Auschwitz: A History

by Sybille Steinbacher

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Description

At the terrible heart of the modern age lies Auschwitz. In a total inversion of earlier hopes about the use of science and technology to improve, extend, and protect human life, Auschwitz manipulated the same systems to quite different ends. In Sybille Steinbacher's terse, powerful new book, the reader is led through the process by which something unthinkable to anyone on earth in the 1930s had become a sprawling, industrial reality during the course of the Second World War. How Auschwitz show more grew and mutated into an entire dreadful city, how both those who managed it and those who were killed by it came to be in Poland in the 1940s, and how it was allowed to happen, is something everyone needs to understand.--From publisher description. show less

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5 reviews
A concise and thus the contents all the more appalling for its brevity: a factual account of the whole process by which cultivated, civilized Germany of the 1920s-40s descended into a depraved, genocidal nightmare perpetrated on Jews, Homosexuals, Gypsies etc. All made possible by the most mundane (yet egregiously vile) series of steps that created, organized and ran the purpose-built centre of Nazi slaughterhouse mentality that was AUSCHWITZ. A Concentration Camp for death by Gas Chamber, Forced Labour, summary Execution etc. for the inmates made up of Jews, Homosexuals, Gypsies & POWs.
The book concludes with a very brief chapter highlighting the ghastly attempts of recent decades to retell in a better light and/or deny that Auschwitz show more was an extermination camp.
The author deserves high praise for factually exposing such attempts as the falsifying fiction created by anti-Semites and racists.
show less
½
Brief overview of the history, inevitable that more information is required.
een zakelijke beschrijving van het kamp en de omgeving. Een rode draad of een eigen visie in het verhaal ontbreekt. Dat heeft voordelen bij een zo beladen onderwerp. Een uitgesproken visie kan dan hinderlijk in de weg zitten. Er zijn genoeg andere boeken die een interpretatie van Auschwitz geven. Helaas is het soms wat opsommerig en is het Duits niet altijd even soepel vertaald.
Lees verder....
½

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Published Reviews

Readers will learn how and why Auschwitz developed into the largest Nazi killing center, become introduced to some of the more well-known events of the camp, and explore the Nazi bureaucratic structure and complex, often-Byzantine camp organization, but they will not hear the many voices of camp inmates, camp guards, or auxiliary personnel.
Choice
added by kthomp25
For anyone wanting a brief and reliable explanation of how Auschwitz evolved into the epicenter of Nazi mass-killing.
Ian Kershaw, Book Cover
added by kthomp25
The author traces the history of the town of Auschwitz (known as Oswiecim under Polish rule) and of the camp and its subcamps. Steinbacher discusses the Nazis' extermination policy, their first experiments in mass killings, the construction of Birkenau, the murder of non-Jews, the town and camp after liberation, and the trials of several hundred SS members after the end of World War II. A show more final chapter deals with the extreme right-wing apologists who have denied the mass murder of the Jews. show less
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added by kthomp25

Author Information

11 Works 289 Members
Sybille Steinbacher is assistant professor in the Faculty of Modern and Contemporary History at the Ruhr University Bochum

Some Editions

Whiteside, Shaun (Translator)

Series

Belongs to Publisher Series

Common Knowledge

Classifications

Genres
History, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction
DDC/MDS
940.53History & geographyHistory of EuropeHistory of Europe1918-World War II, 1939-1945
LCC
D805.5 .A96 .S73713History of Europe, Asia, Africa and OceaniaHistory (General)World War II (1939-1945)
BISAC

Statistics

Members
266
Popularity
121,824
Reviews
4
Rating
(3.84)
Languages
5 — Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Spanish
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
16
ASINs
4