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The Bookseller of Kabul
In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the Congo
Sharon and My Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries
Stalingrad
Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front
Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45
If This Is a Man / The Truce
Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
The Hollow Crown: A History of Britain in the Late Middle Ages: Vol 4 (Allen Lane History S.)
Shooting History: A Personal Journey
The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815
Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World
Putin's Russia
Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland Before the Romans
A History of Britain III: The Fate of Empire 1776-2001
Fast Food Nation: What the All-American Meal Is Doing to the World
The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture
The Templars and the Ark of the Covenant: The Discovery of the Treasure of Solomon
1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
Lonely Planet Valencia and the Costa Blanca (Lonely Planet Country & Regional Guides)

Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz

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Rudolph Hoess (Auschwitz Kommandant) and the Clarification of Some Holocaust Misconceptions
A very good tranlation
Rudolf Hoess' Mistress Interviewed
IT WAS NOT HOESS' FAULT
The Final Solution: An Inside View

Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz
Rudolf Höss
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306806983

Customer Reviews:

Rudolph Hoess (Auschwitz Kommandant) and the Clarification of Some Holocaust Misconceptions.......2007-05-31

I give this book five stars because of its historical value. This work not only gives insight into the mind of the leader of perhaps the greatest death factory ever built, but also allows a clearing-up of some errors that have accreted in the decades since that horrible time.

Hoess rejected God and the Church (p. 52-53, 57, 59, 72, 192), having rebelled against his father's wish that he become a priest. Like Himmler, he became an Artaman (pp. 202-203; a communal movement resembling the 1960's US communes, albeit Teutonic-centered) before switching to Nazism for his substitute religion.

Hoess wrote: "Until the beginning of 1942 the main body of prisoners was Polish." (p. 128). Many Poles were murdered secretly (the cause of death listed as natural), "...because of political and security reasons..." (p. 224).

During the Auschwitz Carmelite convent controversy, attempts were made to belittle the victimhood of Auschwitz Poles through the premise that they, unlike most Jews, were not generally killed upon arrival at Auschwitz. Hoess, in contrast, rejected any such dichotomy (if anything, praising the slow-death genocidal methods--as perfected by the Communists): "The Gestapo delivered the prisoners to the camps to be exterminated. It made no difference to them whether it happened by firing squad, gas, or by the horrible conditions in the camps. It was part of their plan not to improve conditions in the camps...Thus, the concentration camps were changed deliberately, and sometimes unintentionally, into large-scale extermination centers. The Kommandants received extensive composite reports from the Gestapo about the Soviet concentration camps. Escaped prisoners had made reports about the conditions and organization of these camps down to the smallest detail. They emphasized that by using forced labor methods the Soviets were annihilating entire nationalities." (pp. 168-169).

Holocaust-uniqueness advocates sometimes claim that the genocide of the Polish intelligentsia, unlike that of Jews, served a rational purpose--the elimination of resistance. Actually, the latter was, at most, a hoped-for byproduct of this nation-destroying act: "I want to add this, that the general opinion at SS headquarters was that the total annihilation of the Polish intelligentsia would also destroy the resistance movement. [SS Major] Thomsen was an ardent defender of this theory." (p. 322).

Initial plans to kill all Jews gave way to the sparing of some of them for forced labor (p. 34).

Hoess discussed the Jewish Sonderkommando in considerable detail. Those Jews temporarily got to save their lives by dutifully assisting in the deception, gassing, despoiling, and cremation of their fellow Jews. He also observed Jew-against-Jew behavior by some Jews who had no hope of postponing their own deaths. As they entered the gas chambers, they told Germans the addresses of fugitive Jews back home. Hoess commented: "I cannot explain what motivated them to reveal this information. Was it personal revenge, or were they jealous because they did not want the others to live on?" (p. 160).

In common with many Germans, Hoess attempts to rationalize his exterminatory conduct by equating it with the Allied bombings of German women and children. He estimates German civilian casualties in the several millions (p. 171), which is at least a 20-fold exaggeration.

