It is the beginning of a new year, and there is so much division in the world between various factions, it’s hard to know where to begin. Klara’s Truth which came out six months ago is about trauma and healing within the context of the present-day repercussions of the Holocaust. It’s about both learning from our history so we don’t repeat the ongoing fighting and killing of one another, and it’s also about healing from our history so that the wounds can be addressed, and the mending can begin. How do we heal from our history? The first step is to discuss this history by reading about it. Books are a key part of our education and subsequent healing process.

Pen America, a nonprofit organization that works to protect free expression and human rights through literature, states that in the 2023-2024 school year more than ten thousand books were banned in public schools, a 200% increase from the previous school year. And it is books by authors of color, LGBTQ+ authors, and women. These are books that have long waited their turn to be published. They include books about racism, sexuality, gender, and history.Surprisingly, there are many beloved childhood classics on this list like Charlotte’s Webb, Are You There, God? It’s me Margaret, and temporarily, Brown Bear Brown Bear to name a few. One of these books, Maus, by Art Spiegelman, was banned by McMinn County’s School Board(in Tennessee) from its eighth- grade curriculum in January 2022 for “inappropriate language, an illustration of a nude woman drawn as a mouse, violence, and suicide.” Maus, which came out in 1986 is a Pulitzer-Prize winning graphic novel which illustrates the story of Spiegelman’s Jewish parents who survived the Holocaust. Spiegelman depicts Jewish characters as mice and Nazis as cats. The book’s main theme is guilt, as many Holocaust survivors have suffered from depression and survivor’s guilt.

The McMinn County decision to ban Maus was widely interpreted by many as a rejection or disregard for Holocaust education. While many of the other books being banned have also been called out for “inappropriate language” and the like, there has been a very clear pattern of suppression regarding more marginalized groups and topics that make people uncomfortable. What are we so afraid of? That we may become a more compassionate and inclusive society?

This May 2025 will mark eighty years since Germany surrendered and the Second World War in Europe officially came to an end. In the preceding months, the Allies had liberated hundreds of Nazi camps, revealing the extent of the Holocaust’s horror. At least 20,000 books have been written about the Holocaust, including books for children and works that explore its psychological impact. It is imperative that we learn about, remember, and process our history so that we can pay our proper respects to those taken from us, support those who survived, hold the perpetrators accountable, and question how the hell this could have ever happened in the first place.

Book bans, particularly those targeting the most vulnerable groups in our society, are dangerous. They limit our youth from learning about themselves and the world around them, thus promoting a lack of acceptance and increased hatred and anger toward otherness.