Acceptance Suitcases
Through a generous contribution from the Memorial Foundation for Children and Mr. Morton Thalheimer in memory of his cousin Lisa Thalheimer the Virginia Holocaust Museum offers the Acceptance Suitcase Book Loaner Program. Available to classroom teachers at no charge, the Acceptance Suitcases provide classroom sets of books which focus on the history of the Holocaust, Genocide and Civil Rights.
Please contact Megan Ferenczy, Director of Education, to request an Acceptance Suitcase.
Books available to reserve include:
- Grades 6–8 Holocaust Acceptance Suitcases
- Grades 9–12 Holocaust Acceptance Suitcases
- Grades 6–8 Civil Rights Acceptance Suitcases
- Grade 6–8
Black Radishes by Susan Lynn Meyer
Inspired by her father’s experiences as a Jewish child living in France during World War II, Susan Lynn Meyer tells the story of a family’s day-to-day struggles in a country that may not be able to keep its promise of “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.”
- Grade 6–8
Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter
Fritz, the adult German narrator of Friedrich, describes the experiences he shared with his Jewish best friend and upstairs neighbor, Friedrich Schneider, from 1925 until 1942. 'He remembers events of the Nazi regime from the innocent and nonjudgmental viewpoint of his youth.
- Grade 6–8
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
A work of historical fiction by American author Lois Lowry, about the escape of a Jewish family from Copenhagen during World War II. The story centers on ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen, who lives with her family in Copenhagen in 1943. She becomes a part of the events related to the rescue of the Danish Jews, when thousands of Jews were helped to reach neutral ground in Sweden in order to avoid being deported to concentration camps.
- Grade 9–12
Salvaged Pages: Young Writer’s Diaries of the Holocaust by Alexandra Zapruder
During the Holocaust, from one end of Europe to the other, from before the outbreak of war until the liberation, young people kept journals and diaries. They carried their journals with them from their homes to hiding places, from transit camps to ghettos. Despite fear and repression, despite hunger, cold, exhaustion, and despair, young people documented their experiences and their impressions of their lives, and in so doing marked their places in the world.
- Grade 9–12
Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
A work by the Italian Jewish writer Primo Levi, it describes his arrest as a member of the Italian anti-fascist resistance during the Second World War, and his incarceration in the Auschwitz concentration camp from February 1944 until the camp was liberated on January 27, 1945.
- Grade 9–12
X-Men: Magneto Testament by Greg Pak
The definitive origin story of one of Marvel's greatest icons begins with a silver chain and a crush on a girl - and quickly turns into a harrowing struggle for survival against the inexorable machinery of Hitler's Final Solution.
- Grade 6–8
Students on Strike: Jim Crow, Civil Rights, Brown, and Me by John A. Stokes and Lois Wolfe, Ph.D.
John Stokes has waited more than 50 years to give his eyewitness account of "The Manhattan Project." This was the name he and a group of fellow students gave their strike at R.R. Moton High School that helped to end separate schooling for blacks and whites, not only in his home state of Virginia, but throughout America.
Other Recommended Resources
Charlottesville and Onward: A Discussion Guide
(The Virginia Holocaust Museum)
Questions To Ask When Using Primary Sources(The Virginia Holocaust Museum)
What We Carry(The Holocaust Commission of the UJFT)
Why is it Important to Teach the Holocaust?(USHMM)
Guidelines for Teaching the Holocaust(USHMM)
What Grade Level is Appropriate to Start Teaching the Holocaust(USHMM)
What Topics Should You Teach?(USHMM)