(JEWISH GROUP) The stories that survived: Holocaust memoirs for reflection and remembrance on Yom HaShoah

Each year on Yom HaShoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day — we light candles, share stories, and pause to honor the six million Jews who were murdered and the millions of others who suffered under Nazi persecution. But remembrance isn’t only about silence or solemn ceremonies. It’s also about listening to the voices of those who endured the unendurable and chose to tell their stories.

Holocaust memoirs offer something no textbook or novel can: raw truth, emotional intimacy, and a direct link to history through the eyes of someone who lived it. Whether written from the perspective of a teenager in hiding, a survivor of Auschwitz, or a child rescued by strangers, each of these memoirs is an act of courage — and an invitation to remember, reflect, and never forget.

Here are some of the most powerful Holocaust memoirs to read, revisit, or share this Yom HaShoah.

“Night” by Elie Wiesel
“I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust” by Livia Bitton-Jackson
“Monastir Without Jews: Recollections of a Jewish Partisan in Macedonia” by Žamila Kolonomos
“All But My Life” by Gerda Weissmann Klein
“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl
“The Nazi Officer’s Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust” by Edith Hahn Beer
“Survival in Auschwitz” (also published as “If This Is a Man”) by Primo Levi
“The Girl in the Green Sweater: A Life in Holocaust’s Shadow” by Krystyna Chiger
“Memoirs of a Fortunate Jew: An Italian Story” by Dan Vittorio Segre
“Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood” by Nechama Tec
“The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million” by Daniel Mendelsohn
“When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father’s War and What Remains” by Ariana Neumann
“The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible… on Schindler’s List” by Leon Leyson
“Jack and Rochelle: A Holocaust Story of Love and Resistance” by Jack and Rochelle Sutin
“The Choice: Embrace the Possible” by Dr. Edith Eva Eger
“Maus” by Art Spiegelman
“Love in a World of Sorrow: A Teenage Girl’s Holocaust Memoirs” by Fanya Gottesfeld Heller
“I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir” by Esther Safran Foer
“We Share the Same Sky: A Memoir of Memory & Migration” by Rachael Cerrotti
The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank

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I have listed all the titles, so if you want more info click on the link above for a brief synopsis.

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The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
April 19, 1943 - May 16, 1943