As for lebensraum, Hoess belatedly concluded that Germany could have achieved it peacefully (p. 182).

Hoess suggested that crude propaganda such as Der Sturmer had hindered the development of scientific anti-Semitism (p. 140). He also came to believe that the extermination of Jews only brought hatred against Germany and increased Jewish power by discrediting anti-Semitism (p. 183).

This volume isn't limited to Hoess' memoirs. The entire Wannsee Protocol is printed in translation. It is obvious that the choice of Poland as the site of the German death camps was based solely on practical considerations (minimalized transportation) and had nothing to do with real or stereotyped Polish attitudes towards Jews: "State Secretary Dr. Buehler declared that the government of Occupied Poland would welcome it if the final solution to this question would be started in Occupied Poland. His reason: transport plays no important role here and the deployment of workers during the operation would not cause any problems." (p. 380).

A very good tranlation.......2007-01-06

My opinion is based on the comparison with the orginal publication in German, which I purchased in 1960 to provide essential information for the subsequent psychiatric evaluations of several thousand Holocaust survivors.

Rudolf Hoess' Mistress Interviewed.......2006-10-15

After Dachau was liberated, Army intelligence interviewed a woman at the camp who claimed to have been Rudolf Hoess' mistress while at Auschwitz. What details they could check were confirmed, and her interview became part of a Seventh Army report issued a few weeks later, a report that has been republished as Dachau Liberated: The Official Report (ISBN: 1587420031). For those who want to understand the infamous Hoess, that interview of "E.H." provides a much-needed check on his obviously self-serving autobiography. Here's a short passage from her interview:

"According to my recollection, on December 16, 1942, about 11 p.m. I was already asleep, suddenly the C.O. appeared before me. I hadn't heard the opening of my cell and was such frightened. It was dark in the cell. I believed at first it was an SS man or a prisoner and said, "What is this tomfoolery, I forbid you." Then I heard "Pst," and a pocket lamp was lighted and lit the face of the C.O. I broke out "Herr Kommandant."

Hoess didn't mention this clandestine affair in his autobiography, but details she gave fit with his account and with conditions at Auschwitz.

IT WAS NOT HOESS' FAULT.......2005-05-02

There is another autobiography of Hoess titled "Commandant of Auschwitz: The Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess". I would be interested in reading that account but am curious how that could differ from "Death Dealer". Given the circumstances the man at the end of his life did not have a whole lot of time to write different autobiographies. My guess is the two books are essentially the same.

As for Death Dealer itself it is not often one reads an account of the concentration camps from the "other side". I had read other summaries that portrayed Hoess as a mid-level cold-hearted bureaucrat whose account of his SS career was pretty much emotionless and he treated his activities in the same manner an accountant or a department store manager or a mechanic or (pick a career) would describe their career. I thought before reading the book that whatever one may say about him he would at least not grovel for forgiveness and would defiantly flip his middle finger at the world before climbing the steps of the gallows. After all, when he wrote his memoirs in 1946 and 1947, there was little suspense over what his fate would be. So sugar coating his past was not going to change his future.

Although there may have been some shred of decency in the man one could not escape the feeling that he recognized himself as a war criminal only because his captors called him a war criminal. In other words his "mea culpa" would probably not score high on the sincerity scale. The victorious Allies were the new authorities over his life and if they considered him guilty and a war criminal then he was guilty and a war criminal. Whether he personally thought so or not was not relevant. And that was pretty much how he conducted his life. Whoever his authority was pretty much controlled his life. He was the commandant of the most notorious of all Nazi death camps because his superiors made him the commandant. He killed because he was told to kill -- just as he was to die because he was told he had to die.

He admitted the horrible conditions of Auschwitz -- and other camps. It was not Hoess' fault. His superiors -- starting with Hitler and Himmler -- put impossible demands on him and did not provide adequate resources. The conditions were horrible and only got worse as the war progressed due to the lack of resources due to the stranglehold the Allies put on Germany. It was not Hoess' fault. The inadequate resources included inadequate officers, staff, and guards who committed many atrocities for which he had little or no control. It was not Hoess' fault. The inadequate resources included inadequate building material, latrines, barrack space, food, water, sanitation system, and medical supplies. It was not Hoess' fault. The concentration camp administration reflected the ideals of Thomas Eicke, the founder of the concentration camp system. It was not Hoess' fault.

