The year was 1941, and Nazi Germany was bombing Poland. Celia
Kassow, a young Jewish girl, knew she was in danger of being seized by
the Nazis, so she ran to seek shelter at a Polish classmate’s house. The
classmate’s response?

“Get away from here, you dirty Jew.”

Celia
and her family, like all the Jewish families in their town, were then
imprisoned in a Nazi ghetto, facing daily starvation and torture. Most
of Celia’s family was murdered there, but a different Polish classmate
of Celia’s, a boy who had a crush on her, helped Celia escape to his
family’s farm, and eventually, into the woods to join the Soviet
partisans.

The partisans were resistance fighters who
gathered in secret during WWII to fight back against the Axis powers by
attacking German garrisons and blowing up trains. When Celia joined
them, the other partisans — mostly young men — wanted to put her on
kitchen duty, but Celia refused and asked to be put on patrol. She was
given a horse, ammunition, and an assignment.

Celia
survived the war fighting with the partisans. After the war, she would
go on to get married, have children, and immigrate to the United States,
where she lived out her days assisting other immigrants and raising her
family.

Her true story, based on first-person
testimony and vetted by Celia’s son, is one of incredible bravery and
grit in the face of unimaginable evil. 

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Meet Renee and Herta, two sister who faced the unimaginable—together.

As Jews in 1940s Czechoslovakia, Renee, Herta, and their parents were in immediate danger when the Holocaust came to their door. As the only hearing person in her family, Renee had to alert her parents and sister whenever the sound of Nazi boots approached their home so they could hide. When their parents were tragically taken away, the sisters went on the run, desperate to find safety. But Renee and Herta were captured and taken to the concentration camp in Bergen Belsen. Communicating in sign language and relying on each other for strength in the midst of illness, disease, and starvation, the sisters would have to fight to survive the darkest of times. This gripping memoir, told in vivid oral history format, is a testament to the power of sisterhood and love, and now more than ever, a reminder of how important it is to honor the past and keep telling our own stories.

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The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is one of history’s most powerful acts of resistance. Here, author Joshua M. Greene (Signs of Survival) tells the true story of a young Jewish woman who was instrumental in the uprising as a smuggler of messages and weapons into and out of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Scholastic Focus is the premier home of thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and thoughtfully designed works of narrative nonfiction aimed at middle-grade and young adult readers. These books help readers learn about the world in which they live and develop their critical thinking skills so that they may become dynamic citizens who are able to analyze and understand our past, participate in essential discussions about our present, and work to grow and build our future.

Warsaw, Poland, 1940s: The Nazis are on the march, determined to wipe out the Jewish people of Europe. Teenage Vladka and her family are among the thousands of Jews forced to relocate behind the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto, a cramped, oppressive space full of starvation, suffering, and death.

When Vladka’s family is deported to concentration camps, Vladka joins up with other young people in the ghetto who are part of the Jewish underground: a group determined to fight back against the Nazis, no matter the cost.

Vladka’s role in the underground? To pass as a non-Jew, sneaking out of the ghetto to blend into Polish society while smuggling secret messages and weapons back over the ghetto wall. Every move she makes comes with the risk of being arrested or killed. But Vladka and her friends know that their missions are worth the danger―they are preparing for an uprising like no other, one that will challenge the Nazi war machine.

This astonishing true story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, told through the lens of Holocaust survivor and educator Vladka Meed, introduces readers to a crucial piece of history while highlighting the persistence of bravery in the face of hate.

Coming soon

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Siggi B. Wilzig’s Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend

Unstoppable is the ultimate immigrant story and an epic David-and-Goliath adventure. While American teens were socializing in ice cream parlors, Siggi was suffering beatings by Nazi hoodlums for being a Jew and was soon deported along with his family to the darkest place the world has ever known: Auschwitz. Siggi used his wits to stay alive, pretending to have trade skills the Nazis could exploit to run the camp. After two death marches and near starvation, he was liberated from camp Mauthausen and went to work for the US Army hunting Nazis, a service that earned him a visa to America. On arrival, he made three vows: to never go hungry again, to support the Jewish people, and to speak out against injustice. He earned his first dollar shoveling snow after a fierce blizzard. His next job was laboring in toxic sweatshops. From these humble beginnings, he became president, chairman and CEO of a New York Stock Exchange-listed oil company and grew a full-service commercial bank to more than $4 billion in assets.

Siggi’s ascent from the darkest of yesterdays to the brightest of tomorrows holds sway over the imagination in this riveting narrative of grit, cunning, luck, and the determination to live life to the fullest.

The ultimate rags-to-riches adventure, one that follows a young boy from starvation on death marches to dinner at the White House. Siggi’s epic life began in poverty and ended with one of the most lucrative bank sales in Wall Street history—a survivor saga in a category of its own.

Unstoppable recounts the volcanic life of Siggi Wilzig, who survived the Holocaust and became one of the biggest—and most unexpected—successes in postwar American business. Siggi was a force of nature: an immigrant who arrived in New York penniless, with no formal education, and proceeded to build a $4 billion oil-and-banking empire. This is a survivor story in a category of its own, one that does not dwell on tragedy but celebrates human ingenuity and the power of faith. As renowned banking lawyer Rodgin Cohen put it, “Siggi was someone who would look at the Himalayan mountains and say, ‘I can climb that.’”