This book tells the story of the ghetto uprising in Warsaw in 1939. Karen Zeinert details the story in a way that really hits home. She used interviews, pictures, and diaries to detail the horror that the Jewish community experienced at the hands of the Nazis. The Jewish people came to the cities for protection against the Blitz. This allowed the Nazis to put them in a brick walled camp in the middle of Warsaw. The Germans used them for labor until they became a burden. The Jewish communities were broken apart and sent by train to be killed in another town. The Jewish people still in the ghetto sent a scout to find out the fate of the people. The scout confirmed that they were sent on the trains to be killed at death camps. The remains Jewish people fought back against the Nazis. They lasted a few weeks before the Germans burned the ghetto and remaining resistance fighters to death. Only about 5% of the people sent to the ghetto survived.
This book dealt with the holocaust. The pictures included are graphic and horrifying. This book is over 20 years old but still feels relevant. I would recommend this book in a lesson about the holocaust. This story would give insight and gravity to the situation that these unfortunate humans beings lived through. I’ve read a decent amount of literature concerning the eastern front of WWII. I now have an even greater understanding of the reality of this horrific period in human history. Knowing the Nazis poisoned human en masse to save money on bullets turns my stomach. Such sadness but still worth knowing about. ( )

Zeinert has written an easy to read history of the uprising of Warsaw's Jewish ghetto in spring 1943. Using primary sources such as diaries and interviews with survivors, she masterfully tells the story of sometimes unsung heroes of the Holocaust, the Jewish people of the Warsaw ghetto, who led the first uprising against Nazi forces in April and May 1943. Even though many of the Jewish Poles living in the ghetto had already been sent to death camps, a good number of the survivors rose up to fight for their lives whent they heard what was to come for them in the camps. Their fight would inspire other uprisings in ghettos and death camps, as well as a larger uprising in the city of Warsaw, fought by ghetto survivors and fellow Polish citizens. As with any book about the Holocaust, there are a few disturbing images and sections of text, but young adults of a level able to read the book will likely have come across the Holocaust already in their studies, and will appreciate the importance of telling the history of the Holocaust to current and future generations, so as not to let something like this happen again. ( )