Although the man blamed others for the nightmarish hell of Auschwitz and other concentration camps he accepted responsibility because it was engrained into him that the commandant is responsible for all activities within the concentration camp.

This may be as close as one may come to reading an account of the "other side". Although one's opinion of the Holocaust may not be altered by Rudolf Hoess he does share insight that one normally does not see about this dark chapter of the history of humanity. Most people know what it is like to be over tasked and under resourced. But most people do not know what it is like to be over tasked and under resourced in his particular career field.

The Final Solution: An Inside View.......2005-04-21

On April 16, 1947, Rudolph Hoess, the infamous Kommandant of Auschwitz was hanged in his former concentration camp for, "crimes against the Polish people." While awaiting trial, Hoess, who knew he would pay for his crimes with his life, sought to renew the spiritual connection he had eschewed as a youth. Accordingly, he recounted his time in the SS for his captors. His story is also that of the darkest side of the Third Reich.

The book begins with a discussion of the, "final solution," of the Jewish Question. He tells how he was ordered to establish a camp at Auschwitz for the purpose of eliminating, "enemies of the state." Details of camp construction and experiments to find the appropriate gas he describes without emotion. Yet he relates questions asked by young SS soldiers and inmates as to how small children could be an "enemy." His "party line" response fooled some, but never himself.

Hoess also describes the victims he tried to destroy. Jews had "strong family ties;" gypsies were, "childlike;" the Jehovah's Witnesses were worthy of emulation. The SS was challenged to have the same devotion to the Fuhrer as they had to Jehovah. In chapter 22 he describes the gassing process as only he could do. His primary concern was to dispatch his victims quickly and efficiently without displaying emotion that would affect young guards. Here, he admits, he hid behind an iron mask. Particularly interesting is the story of a young, extremely attractive, Jewish girl who fought back even as she was undressing for the gas chamber. Resistance was rare but in this case, effective, very effective!

The book describes his early life and the events that caused him and many others to blindly follow the SS motto: "Fuhrer, you order. We obey!" Hoess gives a detailed description of the hierarchy of the SS. Men, who had been portrayed as super-human, are shown to have been far short of that ideal. Alcoholism and suicide rates were high; competence was low! Still, operations continued despite all difficulties because, "Orders were orders!"

Death Dealer is a first person account of the operations of the most infamous death camp in history. After sending an estimated 2.5 million people to their deaths, the Kommandant, ended his life by doing one decent thing: he left his memoirs so no one could deny this ever happened. For that, the world owes Rudoph Hoess, the Kommandant of Auschwitz, a debt of gratitude.

The Twisted Road to Auschwitz: Nazi Policy toward German Jews, 1933-39

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Not the interesting book that it's made out to be.
A landmark in Holocaust scholarship

The Twisted Road to Auschwitz: Nazi Policy toward German Jews, 1933-39
Karl A. Schleunes
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0252061470

Customer Reviews:

Not the interesting book that it's made out to be........2000-05-05

Just as a warning, the title is a bit decieving on this book. I imagined an interesting, anecdote filled book that would keep me reading for more. It wasn't. I must also say that it was the most impressive collection on the devopment of Nazism through this time period that I have ever seen. Any information that you could ever want on this subject can be found in this book. The information is very impressive, but the interest level is low.

A landmark in Holocaust scholarship.......2000-03-28

Dr. Karl A. Schleunes's 1970 book ushered in a new era in historical scholarship concerning the Nazi "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". The book examines the period 1933-39, ending two years before the first gassings at Chelmno on December 8, 1941. This work is cited in almost every major work on the Nazis and was a major catalyst in the explosion of Holocaust scholarship. Published 30 years ago, its impact is still being felt throughout the area of German History. This is a must read for those interested in understanding the events leading to the Holocaust and offers an interesting thesis, namely that the road to Auschwitz was not clearly defined in 1933 upon the accession of Hitler as Chancellor, but that it was a twisted road. Schleunes presents the material in a very clear and concise manner that is easy for nonscholars to read and understand.

