THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion
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Books & Discussion on the Holocaust
Just stumbled across this book which sounds very in-depth on the subject of the Concentration camps located in Poland during WW2:
by Yitzhak AradDescription:
Between the years 1942 and 1943, under the code name Operation Reinhard, more than one and a half million Jews were gassed in the concentration camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, located in Nazi-occupied Poland. Jewish survivors of the operation numbered fewer than 200. Yitzhak Arad reveals, here, the complete story of Operation Reinhard for the first time.
Using sources previously overlooked, such as German and Polish official records and testimonies from Nazi war criminal trials, Arad records the history of the Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka death camps from their construction in 1941 to their destruction in 1943. He describes the camps' physical layouts, the process of extermination used, and the actions of the SS men and Ukrainian guards who operated the camps. Arad tells the tale of the death camps' inmates - though many of their lives lasted but a few hours following their arrival - his underground organizations, the revolts and escapes, and the details concerning the day-to-day survival of those spared instant death in the gas chambers. Arad's work retrieves the experience of Operation Reinhard's victims and survivors from obscurity and bears eloquent witness to the tragedy, which was theirs.
Yitzhak Arad, Chairman of Yad Vashem, Holocaust Remembrance Authority, is a lecturer in Jewish History at the University of Tel Aviv and author of Ghetto in Flames: Story of the Vilna Ghetto.
by Yitzhak Arad
This sounds like a very interesting, but I dare say, disturbing account that may interest some members:
by David KokerDescription:
David Koker's diary is one of the most notable accounts of life in a German concentration camp written by a Jew during the years of the Holocaust. First brought to attention when the Dutch historian Jacob Presser-Koker's history teacher in high school-quoted from Koker's diary in his monumental history, published in English as The Destruction of the Dutch Jews (1968), the diary itself became a part of the Dutch literary canon when it was published in 1977 as Dagboek geschreven in Vught (Diary Written in Vught). It has remained in print ever since, and is notable for its literary qualities, weaving poetry and powerful observations of the emotional life of a camp prisoner, including reflections after an in-person visit by Heinrich Himmler. Surprisingly, the book has never before been translated into English.
During his time in the Vught concentration camp, the 21-year-old David recorded on an almost daily basis his observations, thoughts, and feelings. He mercilessly probed the abyss that opened around him and, at times, within himself. David's diary covers almost a year, both charting his daily life in Vught as it developed over time and tracing his spiritual evolution as a writer. Until early February 1944, David was able to smuggle some 73,000 words from the camp to his best friend Karel van het Reve, a non-Jew.
With an informative introduction, annotation, and list of dramatis personae by Robert Jan van Pelt, At the Edge of the Abyss offers an immediate and wholly original look into the life of a concentration camp prisoner.
Review:
"A single book can earn a writer a permanent place in literature, but to do that it has to be exceptional . . .I do not think that, after reading the book, anyone will dispute that Dagboek geschreven in Vught fulfills that condition." - Ivan Sitniakowsky, Telegraaf, writing about the Dutch edition
About the Author:
David Koker was transported to the Vught Concentration Camp in 1943. During his time in Vught, David recorded on an almost daily basis his observations, thoughts and feelings. Unlike Anne Frank, who had a purposefully made diary book available in her hiding place, David did not have such a luxury in the camp. He wrote his entries on whatever scraps of paper he was able to find. Most of the paper was the rolling paper for cigarettes-available as the result of a lack of cigarette tobacco. Until early February 1944, David was able to smuggle some 73,000 words from the camp to his best friend Karel van het Reeve, a non-Jew. The part of the diary that David kept between 8 February 1944 and June 1944, when he was deported to Poland, did not survive the war.
This looks like another interesting book offering the reader a fascinating and untold story:
by Witold PileckiDescription:
In 1940, the Polish Underground wanted to know what was happening inside the recently opened Auschwitz concentration camp. Polish army officer Witold Pilecki volunteered to be arrested by the Germans and reported from inside the camp. His intelligence reports, smuggled out in 1941, were among the first eyewitness accounts of Auschwitz atrocities: the extermination of Soviet POWs, its function as a camp for Polish political prisoners, and the “final solution” for Jews. Pilecki received brutal treatment until he escaped in April 1943; soon after, he wrote a brief report. This book is the first English translation of a 1945 expanded version. In the foreword, Poland’s chief rabbi states, “If heeded, Pilecki’s early warnings might have changed the course of history.” Pilecki’s story was suppressed for half a century after his 1948 arrest by the Polish Communist regime as a “Western spy.” He was executed and expunged from Polish history. Pilecki writes in staccato style but also interjects his observations on humankind’s lack of progress: “We have strayed, my friends, we have strayed dreadfully... we are a whole level of hell worse than animals!” These remarkable revelations are amplified by 40 b&w photos, illustrations, and maps.
