The Librarian of Auschwitz: The Graphic Novel
About this ebook
‘It wasn’t an extensive library. In fact, it consisted of eight books and some of them were in poor condition. But they were books. In this incredibly dark place, they were a reminder of less sombre times, when words rang out more loudly than machine guns . . .’
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 . . .
Based on the incredible and moving true story of Dita Kraus, holocaust survivor and secret librarian for the children’s block in Auschwitz.
About the author
Antonio Iturbe was born in 1967 and grew up in the dock-side neighbourhood of Barceloneta, in Barcelona. He studied Information Sciences at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and over the past fifteen years has worked as a cultural journalist. In 2005, he made his debut as a novelist with the comic novel Rectos torcidos and has written for children with the series Los Casos del Inspector Cito, a collection of the stories he used to read to his son at bedtime. He is the author of the international bestseller The Librarian of Auschwitz and The Prince of the Skies.
Salva Rubio is a Spanish author and historian. His credits include the graphic novels Monet: Itinerant of Light and The Photographer of Mauthausen.
Loreto Aroca is a Spanish artist and a graduate of the University of Castilla-La Mancha. She previously won the school’s Luna de Aire Award, honoring the best poetry aimed at children, for her and Fran Pintadera’s book Portrait of the Pinzón Family (Retrato de la familia Pinzón).
Lilit Žekulin Thwaites is an award-winning Melbourne-based literary translator (Spanish>English). Her book-length translations include the bestselling The Librarian of Auschwitz (Antonio Iturbe, 2017), Australian Connection (multiple authors, 2019), and two futuristic novels by Rosa Montero, Tears in Rain (2012), and Weight of the Heart. (2016). In 2016, she was awarded Spain’s Order of Civil Merit for her promotion of Spanish culture in Australia.
