Call number
736.61 Nyiszli
Subjects
Publication
New York : [Boston] : Arcade Pub. ; Distributed by Little, Brown, and Co., 1993.
Description
History. Nonfiction. HTML: 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.".… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member GeraldLange
This offers an accurate account of the failed revolt that resulted with the destruction of Crematorium #3. It is also the basis of the movie, "The Grey Zone", by I-forget-who. The movie was a terribly over-dramatized adaptation. I personally have a real problem with anybody that would try to turn
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this into any form of entertainment, and then use that to further their own career. What a pile of crap. Show Less
LibraryThing member Amabel300
Wonderfully graphic and riveting. This book disturbed me so much that I can't help but love it. One of my favorites.
LibraryThing member teafritz
Loved, loved, loved! It was pretty gruesome at times, but overall a great book.
LibraryThing member michelebel
This is probably the most disturbing account of what went on in the abominable concentration camps of World War 2 that I have read. Not only are the graphic details of how the Nazis attempted their grotesque extermination plans described in full, but it also raises moral and philosophical questions
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about the nature of mankind, and the extent to which we will go to survive. Bruno Bettelheim's introduction questions the motives and wisdom of accepting our fate without struggle and of collaborating in the grossest, most sadistic acts imaginable as a means to survival but it is impossible to know how one would react in such a situation. Read also Primo Levi's "If this is a Man" and ponder how very close we can be to reversion to barbarity and perversion. Show Less
LibraryThing member Jenni01
It was very interesting. It was very brutal. I couldn't image having to survive something so horrible. I like how brutally honest the doctor spoke about the events. It is a must read.
LibraryThing member CKHB
My internet research indicates that this may not be an accurate accounting, although the author did apparently experience & survive Auschwitz. The translated copies have not been clearly identified as a contemporaneous fictionalization, which is tremendously misleading. A compelling read, but I was
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looking for facts, and this may be in the James Frey / Million Little Pieces / "emotional truth" category, which is deeply upsetting. Show Less
LibraryThing member Josephientje
Jewish doctor account of the happenings in Auschwitz. Shocking true story 1946.
LibraryThing member Hollandy2k
Eyewitness journal from a doctor in the camp. Impressive book . The only thing I did not like was the Introduction of the book written by another author.
LibraryThing member mephistia
The writing style is very bare-bones, pared down, and concise. Nyiszli recounts his experiences in a detached, almost emotionless-seeming way, and this approach serves to highlight the atrocities and horror of the concentration camps by dint of the very factual, almost scientific approach. It's a
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must-read for everyone. Show Less
LibraryThing member Marlene-NL
A sad book. The foreword is very strong. After and even while reading this book I had many questions. Weird because I have read so many books about this horrible war and about the people that survived the camps but this was the first time I started to wonder and think. Maybe because of the total of
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numbers Nyiszli mentioned in this book and that made me realize how many people were living in Auschwitz. Some of those questions were answered by the foreword written not by the author but by Bettelheim. Show Less
LibraryThing member slug9000
I enjoyed this book a lot, to the extent you can "enjoy" a book about the Holocaust. Dr. Nyiszli was in a very, very unique position as a prisoner at Auschwitz. As an accomplished doctor with a great deal of experience in dissection, he was afforded comparatively luxurious accommodations at
If you are looking for a lot of details on Nazi medical research, you really won't find it here. It's more a personal account of how Dr. Nyiszli used his academic and practical background to survive, and how he was largely spared from physical abuse but could not avoid psychological horrors. He does talk about his dissections and what he learned about Nazi experiments, but the detail is more in his observations about life as a crematorium worker.
There is a long introduction to this book that is a rambling philosophical treatise on why concentration camp prisoners behaved the way they sometimes did. Why they willingly got on trains to go to the camps, why they didn't fight, etc, etc. I read a little bit of this section and ended up skipping it. I found that the facts of the book spoke for themselves, and that we can understand the "whys" by trying to conceive of the horrors that the prisoners faced for years.
