Auschwitz: True Tales From a Grotesque Land

If you are only going to read one book about Auschwitz, let this be the one. Sara Nomberg-Przytyk did an excellent job of conveying the atmosphere of the place, all those people trying to live surrounded by death and the deepest despair imaginable. It's the stuff of nightmares. I could see everything she wrote about, like on a grainy black and white film (for how can there be color in Auschwitz?) in my head.

I do, however, dearly wish it had been subject to fact-checking before publishing. I am sure the book is the truth in the sense that the author told the events as she remembered them. But her memory is not always accurate, and one entire chapter is devoted to describing an event which I know for a fact did not happen and could not show more have happened. That's the kind of thing Holocaust deniers like to grab onto and use to bolster their so-called position. show less

Wow, This was not an easy book to read but are any holocaust books? I think this one was even more so. These are memories from a survivor of Auschwitz. She shares details of individuals that are with her there from guards to other prisoners, There are stories about how people did awful things to save themselves and others of people that sacrificed themselves or put themselves at risk to help other prisoners. She goes through the hierarchy in the prison. Some people were able to go up in status for different reasons, sometimes, just because of who they knew. I guess I had never realized how different it was for various people in there. Some prisoners lived much better than others. They learned to find happiness at times but they also show more learned to just step over dead bodies without thinking about it. There was debating on whether or not it was kinder or more cruel to tell fellow prisoners what their fate was when they were heading to the showers or what would happen to them if they were sick or had children. There are people that you wonder what happened to them as we never find out. The chapter on the lovers hit hard.

What I always find interesting is how there seemed to be so much a fight to survive. To me, I don't know if I would have that or if I would be one to just give up. She states that there were very few suicides. How do people find the strength to go on in times like this? I am sure there are things that are not 100% accurate in this book as these were memories recalled years later but I am glad that I read this. It is a very haunting book on how people can treat others and the will to survive. show less