Hidden Books

Imagine living in a place where owning or even borrowing a book could get you—and anyone who gave you one—killed. During the Holocaust, Jews and other nationalities or religious groups who didn’t fit the Nazi ideal of the Aryan race were considered “non-people” and therefore expendable. They weren’t allowed to live like others, and their lives were deemed unworthy of care. Friends and neighbors were often expected to turn them in to be deported to ghettos or even killed. They were frequently powerless to help themselves, yet many never lost hope. When the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939, persecution of Jews began almost immediately. Life was hard for everyone, but children were often in greater danger than anyone else. Many were too young to work, making them even less “important” in the eyes of the Nazis. To make it worse, they were often separated from their parents, losing everything familiar to them.

In 1942, 13-year-old Dita Polachova and her parents were deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, where life became even harsher. Later, they were sent to Auschwitz, where Dita’s father died. She and her mother were forced into labor in Germany and eventually sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where her mother also died. Despite enduring immense loss, Dita never gave up. She risked her life to protect eight books smuggled in by Auschwitz prisoners, hiding them in her smock and circulating them among the children in Block 31. Books were forbidden in the camps, as the Nazis sought to deny prisoners any knowledge of the outside world or access to educational materials. Believing the prisoners would not survive, the Nazis saw no need for them to have anything but work and death.

The prisoners had their own ideas. Inside the walls was a family camp called BIIb, where children could play and sing, though schooling was forbidden. Still, the Nazis couldn’t completely impose their will. Defying orders, Fredy Hirsch set up a small but impactful school to care for the children while their parents labored in the camp. The biggest challenge was finding materials—books had to be hidden from Nazi guards at all costs. In January 1944, Hirsch chose Dita, a courageous and independent young woman from Prague, to become the new Librarian of Auschwitz, a role she embraced with great dedication.

While her parents struggled to survive in Auschwitz, Dita fought her own battle to protect the books that brought joy to the camp’s children. These books offered a brief escape from the grim reality surrounding them. As the war went on, Dita continued to serve the teachers and children of Block 31 with dedication. Her situation worsened when her father died of pneumonia in the camp, leaving her alone with her aging, weakening mother. Realizing the camp was merely a front for Nazi propaganda, Dita battled despair and questioned the value of her life. By March 1944, hopelessness deepened when the Nazis announced that inmates from the previous September would be transferred—code for execution. The BIIb camp continued until news broke of its liquidation, with the healthy separated from the rest. Liesl, Dita’s frail mother, narrowly managed to sneak into the group deemed fit to work alongside her daughter, and they were sent to Bergen-Belsen. Just as Dita felt the end was near, Allied forces liberated the camp, but it was too late for her mother, who died shortly after the English arrived. Though free at last, Dita paid a heavy price—one most can hardly imagine. She later married author Otto Kraus, and together they settled in Israel as teachers.