Theory/Practice Hell

The amazing thing about this book is how Kogon, a prisoner at the Buchenwald concentration camp, could remain so objective while surrounded by the atrocities that were taking place around him. It is as if he knew that his account would eventually form the basis for the prosecutions of responsible German authorities. In fact, it provided the structure for the Nuremberg prosecutions. Kogon spares no one in his descriptions, including himself. He acknowledges that he and others only survived by providing services essential to the running of the camp, that is, they collaborated. Who of us would not have done the same? Buchenwald was the camp where Elie Wiesel was imprisoned, together with his father. Wnen his father called his name at the time of his death, Elie out of fear, failed to go to his side. Again, who of us would not have done the same? The difference between Kogon and Wiesel and the rest of us is that they had the courage to publicly admit their failings. Like another reviewer, I was particularly impressed by Kogon's observations on how gays, gypsies, the mentally ill, and Jehovah's Witnesses were singled out for special abuse. Jehovah's Witnesses, who refuse to recognize any governmental authority, particularly infuriated the Nazis, even more so when they went to their deaths still honoring their God. Since reading this book, I have always treated them with respect when they show up at our door selling their publication, the Watchtower. After Buchenwald was liberated, Dwight Eisenhower had the foresight to have U.S. Army photographers photograph the camp and its prisoners in detail so that nobody could ever deny that the Holocaust took place. This book serves very much the same purpose.

On this Patriot's Day 2009 I wish to report that in 1955, in my first year in college, for one of my courses we were assigned to read THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF HELL by Dr. Eugen Kogon. Dr. Kogon had spent from September 1939 until the fall of Germany in April 1945 as a prisoner in Buchenwald. One year later in 1946 he published Der SS-Staat: Das System de Deutschen Konzentrationslager which was immediately hailed as an extraordinarily significant sociological study of concentration camps. The book was translated into eight languages and sold half a million copies. I vividly recall reading it fifty-four years ago. I had been on the boxing team at school. I knew what it felt like to be hit hard. Reading this book the first time felt like a powerful punch to my gut that I didn't see coming. It sucked the air out of my lungs. Or like a stunning blow to my brain. I felt my skull would split. I have never forgotten that first experience in reading this book. Kogon's book remains today as relevant as ever as a critically important marker of what can happen. Over the years I re-read it all once and re-read parts several times. I have recommended it highly for over half a century and still do. Kenneth E. MacWilliams

This book was required reading when I was at the University of California, Riverside, years ago. It's one of my few "required readings" that is memorable. I will make no effort to make a synopsis of a detailed and tortuous story. It has been a very long time but some of the details are burned in my mind. Kogon was, according to his granddaughter, born Jewish but raised Catholoic. The Nazis, however, arrested him for political "crimes" long before war erupted in Europe. Until the liberation in 1945, he had the opportunity to examine the complexity and inconsistencies of concentration camp life. Prisoners were divided into different color-coordinaed categories: criminals, politicals, homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses etc. Interestingly, Jews weren't categorized specifically as Jews. They were identified by Stars of David colored black, for criminal; red for "political"; pink for homosexual etc. The psychology is fascinating. Jews were stripped of all dignity. They weren't imprisoned for being Jews but because they were Jewish thieves, communists or homosexuals. No doubt, the Jewish color-coding was arbitrary and had little correlation with any actual "crimes". The SS was essentially an external force. Buchenwald was run by the prisoners. The prisoners were divided into two warring camps--political prisoners and criminals. There was a constant struggle for position because, that group which controlled things, became the staffers of Buchenwald administrative offices. The victors in this desperate struggle replaced names of friends within there group with the names of enemies in the other group--replaced them in the execution rolls. Still, the SS was an important factor, and Kogon was fortunate enough to make friends with an SS physician, Ding-Schuller by name. Several time D-S saved Kogon's life by placing him in the Typhus ward when Kogon's name came up for extermination. Still, Ding-Schuller was responsible for many deaths and Kogon remembers him whistling a happy tune as he went from patient to patient injecting phenol into their hearts. D-S committed suicide which Kogon finds regrettable. He reckons he was an essentially decent man caught up in a filthy system. Kogon says he would have testified in his behalf. I'm somewhat amazed that I can remember this much of Kogon's tale. It has been many years but the story is memorable and is a real "must" for anyone involved in Halocaust studies. Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

The Theory and Practice of Hell is a book that is both enlightening and horrifing. It is the real-life account of Eugen Kogon, a prisoner and Buchenwal, who became Medical Assistant to the Nazi Doctor who performed the infamous human medical experiments. It is a book not for the weak-hearted, and is as truthful and straightforward as walking into the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. It is a must read for all those who wish to find out a little more about the Holocaust.