Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers

This was the most difficult book I have ever read, and one of the most important books I will ever read. I found I was unable to read the text for long periods of time; I would become overwhelmed with a host of emotions that had to be dealt with... But I did finish the book, and feel better for it. This story must be told, for the past and especially for the future.

The experience of reading this book will be with me for the rest of my life. I highly recommend this book for any serious student of the Holocaust or modern genocide.

Eyewitness Auschwitz by Filip Müller is one of the grimmest books you will ever read. If you are interested in learning just how the exterminations took place, from the arrival of the unfortunate victims to how they were treated afterwards, this is essential reading. Read some books about how people ended up in Auschwitz, and you will have a very good understanding of the whole despicable operation.

Eyewitness Auschwitz was written by a Polish Jew who was sent to Auschwitz, and soon after, was part of the crew that built the crematoria in one of Nazi Germany's most notorious camps. He left Auschwitz on a march as the Allies were approaching the camp.

Mueller details life as he and other members of the sonderkommando ("special detail") were charged with destroying the corpses of those who died in camp or were killed in the gas chambers. He also discusses the revolt by members of the sonderkommando, the day-to-day operations of the camp and the dramatic measures inmates had to take so they could survive.

The book is written in great detail and is a horrific story to tell, but a very important witness to the times. Since many members of show more the sonderkommando did not survive (many were killed after a few months on duty because of the secrets they knew), this is a very important voice. show less

One of the most harrowing, but important, books I’ve ever read. Filip Müller’s story, like so many others, must never be forgotten.

Harrowing but enthralling. Voyeuristic? And very sad.

Eyewitness Auschwitz,
Three Years in the Gas Chambers
Written By: Filip Muller
Published by Ivan R Dee, Chicago, 1st Ed. By this Publisher, Published in Association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1999, paperback, 180 pages.

“Eyewitness Auschwitz is an exceptionally graphic, in-depth and carefully recounted description of Filip Muller’s improbable three-year survival in the Gas Chambers of Auschwitz, one of the most infamous Nazi Extermination Camps”BCM

Filip Muller was born in Sered, Czechoslovakia in 1922. He was a young man with the promising future of being a great fiddle player and possibly as a writer.
Then in 1942, Filip was deported to Auschwitz, when he was just 20 years old and his life and indeed his very show more soul, would never be the same again.
When he arrived in Auschwitz, Filip was permanently tattooed with the prisoner number 29236 and then sent to work in the gassing chambers soon after.
As a part of the Sonderkommando(Jewish prisoners/workers), Filip Muller was forced to work under the threat of torture, deprivation and extermination if he did not do as he was ordered by his captors.
He slaved-away with many other sonderkommando’s, performing tasks that sickened him and shattered his sense of humanity because of his own desire to live just one more day. Filip’s need to survive was not always forefront in his mind and at one point during his imprisonment he was ready and wanted to die; to finally escape from Auschwitz and all of its horrors. His captors had other ideas though and prevented him from ending his life until they decided it was his time to die.
Filip was witness to and or assisted in the physical labour required to...

**Please follow the link to read the whole review of 'Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers' http://bookreviewsbybobbie.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/book-review-5/ show less