The Teacher of Auschwitz

'Haunting and beautiful. Excruciatingly vivid, The Teacher of Auschwitz is rigorously researched and true to the history, powerfully conveying what a smart, loving and energetic man Fredy was.' – Dr Elizabeth Baer, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

'The closest possible narrative a person who did not experience those times herself could have written... which will do justice to Fredy and all those victims.' – Dita Kraus, the real-life inspiration for The Librarian of Auschwitz and one of the last known survivors of the children's block

Fredy built a wall against suffering in their hearts...

At the dark heart of the Holocaust, there was a wooden hut whose walls were painted with cartoons; a place where children sang, staged plays, and wrote poetry. Safely inside, but still in the shadow of the chimneys, they were given better food, kept free of vermin, and were even taught meditation to imagine full stomachs and a day without fear. The man who became their guiding light was a young Jewish prisoner named Fredy Hirsch.

But being a teacher in such a brutal concentration camp was no mean feat. Whether it was begging the SS for better provisions or hiding his homosexuality from his persecutors, he risked his life every day for one thing: to protect the children from the mortal danger they all faced.

Time is running out for Fredy and the hundreds of children in his care. Can he find a way to teach them the one lesson they really need to know: how to survive?

From the bestselling author of Born Survivors, comes an assiduously researched and powerful new novel. Drawn from archives and survivor testimonies, historian and biographer Wendy Holden tells the inspirational and uplifting true story of Fredy Hirsch: The Teacher of Auschwitz.