Name: Auschwitz
Rating: 4 (7 reviews)
ISBN: 9783843701891

Laurence Rees

In dieser ebenso fundierten wie erschütternden Darstellung gelingt es Laurence Rees, dem Leser die unfaßbaren Geschehnisse des Holocaust nachvollziehbar vor Augen zu führen – mit einem beunruhigenden Fazit: Der Holocaust ist kein düsterer Alptraum, kein singulärer Exzeß, sondern Ergebnis der menschlichen Veranlagung.

Geschichte eines Verbrechens

Auschwitz

Auschwitz-Birkenau is the site of the largest mass murder in human history. Yet its story is not fully known. In Auschwitz, Laurence Rees reveals new insights from more than 100 original interviews with Auschwitz survivors and Nazi perpetrators who speak on the record for the first time. Their testimonies provide a portrait of the inner workings of the camp in unrivalled detail-from the techniques of mass murder, to the politics and gossip mill that turned between guards and prisoners, to the on-camp brothel in which the lines between those guards and prisoners became surprisingly blurred. Rees examines the strategic decisions that led the Nazi leadership to prescribe Auschwitz as its primary site for the extinction of Europe's Jews-their "Final Solution." He concludes that many of the horrors that were perpetrated in Auschwitz were driven not just by ideological inevitability but as a "practical" response to a war in the East that had begun to go wrong for Germany. A terrible immoral pragmatism characterizes many of the decisions that determined what happened at Auschwitz. Thus the story of the camp becomes a morality tale, too, in which evil is shown to proceed in a series of deft, almost noiseless incremental steps until it produces the overwhelming horror of the industrial scale slaughter that was inflicted in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Insights gleaned from more than one hundred original interviews shed new light on history's most famous death camp, with the testimonies of survivors providing a detailed and chilling portrait of the camp's inner workings, in a companion volume to the PBS documentary.

A New History

Amber Laha

This is a book that I recommend to everyone to read. To understand where we come from and to prevent this kind of horrifying event from happening again, we must remember and learn from our past and history. This book talks in depth about the originations of Auschwitz: the first purposes for it, when it became a death camp, etc. There were a lot of things that I never knew before and it brings to light a lot of the "logic" and the mentality of those who were a part of this crime. 

It is hard to put to words what happened and how I feel when done with this book. It has opened my eyes to not only the first purpose of this concentration camp and where it led, but to the aftermath, to the actions of the countries around Germany, to how humanity can be corrupted and destroyed as it was then.

In this compelling book, highly acclaimed author and broadcaster Laurence Rees tells the definitive history of the most notorious Nazi institution of them all. We discover how Auschwitz evolved from a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners into the site of the largest mass murder in history - part death camp, part concentration camp, where around a million Jews were killed. Auschwitz examines the mentality and motivations of the key Nazi decision makers, and perpetrators of appalling crimes speak here for the first time about their actions. Fascinating and disturbing facts have been uncovered - from the operation of a brothel to the corruption that was rife throughout the camp. The book draws on intriguing new documentary material from recently opened Russian archives, which will challenge many previously accepted arguments. This is the story of murder, brutality, courage, escape and survival, and a powerful account of how human tragedy of such immense scale could have happened.

Auschwitz Geschichte eines Verbrechens

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