Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps

Book Description

"Think of it as a game, Jack.
Play the game right and you might outlast the Nazis."

Caught up in Hitler's Final Solution to annihilate Europe's Jews, fifteen-year-old Jack Mandelbaum is torn from his family and thrown into the nightmarish world of the concentration camps. Here, simple existence is a constant struggle, and Jack must learn to live hour to hour, day to day. Despite intolerable conditions, he resolves not to hate his captors and vows to see his family again. But even with his strong will to survive, how long can Jack continue to play this life-and-death game?

Award-winning author Andrea Warren has crafted an unforgettable true story of a boy becoming a man in the shadow of the Third Reich.

Customer Reviews:

Concerns about pre-teens.......2007-09-13

I haven't read the book, but my 11 year old checked it out at school. He was hooked on the story from the beginning.
However, I was surprised when he asked me "Mom, what is a homosexual?" He said that homosexuals were singled out to be victimized. He also
was upset about how children, especially those with disabilities were tortured and murdered.
I appreciate all the positive reviews here, but it really opened up a lot of issues for my son. Might be better suited to older children.

NO MENTION OF 3 MILLION POLISH CATHOLICS KILLED .......2007-06-28

The author makes a good effort to be objective, but drops the ball here and there. The biggest blunder seems to be in the summary of holocaust casualties. The author left out the fact that 3 Million Polish-Catholics were butchered by Hitler. This fact is often forgotten, and very hurtful, especially to the Poles who lost someone in the Polish holocaust or "Forgotten Holocaust.". A great book to read is Richard Lukas' "The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under nazi Occupation."

Surviving Hitler.......2007-01-31

I recently read the book Surviving Hitler by Andrea Warren. I not only thought it was one of the most fascinating books I thought it was very well written. I had been to the holocaust museum in Washing DC and I was mortified looking at everything, but this book really put me in the perspective of the boy who was close to my age. The book got better and better as it went on, and I am usually not very fond of non-fiction books. This book really makes you realize how you can survive anything that comes at you as long as you believe in yourself. You are automatically hooked and as soon as the book is over you wish there was still more to read. I would definitely recommend this book to any person, young or old, it's truly unbelievable.

I'm a Holocaust freak and I loved this book.......2006-12-19

This book is an awsome book i read the first chapter and i was hooked it is awsome.It is about a boy named jack who gets sent to a concetration camp and gets his arm tattoed witha number on it and he still has it on this arm he and his got seperatered at the train station and they died it is a very sad book but the ending makes up for the sadness. I was 9 when i read this book and loved it. THIS BOOK IS AWSOME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Surviving Hitler.......2006-12-14

Imagine urinating in the same cup you eat in. Imagine feeling fleas crawling all over you and sick people coughing on you. It doesn't exactly sound pleasant but that is the lifestyle the concentration camp prisoners had to go through. The book, Surviving Hitler, is a memorable and sad memoir that focuses on The Holocaust during World War 2. The book has a moving story, and a powerful message that has truly put a different perspective in my eyes on how crule people can be and how understanding people have to be.

This book is about a boy named Jack, who is a very fortunate Jewish boy living in Europe. Jack and his family move in with his uncle who lives in a nearby town. Jack's father stayed behind to get organized and then he would meet up with them after. He had to close up his shop, sell his place, and pack up the big furniture. Unfortunately, before he could meet his family he was put into a concentration camp. Three years later Jack is working and supporting his mom and little brother while his sister, Jadiza, goes to their Aunt and Uncles house to help them with aetheir new baby. Hitler's soldiers invade the town they are living in and later group all the Jewish families into the town square to send them to concentration camps. Jack gets separated from his family and starts a whole different life in the concentration camps. He learns to survive on his own and take what he can get. It is a very rough experience for him, and you have to read the book to see the outcome.

