is each and every human being who was murdered by the Nazis") and she never resorts to lecturing readers on how they should feel. The book's detailed charts and maps contain almost too much information at times, often demanding very close scrutiny to fully decipher. Overall, however, the visual sensitivity and expert pacing serves this vital subject very well. Ages 11-up. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-DK is well known for its use of bite-size narratives combined with a highly visual layout. This format works surprisingly well in bringing a human face to Holocaust history. Beginning with a brief look at early Jewish life in Europe and ending with modern responses to the Holocaust, the book focuses on the era of Nazi rule. Topics ranging from propaganda to cultural life in the ghettos to Kindertransport are explored through moving photographs, images of documents and artwork, and clearly written captions. An accompanying DVD offers first-person testimony from Holocaust survivors, collected by the Shoah Foundation; quotes from these testimonies are included throughout the book. While the "visual sound bite" format creates a somewhat disjointed narrative, it has the advantage of making an overwhelming subject easier to digest. The photographs and quotes bring a real immediacy to the history. The stories of many victims and heroes are touched upon, and although readers meet them only briefly, each entry turns a statistic into a person. Time lines, charts, maps, a glossary, an index, and the testimonial DVD round out the presentation and make the information accessible for assignments, but this title will be of interest on its own merits.-Heidi Estrin, Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel, Boca Raton, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
