Auschwitz: A History

Professor Steinbacher tells the truth and only the truth. There are no embellishments or sensationalisms in her book. This book "cuts to the chase." Again, there are "no" over-the-top sensationalisms(like Rees' book, with too many wondering/airy/undocumented side stories - give me the facts!) This book gives you the facts! Every class and school should have this book. You will learn a whole lot in this book, which is not very long, because it gets to the point and dosen't have the 'personal opinion, un-substanciated endless babble' that other books on this important topic have that cost 4 times as much as Steinbacher's. Steinbacher's book is a "find;" or a "needle in the haystack." It teaches Auschwitz, without the "reckless and 'overly' graphic" details, but brilliantly gets the message across/gets the job done. Highly, highly recommended for "all" teachers and students. A lot of well researched info for a mere $9ish dollars. Again, there's a lot of learning in this concise book. Truly, the most objective and well-written book on Auschwitz. One tip on reading Steinbacher's book; Before reading the whole book, read page "29," and learn something about Auschwitz you've never heard... WOW!!! Solid book.

There are many larger and more detailed (and perhaps, more emotional and horrifying) books about Auschwitz, but as a short, factual and accurate rendering of that gigantic horror story, this book is excellent. Sybille Steinbacher covers a surprising amount of detail in a very short space. These days, when current political events have created entire nations of holocaust deniers, this should be a required text.

In this short book, Sybille Steinbacher, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Modern and Contemporary History at Ruhr University, gives a compelling account of Auschwitz. Professor Steinbacher, and her able translator, Shaun Whiteside, writes in a concise, stark, understated, and eloquent way. She avoids the tendency to sensationalize and overdramatize and allows her material to speak for itself. The stylistic, nonsensationalistic excellence of this book adds greatly to its impact. In brief, measured chapters, Professor Steinbacher discusses the long history of the Polish town of Oswiecim, and its history of Jewish habitation, before it became notorious as Auschwitz. She explains how Auschwitz lay in the path of Germany's eastern expansion and how it inexorably became a killing camp. It moved from a camp for political prisoners and a labor camp to, beginning in mid-1942, a death camp for Jews. She discusses how this change came about as a result of high policy within the Nazi regime and how it was implemented in the camp with mass gasing, shootings, beatings, starvations, and medical torture. She describes the role of the German corporation IB Farben in organizing the camps, using the labor of the prisoners, and providing the cyanide gas, Zyclon B, for the killings. Following her discussion of the founding of the camp, and its development into a site for mass murder, Professor Steinbacher discusses how the Nazi's abandoned the camp, took the remaining prisoners on lengthy death marches, and attempted to destroy the evidence of their brutality as the Soviet Army moved closer and ultimately occupied the camp. She describes the attempt, following the end of the War, to bring some of the perpetuators of Auschwitz to justice, with mixed results. Finally, a short chapter considers those who have denied the Holocaust and the crimes perpetuated at Auschwitz. Professor Steinbacher discusses the extent to which people in the town of Auschwitz, in Germany, and in the outside world were aware of the events in the camp. She also discusses, briefly, the decision of the Allies not to bomb the camp when they learned of the ongoing atrocities. The book includes detailed maps of the complexes at Auschwitz and a good bibliography. With its tone of restraint, careful factual presentation, and considered judgment, Professor Steinbacher's book was highly valuable in helping me think about Auschwitz. Robin Friedman