I really enjoyed how the author put black and white photographs in this sad but true story because it really helps you imaging the living conditions back then. The structure of the book is not terribly long, making it an easy read. What I truly love about this book is that the author is always keeping you on your toes and never drags on about one topic. This book sends out a powerful message that I never truly understood until I finished he novel. It taught me to never take anything for granted and to enjoy every moment possible. Of course I forget this message a lot and I do take a lot for granted but when in doubt I always try to remember this book. Jack also gets a message out of his experience in the concentration camps. He learns to live life to its fullest and try to help as many people as he can but still be cautious of his own well being. "Three years as a teenager in the death camps he survived through courage, luck, help from others, and sheer will. Like all survivors, he has much to teach us about bravery and self reliance, and about history and the lessons of the Holocaust." Surviving Hitler is a very moving book that can really make people change some of their views of the world.

In my opinion Surviving Hitler is one of the best books I've ever read. Not only has it intrigued me to know more about the Holocaust, it has actually interested me a little more in history in general. I would defiantly recommend this book and hope that the next person who reads it loves it as much as I have.

Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz

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Rudolph Hoess (Auschwitz Kommandant) and the Clarification of Some Holocaust Misconceptions
A very good tranlation
Rudolf Hoess' Mistress Interviewed
IT WAS NOT HOESS' FAULT
The Final Solution: An Inside View

Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz
Rudolf Höss
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306806983

Customer Reviews:

Rudolph Hoess (Auschwitz Kommandant) and the Clarification of Some Holocaust Misconceptions.......2007-05-31

I give this book five stars because of its historical value. This work not only gives insight into the mind of the leader of perhaps the greatest death factory ever built, but also allows a clearing-up of some errors that have accreted in the decades since that horrible time.

Hoess rejected God and the Church (p. 52-53, 57, 59, 72, 192), having rebelled against his father's wish that he become a priest. Like Himmler, he became an Artaman (pp. 202-203; a communal movement resembling the 1960's US communes, albeit Teutonic-centered) before switching to Nazism for his substitute religion.

Hoess wrote: "Until the beginning of 1942 the main body of prisoners was Polish." (p. 128). Many Poles were murdered secretly (the cause of death listed as natural), "...because of political and security reasons..." (p. 224).

During the Auschwitz Carmelite convent controversy, attempts were made to belittle the victimhood of Auschwitz Poles through the premise that they, unlike most Jews, were not generally killed upon arrival at Auschwitz. Hoess, in contrast, rejected any such dichotomy (if anything, praising the slow-death genocidal methods--as perfected by the Communists): "The Gestapo delivered the prisoners to the camps to be exterminated. It made no difference to them whether it happened by firing squad, gas, or by the horrible conditions in the camps. It was part of their plan not to improve conditions in the camps...Thus, the concentration camps were changed deliberately, and sometimes unintentionally, into large-scale extermination centers. The Kommandants received extensive composite reports from the Gestapo about the Soviet concentration camps. Escaped prisoners had made reports about the conditions and organization of these camps down to the smallest detail. They emphasized that by using forced labor methods the Soviets were annihilating entire nationalities." (pp. 168-169).

Holocaust-uniqueness advocates sometimes claim that the genocide of the Polish intelligentsia, unlike that of Jews, served a rational purpose--the elimination of resistance. Actually, the latter was, at most, a hoped-for byproduct of this nation-destroying act: "I want to add this, that the general opinion at SS headquarters was that the total annihilation of the Polish intelligentsia would also destroy the resistance movement. [SS Major] Thomsen was an ardent defender of this theory." (p. 322).

Initial plans to kill all Jews gave way to the sparing of some of them for forced labor (p. 34).

Hoess discussed the Jewish Sonderkommando in considerable detail. Those Jews temporarily got to save their lives by dutifully assisting in the deception, gassing, despoiling, and cremation of their fellow Jews. He also observed Jew-against-Jew behavior by some Jews who had no hope of postponing their own deaths. As they entered the gas chambers, they told Germans the addresses of fugitive Jews back home. Hoess commented: "I cannot explain what motivated them to reveal this information. Was it personal revenge, or were they jealous because they did not want the others to live on?" (p. 160).

