Auschwitz, a Tale of Wind

An interactive app to familiarize children with the story of the Holocaust. The delicate, touching narrative is paired with illustrations, animations, and music. Extra features include maps and a historical timeline.

Where to begin, with a story that «we are not prepared to understand» (Hannah Arendt) and that seems so distant from the present? This App helps children to approach and understand the Shoah through words, illustrations, music and interactive features. Simply, delicately, the tale encourages young readers to develop questions and seek answers about the tragedy of the extermination camps. The App tells the story of a father and his two children, Didier and Jou Jou, and their deportation to Auschwitz. The tragedy, however, is only suggested, looming in the background of a captivating, graceful, and poetic first-person narrative. Through the eyes of the two young protagonists—which act as the gaze of the reader—places and events in the concentration camp take on a magical, fairy-tale like quality: the chimney becomes a dragon, the barracks an aviary, the depository for the deported Jews’ belongings «the room for travellers». And set against their experience of the camp are memories of life from «before», now lost forever—their tender and reassuring days of life as a family.
The App includes a timeline of the Nazi persecution of Jews and of the Holocaust, as well as two maps of the main extermination camps and of the Jewish ghettos—all of which serve to help parents and teachers explain the fictional tale and move beyond the text to deepen childrens’ understanding of the surrounding history.

Elements included:
– 20 plates, with interactive features integrated with the story
– Original illustrations
– Original music
– Recorded narration in English and Italian
– Extra features: Holocaust timeline; maps

From the Educational App Store - Teachers’ review
“This superbly made app covers its difficult subject with sensitivity and integrity… It is a well-researched fiction that can offer teachers and parents some perfect discussion points. It certainly deserves to be seen by every child.”