The Prisoners of Breendonk: Personal Histories from a World War II Concentration Camp

Fort Breendonk was built in the early 1900s to protect Antwerp, Belgium, from possible German invasion. Damaged at the start of World War I, it fell into disrepair . . . until the Nazis took it over after their invasion of Belgium in 1940. Never designated an official concentration camp by the SS and instead labeled a "reception" camp where prisoners were held until they were either released or transported, Breendonk was no less brutal. About 3,600 prisoners were held there--just over half of them survived. As one prisoner put it, "I would prefer to spend nineteen months at Buchenwald than nineteen days at Breendonk."

With access to the camp and its archives and with rare photos and artwork, James M. Deem pieces together the story of the camp by telling the stories of its victims--Jews, communists, resistance fighters, and common criminals--for the first time in an English-language publication. Leon Nolis's haunting photography of the camp today accompanies the wide range of archival images.

The story of Breendonk is one you will never forget.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Clarion Books
Published: 08/04/2015
ISBN: 9780544096646
Pages: 352
Weight: 1.90lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.30w x 1.00d

Review Citations: Booklist 04/01/2015 pg. 35
Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2015
Horn Book Magazine 07/01/2015 pg. 155
Voice of Youth Advocates 08/01/2015 - Recommended - Better Than Most
School Library Journal 10/01/2015 pg. 132
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 12/01/2015

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 175218 / Prisoners of Breendonk: Personal Histories from a World War II Concentration Camp
Reading Level: 8.3 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 10