In common with many Germans, Hoess attempts to rationalize his exterminatory conduct by equating it with the Allied bombings of German women and children. He estimates German civilian casualties in the several millions (p. 171), which is at least a 20-fold exaggeration.

As for lebensraum, Hoess belatedly concluded that Germany could have achieved it peacefully (p. 182).

Hoess suggested that crude propaganda such as Der Sturmer had hindered the development of scientific anti-Semitism (p. 140). He also came to believe that the extermination of Jews only brought hatred against Germany and increased Jewish power by discrediting anti-Semitism (p. 183).

This volume isn't limited to Hoess' memoirs. The entire Wannsee Protocol is printed in translation. It is obvious that the choice of Poland as the site of the German death camps was based solely on practical considerations (minimalized transportation) and had nothing to do with real or stereotyped Polish attitudes towards Jews: "State Secretary Dr. Buehler declared that the government of Occupied Poland would welcome it if the final solution to this question would be started in Occupied Poland. His reason: transport plays no important role here and the deployment of workers during the operation would not cause any problems." (p. 380).

A very good tranlation.......2007-01-06

My opinion is based on the comparison with the orginal publication in German, which I purchased in 1960 to provide essential information for the subsequent psychiatric evaluations of several thousand Holocaust survivors.

Rudolf Hoess' Mistress Interviewed.......2006-10-15

After Dachau was liberated, Army intelligence interviewed a woman at the camp who claimed to have been Rudolf Hoess' mistress while at Auschwitz. What details they could check were confirmed, and her interview became part of a Seventh Army report issued a few weeks later, a report that has been republished as Dachau Liberated: The Official Report (ISBN: 1587420031). For those who want to understand the infamous Hoess, that interview of "E.H." provides a much-needed check on his obviously self-serving autobiography. Here's a short passage from her interview:

"According to my recollection, on December 16, 1942, about 11 p.m. I was already asleep, suddenly the C.O. appeared before me. I hadn't heard the opening of my cell and was such frightened. It was dark in the cell. I believed at first it was an SS man or a prisoner and said, "What is this tomfoolery, I forbid you." Then I heard "Pst," and a pocket lamp was lighted and lit the face of the C.O. I broke out "Herr Kommandant."

Hoess didn't mention this clandestine affair in his autobiography, but details she gave fit with his account and with conditions at Auschwitz.

IT WAS NOT HOESS' FAULT.......2005-05-02

There is another autobiography of Hoess titled "Commandant of Auschwitz: The Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess". I would be interested in reading that account but am curious how that could differ from "Death Dealer". Given the circumstances the man at the end of his life did not have a whole lot of time to write different autobiographies. My guess is the two books are essentially the same.

As for Death Dealer itself it is not often one reads an account of the concentration camps from the "other side". I had read other summaries that portrayed Hoess as a mid-level cold-hearted bureaucrat whose account of his SS career was pretty much emotionless and he treated his activities in the same manner an accountant or a department store manager or a mechanic or (pick a career) would describe their career. I thought before reading the book that whatever one may say about him he would at least not grovel for forgiveness and would defiantly flip his middle finger at the world before climbing the steps of the gallows. After all, when he wrote his memoirs in 1946 and 1947, there was little suspense over what his fate would be. So sugar coating his past was not going to change his future.

Although there may have been some shred of decency in the man one could not escape the feeling that he recognized himself as a war criminal only because his captors called him a war criminal. In other words his "mea culpa" would probably not score high on the sincerity scale. The victorious Allies were the new authorities over his life and if they considered him guilty and a war criminal then he was guilty and a war criminal. Whether he personally thought so or not was not relevant. And that was pretty much how he conducted his life. Whoever his authority was pretty much controlled his life. He was the commandant of the most notorious of all Nazi death camps because his superiors made him the commandant. He killed because he was told to kill -- just as he was to die because he was told he had to die.

