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{en} George Eisen. Children and Play in the Holocaust: Games among the Shadows. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988.

Abstract

"Studies the importance of "playing" to the survival of children in Nazi organized ghettos and concentration camps. illustrates how the feeling of normalcy created through play, provided not only a means of control by adults ... But a psychological Force which allowed for spiritual survival. examines the nature of games played, emphasizing how games such as "blockade" and "gas Chamber" reflected the environment in which they were created and played."--Publisher description.

Contents

The child and the Holocaust -- Play and community -- Play and the children -- Play and the human spirit -- They play before they die.

About the author

George Eisen (b.1943) was born in German-occupied Hungary. As a little child he spent a year in hiding with his Jewish mother while his father was held prisoner in a concentration camp. He attended high school in Hungary, college in Israel and received a doctorate from the University of Maryland. He has taught in Cal Poly Pomona’s physical education department since 1979. He got the idea for his book while researching organized Jewish sports in pre-World War II Europe for his doctorate.