While it lasted, Block 31 (in the Auschwitz extermination camp) was home to five hundred children, together with several prisoners who had been named “counselors.” Despite the strict surveillance they were under and against all odds, the Block housed a clandestine children’s library. It was tiny, consisting of eight books, including A Short History of the World by H. G. Wells, a Russian grammar, and another book on analytical geometry.… At the end of each day, the books, along with other treasures such as medicine and some food, were entrusted to one of the oldest girls, whose task it was to
...more