He admitted the horrible conditions of Auschwitz -- and other camps. It was not Hoess' fault. His superiors -- starting with Hitler and Himmler -- put impossible demands on him and did not provide adequate resources. The conditions were horrible and only got worse as the war progressed due to the lack of resources due to the stranglehold the Allies put on Germany. It was not Hoess' fault. The inadequate resources included inadequate officers, staff, and guards who committed many atrocities for which he had little or no control. It was not Hoess' fault. The inadequate resources included inadequate building material, latrines, barrack space, food, water, sanitation system, and medical supplies. It was not Hoess' fault. The concentration camp administration reflected the ideals of Thomas Eicke, the founder of the concentration camp system. It was not Hoess' fault.

Although the man blamed others for the nightmarish hell of Auschwitz and other concentration camps he accepted responsibility because it was engrained into him that the commandant is responsible for all activities within the concentration camp.

This may be as close as one may come to reading an account of the "other side". Although one's opinion of the Holocaust may not be altered by Rudolf Hoess he does share insight that one normally does not see about this dark chapter of the history of humanity. Most people know what it is like to be over tasked and under resourced. But most people do not know what it is like to be over tasked and under resourced in his particular career field.

The Final Solution: An Inside View.......2005-04-21

On April 16, 1947, Rudolph Hoess, the infamous Kommandant of Auschwitz was hanged in his former concentration camp for, "crimes against the Polish people." While awaiting trial, Hoess, who knew he would pay for his crimes with his life, sought to renew the spiritual connection he had eschewed as a youth. Accordingly, he recounted his time in the SS for his captors. His story is also that of the darkest side of the Third Reich.

The book begins with a discussion of the, "final solution," of the Jewish Question. He tells how he was ordered to establish a camp at Auschwitz for the purpose of eliminating, "enemies of the state." Details of camp construction and experiments to find the appropriate gas he describes without emotion. Yet he relates questions asked by young SS soldiers and inmates as to how small children could be an "enemy." His "party line" response fooled some, but never himself.

Hoess also describes the victims he tried to destroy. Jews had "strong family ties;" gypsies were, "childlike;" the Jehovah's Witnesses were worthy of emulation. The SS was challenged to have the same devotion to the Fuhrer as they had to Jehovah. In chapter 22 he describes the gassing process as only he could do. His primary concern was to dispatch his victims quickly and efficiently without displaying emotion that would affect young guards. Here, he admits, he hid behind an iron mask. Particularly interesting is the story of a young, extremely attractive, Jewish girl who fought back even as she was undressing for the gas chamber. Resistance was rare but in this case, effective, very effective!

The book describes his early life and the events that caused him and many others to blindly follow the SS motto: "Fuhrer, you order. We obey!" Hoess gives a detailed description of the hierarchy of the SS. Men, who had been portrayed as super-human, are shown to have been far short of that ideal. Alcoholism and suicide rates were high; competence was low! Still, operations continued despite all difficulties because, "Orders were orders!"

Death Dealer is a first person account of the operations of the most infamous death camp in history. After sending an estimated 2.5 million people to their deaths, the Kommandant, ended his life by doing one decent thing: he left his memoirs so no one could deny this ever happened. For that, the world owes Rudoph Hoess, the Kommandant of Auschwitz, a debt of gratitude.

Men With the Pink Triangle: The True, Life-And-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps

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Couldn't put it down!!!
A Moving and Powerful True Account of Survival
One Man's Story
A story that needs told more
This book profoundly touched me

Men With the Pink Triangle: The True, Life-And-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps
Heinz Heger
Manufacturer: Alyson Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1555830064

Amazon.com

It has only been since the mid-1970s that any attention has been paid to the persecution and interment of gay men by the Nazis during the Third Reich. Since that time, books such as Richard Plant's The Pink Triangle (and Martin Sherman's play Bent) have illuminated this nearly lost history. Heinz Heger's first-person account, The Men with the Pink Triangle, was one of the first books on the topic and remains one of the most important.

