Reviewed by Carol Thompson for Readers' Favorite

Stories of the Holocaust: Art for Healing and Renewal, Volume I, edited by Karen Berman and Gail Humphries, brings together an international group of artists, scholars, educators, and witnesses to explore how theater, music, and dance have sustained Holocaust memory. The book is organized around the idea that the arts do more than preserve history. They create spaces where human stories remain individualized, resisting the Nazi effort to reduce lives to numbers. Across its chapters, the volume examines performances staged in response to genocide, works created in ghettos and camps, and contemporary productions that continue to teach moral responsibility. Essays address projects such as reinterpretations of The Diary of Anne Frank, plays emerging from Terezín, and compositions shaped by partisan songs of resistance. The contributors consider how creative expression became both a form of protection and a mode of defiance, offering sustenance amid oppression.

Karen Berman and Gail Humphries write thoughtfully and interdisciplinarily. Many chapters move fluidly between historical context and reflections on rehearsal rooms, classrooms, and concert halls. The pacing is organized into thematic sections, each introduced with reflections that connect individual stories to broader lessons on trauma, survival, and moral courage. Readers will appreciate how the volume highlights the practical work of educators and artists, including talkbacks, study guides, and performance methods that invite dialogue rather than passive consumption. The prose often conveys a quiet urgency, insisting that art can confront silence and sustain memory across generations Stories of the Holocaust, Volume I is for readers drawn to Holocaust studies, performance studies, cultural history, and the ethics of representation, as well as anyone interested in how music, theater, and dance can shape understanding, compassion, and keep human voices present in history’s darkest moments.