Holocaust Reading List - Background Reading for Wagner at Pacific Opera Victoria

Pacific Opera Victoria will present Richard Wagnerâ??s five-hour epic opera Die Walküre in October 2023. Although the music transcends, approaching Wagner in 2023 means reckoning with Wagner's influentially anti-Semetic views and the legacy that they have had.

This list offers some context for Wagner's views alongside the history of the real life impact those views have had.

Updated September 27, 2023
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Greater Victoria Public Library
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Chance : escape from the Holocaust
Shulevitz, Uri 1935-
Winner of the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Illustrated Books for Older Readers A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2020 A New York Times Best Children's Book of 2020 Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2020 Booklist Best...
The happiest man on Earth : the beautiful life of an Auschwitz survivor
Jaku, Eddie
WINNER OF THE ABIA BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR 2021Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you. Eddie Jaku always considered himself a German first, a Jew second. He was proud of his country. But all of that changed in November 1938, when he was beaten, arrested and taken to a...
In the garden of the righteous : the heroes who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust
Hurowitz, Richard
"In the Garden of the Righteous brilliantly describes how in the midst of the brutality of the Holocaust and the collaboration, acquiescence and passivity of millions, there were people who risked their lives to save others out of a sense of shared humanity. This book is more timely...
The last secret of the secret annex : the untold story of Anne Frank, her silent protector, and a family betrayal
Wijk, Joop van 1949-
A riveting historical investigation and family memoir that intertwines the iconic narrative of Anne Frank with the untold story of Bep Voskuijl, her protector and closest confidante in the Annex, bringing us closer to understanding one of the great secrets of World War II. Anne...
Plunder : a memoir of family property and Nazi treasure
Kaiser, Menachem 1985-
A New York Times Critics' Best Nonfiction Book of 2021 Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Biography From a gifted young writer, the story of his quest to reclaim his family's apartment building in Poland--and of the astonishing entanglement with Nazi treasure...
I want you to know we're still here : a post-Holocaust memoir
Foer, Esther Safran
NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS FINALIST * "Part personal quest, part testament, and all thoughtfully, compassionately written."--The Washington Post   "Esther Safran Foer is a force of nature: a leader of the Jewish people, the matriarch of America's leading literary...
When time stopped : a memoir of my father's war and what remains
Neumann, Ariana
In this remarkably moving memoir Ariana Neumann dives into the secrets of her father's past: years spent hiding in plain sight in war-torn Berlin, the annihilation of dozens of family members in the Holocaust, and the courageous choice to build anew. In 1941, the first...

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