Overall, a horrifying but necessary read.
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Auschwitz so that he could assist Dr. Josef Mengele in his medical "research." He worked in the crematoriums, so he witnessed the masses of people being led to the gas chambers, the firing squads, and so-called medical research on living subjects, particularly twins. This book is a chronological account of his time at Auschwitz.If you are looking for a lot of details on Nazi medical research, you really won't find it here. It's more a personal account of how Dr. Nyiszli used his academic and practical background to survive, and how he was largely spared from physical abuse but could not avoid psychological horrors. He does talk about his dissections and what he learned about Nazi experiments, but the detail is more in his observations about life as a crematorium worker.
There is a long introduction to this book that is a rambling philosophical treatise on why concentration camp prisoners behaved the way they sometimes did. Why they willingly got on trains to go to the camps, why they didn't fight, etc, etc. I read a little bit of this section and ended up skipping it. I found that the facts of the book spoke for themselves, and that we can understand the "whys" by trying to conceive of the horrors that the prisoners faced for years.
Overall, a horrifying but necessary read.
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LibraryThing member fist
On the one hand, this book was totally as expected: a description of the often-told horrors of Auschwitz by in inside witness. And yet it manages to shock again, not just through the physical cruelty described herein, but with the psychologically dehumanising effects of the extermination programme.
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People in this camp were resigned to their eventual deaths, including the Sonderkommandos (jews who worked in the gas chambers and the cremation ovens) who knew that they would survive four months at most. And yet only one of the 14 Sonderkommandos decided to go down fighting (and to destroy one of the four crematoria in the process). The author continues to perform autopsies for Dr. Mengele on sets of twins that were murdered especially for this purpose, as if he were working "in the pathology university faculty of a middle-sized town". I was struck by little details that illustrate this madness: the prisoners inthe Sonderkommando would trade food for 140 gramme gold coins (melted from gold tooth fillings extracted from the gassed corpses),since that was the only currency they could have access to. Nazis would talk to a Jew (especially a useful jew like the expert pathologist who wrote this book), but would never greet him when arriving or leaving - because they didn't deserve to be further acknowledged. Not a fun read, but one I will remember for a long time. Show Less
LibraryThing member Narilka
Dr. Miklos Nyiszli was sent to Auschwitz when the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944. As a Jew he was a condemned man. As a medical doctor he was useful so was spared from death and assigned a worse fate: to assist in performing "scientific research" on his fellow inmates under the direct supervision of
This was an interesting read about a difficult subject. The writing is surprisingly accessible and Dr. Nyiszli's story engaging, though I found I had to read it in small chunks due to the subject matter. Dr. Nyiszli explains at the beginning of the book that he writes this as a doctor from a doctor's perspective so there is a bit of a clinical feel to it which lessens the emotional impact to a degree. I wonder if this is how the doctor protected himself to keep his own sanity while relating his story of the horrors he lived through. Dr. Nyiszli was a pathologist and performed many autopsies after the prisoners were killed. While he does describe some of the methods of death at the Nazi's the bulk of the atrocities committed are absent from this text. Still it's an important book and worth reading for a different perspective of someone's time at Auschwitz.
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Dr. Mengele himself. Somehow Dr. Miklos survived Auschwitz and wrote this short memoir of his time there.This was an interesting read about a difficult subject. The writing is surprisingly accessible and Dr. Nyiszli's story engaging, though I found I had to read it in small chunks due to the subject matter. Dr. Nyiszli explains at the beginning of the book that he writes this as a doctor from a doctor's perspective so there is a bit of a clinical feel to it which lessens the emotional impact to a degree. I wonder if this is how the doctor protected himself to keep his own sanity while relating his story of the horrors he lived through. Dr. Nyiszli was a pathologist and performed many autopsies after the prisoners were killed. While he does describe some of the methods of death at the Nazi's the bulk of the atrocities committed are absent from this text. Still it's an important book and worth reading for a different perspective of someone's time at Auschwitz.