In 1939, Heger, a Viennese university student, was arrested and sentenced to prison for being a "degenerate." Within weeks he was transported to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp in East Germany, and forced to wear a pink triangle to show that his crime was homosexuality. He remained there, under horrific conditions, until the end of the war in 1945. The power of The Men with the Pink Triangle comes from Heger's sparse prose and his ability to recall--and communicate--the smallest resonant details. The pain and squalor of everyday camp life--the constant filth, the continuous presence of death, and the unimaginable cruelty of those in command--are all here. But Heger's story would be unbearable were it not for the simple courage he and others used to survive and, having survived, that he bore witness. This book is harrowing but necessary reading for everyone concerned about gay history, human rights, or social justice. --Michael Bronski

Customer Reviews:

Couldn't put it down!!!.......2006-02-26

Such a good book. It gives a different perspective on the Holocaust. It's a page turner...I couldn't put it down once I got past the first few pages. Everyone one should read!

A Moving and Powerful True Account of Survival.......2003-12-08

A sodomy law had been on the German law books since 1871, a law known simply as Paragraph 175. Only a few people were ever sentenced under this obscure law until June of 1935 when, after the rise of Hitler and Nazism, the Nuremberg laws were enacted and the consequences of Paragraph 175 strengthened. Where once before, you had to be caught in the act of same sex relations, now simply receiving a letter or the spreading of idle gossip would have you sent to a concentration camp.

"The Men with the Pink Triangle" is one anonymous man's account of the harshness and cruelty faced by gay men at the hands of the SS and the ruling Nazi party, as well as by the other prisoners -- criminals, politicals, emigrants -- who viewed "filthy queers" as lower than the rest of them. They were distinguished by the large, pink triangles sown onto their prison outfits, making them easy targets for taunts and punishments. Also, homosexuals labored through the worst of the work details and "volunteered" for medical experimentation, which usually resulted in their deaths.

Some advantages also appeared for gay men. The "Capos" who were in charge of the prisoner barracks, often made lovers of some of the prisoners, giving them some protection and better rations and clothing. As is says in the book: "Homosexual behavior between two 'normal' men is considered an emergency outlet, while the same thing between two gay men, who both feel deeply for one another, is something 'filthy' and repulsive." The anonymous man used this to his advantage and survived the camps and the threat of being sent to the front lines.

Ths is a moving and powerful story about survival and about the right to be who you are, during one of the darkest times in world history. Highly recommended.

One Man's Story.......2003-05-25

Although short, this man's story could have benefitted from some thoughtful editing. Powerfully recounting his persecution at the hands of the Nazi regime, a full picture could have been painted had the author continued to tell its affects on the rest of his life AFTER World War II. An important book, no doubt, and definitely to be included in any Holocaust library.

A story that needs told more.......2003-01-23

I figure we teach school kids about the Jews suffering in the Holocaust, and the blacks struggle for Civil Rights. It would make sense that kids learn the dangers of homophobic bigotry, by reading this book. It will open your eyes! The same anti-gay stereotypes then, are the same ones now.

This book is about a gay man who survived the Pink Triangle, and took him over 25 years to tell his story, as their were still many anti-gay laws on the books there. This man never wanted any public or economic gains from telling his story. In fact the Nazis had more contempt for the gays than they did the 'inferior racial groups' they persecuted.

This book profoundly touched me.......2002-01-09

I read this short book in one sitting and was so moved I had to re-read it again the next evening. All people, I feel, will identify with the story on some level. I have passed this book around my circle of friends, and their emotions ranged from anger and disgust toward the Nazis to profound sadness and sympathy towards the writer. This book is not for the depressed or overly sensative! Oftentimes, one forgets the impact of Nazi aggression on those who experienced torture firsthand. I only wish more was known about the Third Reich's war on gay men.

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Briar Rose(unabridged Audio Cass)
JANE YOLEN
Manufacturer: Recorded Books, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: B000COZZOU

Product Description

Both heartbreaking and heartwarming, Yolen's novel is a compelling reminder of the Holocaust as well as a contemporary tale of secrets and romance - Booklist. Five (5) audiocassettes (7 hours listening).

