Need help curating a list of Holocaust books for your students or library patrons? What’s on your shelf? What should be there? This podcast episode explores:

The most commonly assigned Holocaust books.

Why some of them are books you should never assign.

Recommendations for books to assign, read, and share.

Gaps in the literature.

Gatekeepers of higher education.

Susan’s wish-list.


Our guest is: Susan Kusel, who is the Library Director at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Virginia. She is also an author, a children’s book consultant and a former independent bookstore buyer. She has served on multiple book award committees including the Caldecott Medal and as the chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award. She is a former board member of the Association of Jewish Libraries. Her debut picture book, The Passover Guest won the Sydney Taylor Book Award.
Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.
Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Deborah Hopkinson, We Must Not Forget


Dita Kraus, A Delayed Life: The True Story of the Librarian of Auschwitz


Susan Kusel, The Passover Guest


Primo Levi, The Periodic Table


Doreen Rappaport, Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust


David Safier, 28 Days: A Novel of Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto


Hana Volavkova et al, I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Drawings and Poems from the Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944


Liza Wiemer, The Assignment


Elie Wiesel, Night


Susan’s wish list


The Blog: The Sydney Taylor Schooze


The Association of Jewish Libraries

Sydney Taylor Book Award


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