Reviews:
“Earthshaking. A book which I hope will be widely read.” — Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Center for Strategic & International Studies
“A shining example of heroism that transcends religion, race and time…This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the Holocaust.” — Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland
"A real contribution to our understanding of the history of Poland under Nazi occupation.” — Antony Polonsky, the Albert Abramson Professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University
“An Allied hero who deserved to be remembered and celebrated.” — Professor Norman Davies, historian and author (Vanished Kingdoms)
“This remarkable book...may shock but will surely enlighten. Here is a portion of the Auschwitz story that needed to be told.” — Gerhard L. Weinberg, the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, internationally recognized authority on Nazi Germany
"One man volunteered for Auschwitz, and now we have his story. . . Pilecki’s report on Auschwitz, unpublishable for decades in Communist Poland and now translated into English under the title “The Auschwitz Volunteer,” is a historical document of the greatest importance." - Timothy Snyder, Yale Professor, author of Bloodlands The New York Times Sunday Book Review
“A historical document of the greatest importance.” The New York Times “Editors’ Choice”
“Extraordinary.” Maclean’s (Canada)
message 155:
by
Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
(new)
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "This sounds like a very interesting, but I dare say, disturbing account that may interest some members: by Dav..."Thanks Rick I'd not seen this so I have added to my TBR. As you say it will not be a comfortable read but nether the less a account that deserves to be read.
You may all want to read my book "Occupation and Insurgency" on the Holocaust from the SS perspective with interviews, focused upon the eastern Front.
message 158:
by
Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
(new)
Thanks Colin - will check my TBR to see if I haven't already got this included.
Another very interesting book has just been published in paperback and E-book, for those who have a fascination for first-hand accounts:
by Edward Reicherdescription:
Country of Ash is the starkly compelling, original chronicle of a Jewish doctor who miraculously survived near-certain death, first inside the Lodz and Warsaw ghettoes, where he was forced to treat the Gestapo, then on the Aryan side of Warsaw, where he hid under numerous disguises. He clandestinely recorded the terrible events he witnessed, but his manuscript disappeared during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. After the war, reunited with his wife and young daughter, he rewrote his story.
Peopled with historical figures like the controversial Chaim Rumkowski, who fancied himself a king of the Jews, to infamous Nazi commanders and dozens of Jews and non-Jews who played cat and mouse with death throughout the war, Reicher’s memoir is about a community faced with extinction and the chance decisions and strokes of luck that kept a few stunned souls alive.
About the Author:
Edward Reicher (1900–1975) was born in Lodz, Poland. He graduated with a degree in medicine from the University of Warsaw, later studied dermatology in Paris and Vienna, and practiced in Lodz as a dermatologist and venereal disease specialist both before and after World War II. A Jewish survivor of Nazi-occupied Poland, Reicher appeared at a tribunal in Salzburg to identify Hermann Höfle and give an eyewitness account of Höfle’s role in Operation Reinhard, which sent hundreds of thousands to their deaths in the Polish concentration camps.
Country of Ash, first published posthumously in France, was translated from the French by Magda Bogin and includes a foreword by Edward Reicher’s daughter Elisabeth Bizouard-Reicher.
Reviews:
“A riveting first-hand account of the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto. Edward Reicher presents events from the perspective of a Jew, a physician, a survivor, a chronicler, a husband but mainly a humanitarian caught in the flux of horrific events that, but for memoirs such as this, would fade with the absolution of time. Reicher’s astonishing book insures that will not happen.” — ARTHUR L. CAPLAN, Ph.D., Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Chair Director, Division of Medical Ethics, NYU Langone Medical Center and author of When Medicine Went Mad: Bioethics and the Holocaust
“Dr. Reicher’s memoir tells a gripping, tragic, unforgettable tale that, like Wladyslaw Szpilman’s The Pianist, recounts the horrors of being a Jew in Poland during World War II. This important historical document distinguishes itself from other Holocaust narratives in many ways, but perhaps in none more so than this: its perseverant hero not only saved his wife and daughter but helped bring one of the most notorious Nazis of all to justice.” — AUSTIN RATNER, Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature-winning author of The Jump Artist and In the Land of the Living
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Another very interesting book has just been published in paperback and E-book, for those who have a fascination for first-hand accounts:[bookcover:Country of Ash: A Jewish Doctor in Poland, 1939�..."