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Sobibor: A History of a Nazi Death Camp
Jules Schelvis
Manufacturer: Berg Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1845204190
Release Date: 2007-10-02

Book Description

Auschwitz. Treblinka. The very names of these Nazi camps evoke unspeakable cruelty. Sobibor is less well known, and this book discloses the horrors perpetrated there.

Established in German-occupied Poland, the camp at Sobibor began its dreadful killing operation in May 1942. By October 1943, approximately 150,000 people had been murdered there. Sobibor is not well documented, and were it not for an extraordinary uprising in October 1943, we would know little about it. On October 14th, prisoners staged a remarkable uprising in which three hundred men and women escaped. The author identifies only forty-seven who survived the war.

Sent in June 1943 to Sobibor, where his wife and family were murdered, Jules Schelvis has written the first book-length, fully documented account of the camp. He details the creation of the killing center, its personnel, the use of railways, selections, forced labor, gas chambers, escape attempts, and the historic uprising.

In documenting this part of Holocaust history, this compelling and well-researched account advances our knowledge and understanding of the Nazi attempt to annihilate the European Jews.

Auschwitz: The Story of a Nazi Death Camp (Watts Nonfiction)

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Hard To Read

Auschwitz: The Story of a Nazi Death Camp (Watts Nonfiction)
Clive A. Lawton
Manufacturer: Candlewick
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0763615951
Release Date: 2002-07-22

Book Description

Through startling first-person narratives, a rare collection of photographs, and expert storytelling, a renowned authority traces the history of Auschwitz from World War II to the present day.

"In less than ten minutes all the fit men had been selected. . . .
Of the more than 500 others, not one was living two days later."
- Primo Levi, Auschwitz survivor
"When they told us to undress, they made us feel like animals.
The men were walking around and laughing and looking at us.
I wanted the ground to open up and for me to be swallowed by it."
- Lily Malnick, Auschwitz survivor
"By the time they took us back to the barracks at night we could
barely crawl. But we needed to show that we could still walk,
that we were strong enough to give one more day."
- Fritzie Fritshall, Auschwitz survivor

Between March 1942 and January 1945, at least 1.5 million people were systematically murdered at Auschwitz. Some were sent to their death immediately upon arrival, some were sentenced to the slower, living death
of slave labor, and some were the victims of gruesome medical experiments. In the middle of Europe and in the middle of the twentieth century, ordinary people, living ordinary lives, helped to do this. How did it happen?

In this extraordinary resource for young readers, Clive A. Lawton provides a look at those who helped transform an abandoned army barracks into the notorious Nazi death camp known as Auschwitz, and of the countless men, women, and children who lost their lives there. Included are many photographs from what may be the only surviving photo album from Auschwitz, an album found, in a strange twist of fate, by a prisoner escaping from another camp - who discovered within the album’s pages the faces of loved ones who had perished at Auschwitz.

Customer Reviews:

Hard To Read.......2004-02-06

Oh dear God, how could you allow this hell to take place? This book shows us the center of hell, Auschwitz, that killed 2 million innocent Jews. 1/3 of the the 6 mill that perished from that Hitler!!

Escape from Sobibor: The Heroic Story of the Jews Who Escaped from a Nazi Death Camp

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Escape from Sobibor: The Heroic Story of the Jews Who Escaped from a Nazi Death Camp
Richard Rashke
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Survival In Auschwitz

ASIN: 0395318319

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SAVE YOUR MONEY
Badly edited - for historians only
Essential Reading
Bad Report

Dachau Liberated: The Official Report
U S. Seventh Army
Manufacturer: Inkling Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1587420074

Book Description

This is the official U.S. Army report of the terrible conditions at the Dachau concentration camp in Nazi Germany and of the camp's liberation on April 29, 1945. It was written within days of that liberation and contains valuable photographs, sketches and first-person accounts. It includes an interview with a woman who claimed to have been Rudof Hoess's mistress at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Copies of the original report are hard to obtain. This is the first time it has been published as a book.

