Holocaust literature for young adults : a content analysis of disturbing elements in selected memoirs

This thesis deals with the content analysis of ten Holocaust memoirs recommended for young adults, and which were written by ten Jewish Holocaust survivors. The content analysis used the elements of violence, hunger, rebellion, sense of loss and abandonment, loneliness, hope and redemption, spirituality, loss of emotional stability, and shame. Since the Holocaust is inherently, and therefore inevitably about violence, young people, for the reason of developing humaneness must learn about this aspect. Having Holocaust memoirs shed another light on people's capability of good and evil, the child is provided with a full range of human personality traits from which he will develop an identity for himself. By reading and discussing memoirs and books about the Holocaust, the memory of this dark period in history remains alive in people's minds which may prevent it from happening again.Arts, Faculty ofLibrary, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School ofGraduat