Grade 7 Up-Gottfried has put a fascinating spin on the Holocaust by writing companion volumes in which one is devoted to the rise and fall of the tyrants and the other to the vastness and complexities of their victims. Martyrs follows the plight of minorities as the Nazis implemented their plans for the Final Solution. The first half of the book concentrates on the Jewish plight. The second half presents entire chapters chronicling the fate of the "other Untermenschen," including Aryan Gypsies (one to four million died), homosexuals (the Pink Triangle), the physically and mentally ill (as defined by the Nazis), enormous numbers of civilians and prisoners of war, and the many who resisted. Nazi Germany traces the origins of both Hitler and the National Socialist Democratic Party through the years of rejection to the years of tyranny.
