Given Up for Dead: American GI's in the Nazi Concentration Camp at Berga

Again we learn just how courageous and resilient ordinary young American boys who were swept into war can be. The boys depicted in the book were hardly off the farms or out of high school when they were forced to endure a life they could have never imagined. While they were trained for battle and even expected to be shot out and even be killed they were subjected to horrific status as prisoners of the Germans. Jewish soldiers were pulled out of the ordinary POW camps and had to know they might be executed but they stood up anyway. The author did extensive research, talking to many survivors or their families to get a first hand story of what really happened. Even with the documentation it's still hard to comprehend human beings can be so cruel to one another. Some of the first part of the book is a little tedious as Whitlock leads us through the battles setting up the ultimate fighting where these men were taken captive. Although probably necessary it's a little confusing (and boring) as you wait to get to the "stories." Other than that, the book is informative and well worth the time to read.

Given Up For Dead, by Flint Whitlock, is the story of a group of American POW's, the majority of whom were Jewish, who were taken to a concentration camp after they were taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge. The author does a good job telling about these brave men who were used as slave laborers contrary to the Geneva Convention. Their treatment was a crime that, unfortunately for many reasons, went unpunished after the war. For many, survival was a miracle. A lot of the men interviewed for the book are still suffering both mentally and physically some sixty years later as a result of their experience at Berga, a sub camp of Buchenwald. Although this book isn't written in as interesting of a style as the other recently published book on this subject (Soldiers and Slaves by Roger Cohen) it is still a must read for all.