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WW2: The story of the smallest library in the world – and the most dangerous.
The Librarian of Auschwitz
What you need to know before your trail
Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezín ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious books the prisoners have managed to smuggle past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the secret librarian of Auschwitz, responsible for the safekeeping of the small collection of titles, as well as the ‘living books’ – prisoners of Auschwitz who know certain books so well, they too can be ‘borrowed’ to educate the children in the camp.
But books are extremely dangerous. They make people think. And nowhere are they more dangerous than in Block 31 of Auschwitz, the children’s block, where the slightest transgression can result in execution, no matter how young the transgressor…
Travel Guide
The true story of the Auschwitz Librarian
This is based on the incredible and moving true story of Dita Kraus, holocaust survivor and secret librarian for the children’s block in Auschwitz.
Dita Kraus was born Edita Polachova on July 12, 1929 in Prague and is known as the “Auschwitz Librarian”
She grew up in a house full of books in French, German and Czech.
They were deported to Theresienstadt in November 1942. A year later, in December 1943, Dita Kraus and her parents were sent to the Auschwitz -Birkenau camp. She had the number 73305 tattooed on her arm.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Librarian of Auschwitz
Destination: Auschwitz Author/guide: Antonio Iturbe Departure Time: WW2
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