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LibraryThing member bnbookgirl
Dr. Myklos Nyiszli is chosen by Dr. Mengele for a much more horrific fate. He is to help with "scientific research" on his fellow inmates. Nyiszli is named Mengele's personal research pathologist. He also was the doctor for the Sonderkommando, those Jewish prisoners who were working in the
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crematoriums. The Sonderkommando were executed every four months so they could not tell what was going on in the camp. This eye witness account is another horrifying story of what the Jewish people went through during this dark time in history. Show Less
LibraryThing member LibraryCin
Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account / Miklos Nyiszli
3.5 stars
Miklos Nysizli was a Hungarian Jew taken to Auschwitz with his wife and daughter. He was a doctor and was taken on to work in the crematoriums, primarily doing autopsies. Most of the Jews who worked in the crematoriums were killed,
I imagine when this book was originally published, in 1960, it was quite shocking. It still is, but I’ve read so much about the Holocaust, that there wasn’t a lot new, though there was some. I feel badly that I’m not rating it higher. I didn’t feel as much of an emotional connection (usually) as I thought I might. I’m not sure if it was written in a more detached way; both as a doctor and just trying to force himself to get through it all to survive, I’m sure he had to do his best to try to detach. He did say at the start of the book that he is a doctor, not a writer, so maybe that was part of it, as well (though it was definitely “readable”). Still, a worthwhile read, for sure.
3.5 stars
Miklos Nysizli was a Hungarian Jew taken to Auschwitz with his wife and daughter. He was a doctor and was taken on to work in the crematoriums, primarily doing autopsies. Most of the Jews who worked in the crematoriums were killed,
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but luckily for Nyiszli, he made it through. I imagine when this book was originally published, in 1960, it was quite shocking. It still is, but I’ve read so much about the Holocaust, that there wasn’t a lot new, though there was some. I feel badly that I’m not rating it higher. I didn’t feel as much of an emotional connection (usually) as I thought I might. I’m not sure if it was written in a more detached way; both as a doctor and just trying to force himself to get through it all to survive, I’m sure he had to do his best to try to detach. He did say at the start of the book that he is a doctor, not a writer, so maybe that was part of it, as well (though it was definitely “readable”). Still, a worthwhile read, for sure.
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LibraryThing member FormerEnglishTeacher
Horrifying reading. The chapter about the girl buried beneath a stack of bodies who survives is most disturbing.
LibraryThing member tmph
A Jewish medical doctor working with Mengele in a Sonderkommando at Auschwitz. Ai, yi, yi. Just simply excellent.
LibraryThing member 3argonauta
Horrifying. Hard to read without taking breaks. I've read both historical fiction and true accounts about the horrors of Hitler's regime. It's hard to separate the fact from fiction. All of it too surreal and terrible to comprehend.
LibraryThing member foof2you
A remarkable book, about the horrors that went on inside the Auschwitz prison camp. Dr. Nyiszli saw many things while a doctor working under Dr. Mengele, forced to perform useless autopsies those who died in the camp. He became a witness to the work of what went on inside the camp offices. This
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should be a book that is read with other books on the Holocaust to show what went on in these camps. Show Less
LibraryThing member fmclellan
Horrifying. Beyond belief. I am going to Auschwitz next month, so am doing my reading. Everything I have ever read about it defies comprehension. This was no different.
LibraryThing member yamiyoghurt
Interesting to read the same incident from different angles! Krystyna Zywulska mentioned in her book about the Sonderkommando rebellion and Miklos Nyiszli also documented the event albeit from a different angle. Both survivors belong to the exceptions rather than the norm. The fact that they lived
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to tell their stories means that they had some way of gaining favor from the SS men, however, they did provide a very harrowing depiction of the fates of other concentration camp prisoners. Show Less
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Status
Available
Call number
ISBN
1559702028 / 9781559702027