Customer Reviews:

SAVE YOUR MONEY.......2005-04-29

In defense of whoever wrote this report in 1945 they probably were not professional writers nor did they expect their report to be offered to the public 50+ years later. For that reason I gave the book two stars instead of one. This is a very dry, unemotional, bland report that is rather disjointed.

Although I did not expect a professional effort I had expected something substantive -- maybe more along the lines of a description of the advance upon the town of Dachau, the capturing of the camp, the surrender of the German guards left behind, the actions taken against the Germans (including summary executions and reprisals by the inmates), and the liberation of the survivors. Instead it is a very dry attempt to explain the camp organization and what occurred there.

The report was written only days after the liberation and contributes nothing to an understanding about the camp, the inmates, the guards, and the activities surrounding the liberation of the camp. Its historical value is only in when it was written and from where. Otherwise there was no value to this book.

Badly edited - for historians only.......2005-04-18

This booklet is a reprint of the various short reports that the American Army sent home on Dachau concentration camp when they liberated it in 1945. As a source, it is very interesting; how did the liberators react to the camp they found? What was their impression of the Germans who lived in the town of Dachau?
As can be expected from a report written early after the war, there are many mistakes in the reports. This would not have been a problem if the book had been properly edited. Unfortunately, someone who is not very knowledgeable on the subject edited the book. There are many mistakes in the German quotations. The camp is also wrongly referred to as a death camp. Death camps differed from concentration camps in that people did not work there, but were killed immediately after arrival. These camps only existed in Poland. The Dachau gas chamber is described but it is now widely accepted that this chamber was hardly (possibly never) used to kill people. That the editor fails to point this out is not just negligent, but it also gives ammunition to the so-called revisionists or holocaust deniers who claim that gas chambers were never in use. They often use Dachau as an illustration of the "false" impression that there were gas chambers.
There are other illustrations of the lack of insight of the editor. For instance, the report of the former mistress of Rudolf Hoess camp commandant of Auschwitz. Her name is only given abbreviated, while there are other reports on her, giving her name as Eleonore Hodys, for instance Hermann Langbeins book People in Auschwitz. This book also offers more information on the affair. Without a further introduction, Hodys' testimony makes little sense at it is on Auschwitz concentration camp.
For the professional historian it can be a valuable source of information, but general readers should avoid this book. It is a bad introduction on concentration camps for the non-professional. Many other books offer more accurate information on Dachau and other concentration camps.

Essential Reading.......2004-06-10

For serious students of the Holocaust, this report of the United States' Seventh Army staff should be required reading. The chilling diary that is paired with the report lends further evidence to the degradation and beasitality of the Nazi regime as played out in suburban Munich.

Bad Report.......2003-05-03

Disappointed and just a little bit mad, that sums up my feelings after reading this book. I had high hopes for the book given that I had read a similar book on another camp that was very good. This book, on the other hand just was very lacking in detail and organization. The book is the 7th Army's report on the camp issued shortly after the liberation. The book tried to cover the set up of the camp, what took place in the camp, the make up of the SS staff, and a few personnel accounts of time in camp. The authors just did none of these items very well. The book was poorly organized. The coverage of the camp set up and running of the camp was far too short and really lacked in detail. And the personnel accounts were mainly of people in somewhat privileged support roles quite unlike the average prisoner.

I wish this was the extent of my issues with the book, but on top of all this the writing just was not that good. The writing was rather jumpy and not very challenging. It was like reading a bad high school history report. Overall I would pass on this book. There are far too many quality books covering this topic to spend any time on this one. The only reason I am giving the book a two is I somehow feel guilty about giving a very low rating to book dealing with such a horrible event.

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Creator of Nazi Death Camps: The Life of Odilo Globocnik
Berndt Rieger
Manufacturer: Vallentine Mitchell
ProductGroup: Book
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