I have ordered a copy of Jonathan Kirsch's "The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan."
That sounds like a very interesting book Gerald, thnaks for mentioning it. Let us all know your thoughts on the book once you have had a chance to read it as I am sure a few members here will be keen to hear your views.
by Jonathan Kirsch
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "That sounds like a very interesting book Gerald, thnaks for mentioning it. Let us all know your thoughts on the book once you have had a chance to read it as I am sure a few members here will be ke..."Thanks, Rick. Because my to-read stack is so high, months will pass before I read the book. I will, however, review it when I get the chance to read it.
Hi Gerald, you'll be happy to know that you are in very good company in regards to stacks of books to read!:)
message 164:
by
Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
(new)
As Rick says Gerald you are in good company - fellow group member Carl suggested it would take me decades to read all my TBR based on what is on it and my reading rate (I can only hope to read more when I retire!).
A great little book on the Holocaust (which I can't find on goodreads) is called "How to Kill 11 Million People" by Andy Andrews. This is a great one to pass around to people who don't know anything about it and for those who do because it goes right to the roots of it. So many people my age have no idea! Sad!Also, one of my favorite books of all time is...
Thank you all for the books you have shared! I will be adding to my "To-Read" list!
Thanks for the details on those two books Betty, I am sure a few members here will check them out. Is this the book by Andy Andrews you were looking for:
by Andy Andrews
This books looks like it offers an interesting account not normally covered in most histories covering the Holocaust. I dare say it would make hard reading considering the content.
by Gideon GreifDescription:
The Sonderkommando of Auschwitz-Birkenau consisted primarily of Jewish prisoners forced by the Germans to facilitate the mass extermination. Though never involved in the killing itself, they were compelled to be "members of staff” of the Nazi death-factory. This book, translated for the first time into English from its original Hebrew, consists of interviews with the very few surviving men who witnessed at first hand the unparalleled horror of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Some of these men had never spoken of their experiences before.
Over a period of years, Gideon Greif interviewed intensively all Sonderkommando survivors living in Israel. They describe not only the details of the German-Nazi killing program but also the moral and human challenges they faced. The book provides direct testimony about the "Final Solution of the Jewish Problem,” but it is also a unique document on the boundless cruelty and deceit practiced by the Germans. It documents the helplessness and powerlessness of the one-and-a-half million people, 90 percent of them Jews, who were brutally murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Reviews:
"This is a book that must be read by all who dare draw close to the killing, those who dare to come close—as close as non-survivors can come—to the inferno.” — Michael Berenbaum
"Gideon Greif’s documentation and analysis of the inner world of the Jews who were forced to be part of the Grief in Auschwitz is a haunting reading experience. It is with rare sensitivity and empathy that Greif approached the last survivors of this unit, who were at the heart of the inferno. They poured their hearts out to him after long decades of silence. The reader is thus acquainted with the detGrief’sails of the death industry, and they accompany and disturb him for a long while." — Dina Porat, Head of the Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies, Tel Aviv University
message 168:
by
Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
(new)
Betty wrote: "A great little book on the Holocaust (which I can't find on goodreads) is called "How to Kill 11 Million People" by Andy Andrews. This is a great one to pass around to people who don't know anythin..."Thanks Betty I have read neither so will add to my list.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Thanks for the details on those two books Betty, I am sure a few members here will check them out. Is this the book by Andy Andrews you were looking for:[bookcover:How Do You Kill 11 Million Peop..."
Yes! It looks like I had the title a little off. Thank you!
This new release, due out in September 2013, sounds pretty damn good. I must confess to not having heard/read about this incident till now:
by Bo LidegaardDescription:
The literally extraordinary story of how Denmark saved its Jews from the Nazis in World War II. In the entire ghastly history of the Holocaust, only two "good" stories stand out, and this is one of them. Denmark, under German Occupation, but with its king and government intact, did something no other country in Western Europe even tried to do. Knowing that German command was coming in 1943 to round up their Jews (there were 7,000 of them) for deportation to the camps, they said no. The king, his ministers, and parliament were all in agreement--those 7,000 people were theirs, they were Danes who happened to be Jewish, and nobody was going to assist in their roundup and certain death. While the government used its limited but formidable powers to maneuver and to impede matters in Berlin, the warning went out to the Jewish community that crisis was at hand. Over fourteen days, assisted, helped, hidden, protected by ordinary people who came together spontaneously to the aid of their countrymen, who were suddenly refugees, an incredible 6,500 Jews out of the 7,000 total escaped--smuggled on big boats, little boats, fishing boats, anything that floated--to Sweden. The bare facts of this exodus have been known for decades but astonishingly, no full history of it has ever been researched or written. The refugees kept diaries, letters, and family accounts that have now been brought together and form the basis of this riveting work. After a powerful historical introduction, the book follows the story on a day-by-day basis. We watch and share the heart-stopping experiences of real people during those fateful two weeks from September 26 to October 9, 1943. This is a story of ordinary glory, of simple courage and moral fortitude that shines out in midst of the terrible history of the twentieth century.
