Subtitled: 'A Doctor's Eyewitness Account'.

This relatively small book at 222 pages was written in 1946, shortly after the war. Dr. Nyiszli was a very well trained physician with forensic experience who, with his wife and daughter, was rounded up and sent in a train of cattle cars filled with Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. Dr. Mengele, who oversaw the place, sorted through the prisoners as they came in and he wanted a forensics-trained person who could perform accurate autopsies and the author fulfilled that role. The author was at Auschwitz for about eight months and this book relates the utter insanity of that place. The four crematoria that were used are described as are the 'Sonderkommando' Jewish prisoners who had the job of killing and cremating the Jews. The multiple methods used to kill prisoners are described.

The only prisoner revolt at Auschwitz was by the twelfth Sonderkommando group and they killed 70 SS men and suffered 853 of their own killed. (They were about to be executed at the time so chose to fight).

Auschwitz had a capacity of 140,000 prisoners and killed maybe 4,000,000 while it was in operation. (The author's estimate. Other numbers -all lower- have been stated also).

This book is another first person account of World War 2 events.

In the foreword by Internationally known child psychologist from the University of Chicago, Bruno Bettelheim, it is interesting how Bettelheim is critical of the author, and it sounds like he is critical of him for surviving. Or for what he considers collaboration.

Worth reading if you have any interest in this sort of story.

And what have those POS coward Europeans ever given us after we went over there twice and saved thier cowardly azzzes. Nothing but trouble.

I just ordered it. When I was stationed in Germany in the late 70s/early 80s, I went to two camps - Dachau and Natzweiler. I still cannot believe how humans could do this to others. The Nazis didn't corner the market on this kind of cruelty, but these events are recent. Talking with survivors of these and a couple of other camps was heart wrenching.

Yes, talking to them is really memorable. I've had two very good friends who were in the camps. They had stories that shouldn't be forgotten, but neither wrote books about them and didn't often speak of them.

I think it would be extremely difficult to talk about. Seeing friends or relatives for the last time, the appalling living conditions, the death and misery would be too much for many. It would have been unbearable for me.

It's interesting to me that they spoke more freely about it than most combat vets will to non-combat vets. And I'm talking about both Jewish and Christian victims of the Nazis.

I just got my copy today. I will start reading it tonight.

I went to Dachau as a side-trip to an Oktoberfest trip when I was stationed at Harvey Barracks at Kitzingen in 1978. Definitely an eye opening experience, even though Dachau was just the Beta test site for future/bigger concentration camps.

A good friend of mine was sentenced to 20 years there as a 'Judenfreund', - "Friend of the Jews".
He did have amazing stories to tell about that experience and his experiences which caused him to be sentenced.