The name Auschwitz is so loaded with associations of almost universal evil that it barely occurs to people that there is a reality to be known. Using the name as a shortcut for the Holocaust, for genocide, mass murder, poison gas, crematoria, Nazi SS terror troops, and more actually cheats us. This rather small book takes on the big task of telling in a very straightforward way how Auschwitz came to be, what happened there during the Second World War, and its aftermath. Auschwitz is the name the Germans applied to a Polish town as they moved to the East to provide "Living Space" and a buffer against the Soviets. At first they moved the Poles out of the town to other prison camps and then brought them back and killed thousands. IG Farben decided it could use the slave labor such camps could provide and so a huge factory was built. But the camp was too far away for malnourished prisoners to travel each day. They had hoped these prisoners would be at least half as effective as a healthy German. The prisoners, starved, beaten, and traumatized, were only about 20% as effective. So, a camp was built next to the plant. Soviet Prisoners of War by the thousands were also brought to an Auschwitz camp to be slaves, they ended up being useless for that purpose. More than 10,000 of them were killed as well. When the war effort began going badly the camps moved into extermination and a huge third camp was begun with enough capacity to burn more than 4,500 bodies per day. They were never all in service at the same time, but what did exist was so overburdened with use that they became damaged and required repair. Bodies were burned in open trenches during the repairs. The author teaches us that the 4 million killed in Auschwitz was based by the Soviets on theoretical crematoria capacity. Scholars studying the subject now believe that between 1.1 and 1.5 million were killed there in various ways. There was the Zyklon B and cremation, but there was also shooting, starvation, disease, beating, medical experimentation, and even doctors injecting phenol directly into prisoners' hearts. We are shown how this easily fits in with the number of 6 million Jews killed during the war. In the beginning only about half of those killed were Jews, by the frantic last days it was almost all Jews. The book also takes us through the trials related to Auschwitz (not all the war crimes trials) and what was uncovered and how punishment was meted out and strangely avoided by some for decades and some escaped entirely. Finally, the author gives us a tour of the revisionists who try to deny the truth about the mass murders at the three Auschwitz camps. Her writing is clear and straightforward. She tells us these monstrous things without adding emotion into her writing. We don't need any help in feeling the horror and revulsion. We know she feels it, too. The book never gets gruesome or clinical and provides an amazing number of facts in its 168 pages. There ar

The name Auschwitz is so loaded with associations of almost universal evil that it barely occurs to people that there is a reality to be known. Using the name as a shortcut for the Holocaust, for genocide, mass murder, poison gas, crematoria, Nazi SS terror troops, and more actually cheats us. This rather small book takes on the big task of telling in a very straightforward way how Auschwitz came to be, what happened there during the Second World War, and its aftermath. Auschwitz is the name the Germans applied to a Polish town as they moved to the East to provide "Living Space" and a buffer against the Soviets. At first they moved the Poles out of the town to other prison camps and then brought them back and killed thousands. IG Farben decided it could use the slave labor such camps could provide and so a huge factory was built. But the camp was too far away for malnourished prisoners to travel each day. They had hoped these prisoners would be at least half as effective as a healthy German. The prisoners, starved, beaten, and traumatized, were only about 20% as effective. So, a camp was built next to the plant. Soviet Prisoners of War by the thousands were also brought to an Auschwitz camp to be slaves, they ended up being useless for that purpose. More than 10,000 of them were killed as well. When the war effort began going badly the camps moved into extermination and a huge third camp was begun with enough capacity to burn more than 4,500 bodies per day. They were never all in service at the same time, but what did exist was so overburdened with use that they became damaged and required repair. Bodies were burned in open trenches during the repairs. The author teaches us that the 4 million killed in Auschwitz was based by the Soviets on theoretical crematoria capacity. Scholars studying the subject now believe that between 1.1 and 1.5 million were killed there in various ways. There was the Zyklon B and cremation, but there was also shooting, starvation, disease, beating, medical experimentation, and even doctors injecting phenol directly into prisoners' hearts. We are shown how this easily fits in with the number of 6 million Jews killed during the war. In the beginning only about half of those killed were Jews, by the frantic last days it was almost all Jews. The book also takes us through the trials related to Auschwitz (not all the war crimes trials) and what was uncovered and how punishment was meted out and strangely avoided by some for decades and some escaped entirely. Finally, the author gives us a tour of the revisionists who try to deny the truth about the mass murders at the three Auschwitz camps. Her writing is clear and straightforward. She tells us these monstrous things without adding emotion into her writing. We don't need any help in feeling the horror and revulsion. We know she feels it, too. The book never gets gruesome or clinical and provides an amazing number of facts in its 168 pages. There are maps of the area and