I would also suggest two books by my good friend and colleague Dr. Bryan Mark Rigg, 'Hitler's Jewish Soldiers" and 'Rescued from the Reich' regarding the Holocaust also.
Has anyone ever read Cattle Cars to Heaven? It was written by a friend of a relative of mine. It is an Autobiography. If anyone has, I would like to hear your thoughts on it. Thanks!
I have always loved this music, I am sure some members would appreciate (if that is the right word) this journey of sound and sights:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymuF7u...
message 176:
by
Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
(new)
A new book that will be an interesting addition to holocaust literature:
by Wendy LowerDescription
Wendy Lower's stunning account of the role of ordinary German women on the Nazi eastern front powerfully revises history. The long-held picture of German women holding down the homefront during the war, as loyal wives and cheerleaders for the Führer, pales in comparison to Lower's incisive case for the massive complicity, and worse, of the 500,000 young German women directly on the genocidal war zone of the expanding Reich.
Lower builds a fascinating and convincing picture of a morally lost generation of young women, born into a defeated, tumultuous post-WWI Germany, and then swept up in the nationalistic fervor of the Nazi movement. These young women -- nurses, teachers, secretaries, wives, and lovers -- saw the emerging Nazi empire as a kind of wild east of careerand matrimonial opportunity -- and yet surely could not have imagined what they would witness and do there.
Lower, drawing on twenty years of archival and field work on the Holocaust, access to post-Soviet documents, and interviews with German witnesses, presents overwhelming evidence that these women were more than 'desk murderers' or comforters of murderous German men: that they went on 'shopping sprees' and romantic outings to the Jewish ghettos of Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus; that they were present at killing-field picnics, not only providing refreshment but also taking their turn at the shooting of Jews; that their brutality was as chilling as any in history.
Hitler's Furies is indelible proof that we have not known what we need to know about the role of women on the Nazi killing fields of the eastern front -- or about how it could have been hidden for seventy years.
Good addition to the list Geevee.
Helen wrote: "
Thanks, I'll look for it. My next book is Auschwitz, A Doctor's Eyewitness Account, by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli."
I have this right now from the library. Planning on starting it this evening.
message 179:
by
Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
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I guess this will be an interesting but unpleasant read Anne. Look forward to you thoughts.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Another very interesting book has just been published in paperback and E-book, for those who have a fascination for first-hand accounts:[bookcover:Country of Ash: A Jewish Doctor in Poland, 1939�..."
WOW. I have to get this. Thanks for posting it, Rick!
My pleasure Helen :)
Geevee wrote: "A new book that will be an interesting addition to holocaust literature: by Wendy LowerDescription
Wendy Lower's s..."
This book sounds horrible and fascinating. I never think of women as actively participating in atrocities. Guess this is going on my TBR list. Thanks for finding it.
This book is a powerful read. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the Holocaust.
My Father's Keeper: Children of Nazi Leaders-- An Intimate History of Damage and Denial
In 1959 the German journalist Norbert Lebert interviewed the children of prominent Nazis: Hess, Bormann, Goring, Himmler, Baldur von Schirach (creator of the Hitler Youth) and Hans Frank (governor of Poland). Not knowing what to do with the interviews, he boxed them up and stored them. After Lebert's death, his son Stephan -- also a journalist -- inherited the files. Fascinated by what he found, he set out to re-interview the same people forty years later.Revisiting his father's subjects, Lebert explores how each of them deals with the agonizing question: What does it mean to have a father who participated in mass murder? For the most part, the Leberts found that the children remained intensely loyal to their fathers, regardless of their crimes. Gudrun Himmler, for example, lives in a Munich suburb under her husband's name, keeping secret contacts with other nostalgic Nazis. In fact, Niklas Frank is the only one who rejects his heritage. But when he writes in a popular German magazine of his rage against his father -- a man charged with two million deaths -- hundreds of letters pour in from outraged readers. Whatever your father did, they argue, fathers must always be honored.
Remarkable in both its content and its narrative power, "My Father's Keeper" is an illuminating addition to the dark literature of the Nazi past -- and perhaps of any totalitarianism -- and of how this past continues to haunt the present.
Thanks for the details on that book Helen, I am sure a few members will be interested.
The Kindle version of this book is on sale today for $2.99.Auschwitz
http://www.amazon.com/Auschwitz-ebook...
Auschwitz was one of the first books to bring the full horror of the Nazi death camps to the American public; this is, as the New York Review of Books said, "the best brief account of the Auschwitz experience available."When the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, they sent virtually the entire Jewish population to Auschwitz. A Jew and a medical doctor, the prisoner Dr. Miklos Nyiszli was spared death for a grimmer fate: to perform "scientific research" on his fellow inmates under the supervision of the man who became known as the infamous "Angel of Death"--Dr. Josef Mengele. Nyiszli was named Mengele's personal research pathologist. In that capactity he also served as physician to the Sonderkommando, the Jewish prisoners who worked exclusively in the crematoriums and were routinely executed after four months. Miraculously, Nyiszli survived to give this horrifying and sobering account.Auschwitz was one of the first books to bring the full horror of the Nazi death camps to the American public. Although much has since been written about the Holocaust, this eyewitness account remains, as the New York Review of Bookssaid in 1987, "the best brief account of the Auschwitz experience available." Of Bruno Bettelheim’s famous foreword Neal Ascherson has written, "Its eloquence and outrage must guarantee it a permanent place in Jewish historiography."
Thanks for that information Anne, much appreciated.
message 187:
by
Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
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Helen wrote: "Geevee wrote: "A new book that will be an interesting addition to holocaust literature: by Wendy LowerDescription
..."
Helen you'll probably end up reading this before me so I'll look forward to your thoughts on it. It has a grim fascination for me as in the main, as you say, I tend to think of the protagonists as almost wholly male.
Helen wrote: "This book is a powerful read. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning mor..."
I am not surprised. I knew 2 daughters of an SS war criminal (1 was my classmate). And I saw Edda Goering on a regular basis but never talked to her, just noticed her stuck-up attitude.
I just bought the book you recommended. However, it will be nothing new to me. I once saw a TV-documentation in Germany (possibly related to this book). There was also only ONE descendant (possibly Niklas Frank -- I forget) who denounced his father, and I admired his integrity and his courage.
Wow! That's amazing, Lilo! How incredibly strange. Did she ever talk about it? (I'll bet she didn't.)I think you're right, I think the documentary is probably connected to this book. Frank had two sons, it's interesting to read the difference between the two of them. Anyway--I hope you like the book. I found it fascinating.
I'm halfway through Hitler's Furies ... Wow.
I'm actually kind of afraid to read it.
It took me a while to get going Helen. I kept picking it up, then putting it down, until I finally decided to take the plunge. It's not an easy read by any means, some parts are quite stomach churning, but I wish it had been available as a resource when I wrote my dissertation.
It's on my TBR list. I hope you write a review when you're done.
message 195:
by
Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
(new)
Helen I agree on the afraid/wary comment.I am fascinated by this aspect of the war and the behaviours the political and daily situation that led people to do things or suffer. But I am also appalled by the subject and so books on this subject are uncomfortable yet interesting; and I think it is something I should do so I understand but also in this rather primitive way (i.e. reading the books) remember those poor people so their plight is not forgotten.
Geevee wrote: "Helen I agree on the afraid/wary comment.I am fascinated by this aspect of the war and the behaviours the political and daily situation that led people to do things or suffer. But I am also appa..."
Thanks, Geevee. I think you just summed up my attitude toward this better than I could have!
I feel the same way too. Still, it's a subject that I return to again and again. How can any human being lose his--or her--humanity to the point that they can commit such crimes to another human being? To women? To little girls? To toddlers?
A very good summary in regards to reading about the Holocaust Geevee.
Helen wrote: "Wow! That's amazing, Lilo! How incredibly strange. Did she ever talk about it? (I'll bet she didn't.)I think you're right, I think the documentary is probably connected to this book. Frank had tw..."
I'll reply to your comment at length as soon as the present lightening storm goes away. I don't want to get hit by lightening. It is not too healthy to be on the computer during lightening.
Cate wrote: "I'm halfway through Hitler's Furies ... Wow."I considered buying the book but decided against it. I saw enough "Nazi-Weiber" (Nazi broads) in our neighborhood. They made me feel sick. I don't wish to get chronic gastritis.
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
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My pleasure Helen.