Theresienstadt: Hitler's Gift to the Jews

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Theresienstadt: Hitler's Gift to the Jews
Norbert Troller
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0807819654

Book Description

Norbert Troller's unique account of life in Theresienstadt combines his intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the camp with two dozen of his own drawings and watercolors. Troller recounts his two years in Theresienstadt from early 1942 until September 1944, when he was deported to Auschwitz after the Nazis discovered he and other artists were smuggling out drawings that revealed the horrors of Hitler's "model" ghetto. Miraculously preserved by his friends, Troller's drawings and watercolors of life inside Theresienstadt add a compelling dimension to his story. His keen observations of human nature, of the experiences of his fellow prisoners, and of his own existence are embedded within a powerful history of the Theresienstadt atrocities.

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KL AUSCHWITZ SEEN BY THE SS
Pery Broad and Johann Paul Kremer Rudolf Hoss
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: 8385047328

Product Description

Book Description: 1994 Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. A collection of documents written by SS-men from the concentration camp at Auschwitz: the first commandant of KL Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoss; Pery Broad, a functionary of the camp Gestapo; and Johann Kremer, a doctor. first edition softback. G+. 9.5x6.5. 255pp. frontis, 80 b/w photos.

Survival in Auschwitz,: The Nazi assault on humanity

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A clinical memoir of the Holocaust -- and that's good
The meaning of being 'human'
Book Review for Survival in Auschwitz
Great book on the Holocaust
100% Recommended

Survival in Auschwitz,: The Nazi assault on humanity
Primo Levi
Manufacturer: Collier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

The Reawakening
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ASIN: B0007DPEJ2

Amazon.com

Survival in Auschwitz is a mostly straightforward narrative, beginning with Primo Levi's deportation from Turin, Italy, to the concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland in 1943. Levi, then a 25-year-old chemist, spent 10 months in the camp. Even Levi's most graphic descriptions of the horrors he witnessed and endured there are marked by a restraint and wit that not only gives readers access to his experience, but confronts them with it in stark ethical and emotional terms: "[A]t dawn the barbed wire was full of children's washing hung out in the wind to dry. Nor did they forget the diapers, the toys, the cushions and the hundred other small things which mothers remember and which children always need. Would you not do the same? If you and your child were going to be killed tomorrow, would you not give him something to eat today?" --Michael Joseph Gross

Book Description

In 1943, Primo Levi, a twenty-five-year-old chemist and "Italian citizen of Jewish race," was arrested by Italian fascists and deported from his native Turin to Auschwitz. Survival in Auschwitz is Levi's classic account of his ten months in the German death camp, a harrowing story of systematic cruelty and miraculous endurance. Remarkable for its simplicity, restraint, compassion, and even wit, Survival in Auschwitz remains a lasting testament to the indestructibility of the human spirit. Included in this new edition is an illuminating conversation between Philip Roth and Primo Levi never before published in book form.

Customer Reviews:

A clinical memoir of the Holocaust -- and that's good.......2007-06-03

A touching, but not mawkish or dramatic, memoir. One realizes the randomness and happenstance by which he survived, and easily accepts the moral dualism of the life of thievery and connivance, within bounds of common decency and collective group self-interest, that kept any survivor alive. Some reviews seemed to fault the book for being unemotional, but one sees how Levi's essentially scientific and objective personality became a key to his survival, and necessarily informs his voice.

The meaning of being 'human'.......2007-01-16

This account of the imprisonment, internment, survival of Primo Levi in Auschwitz is written as a straightforward chronological narrative. Levi recounts his initial capture , the horrendous suffering of the journey of Italian Jews to Auschwitz, the selection there in which all the woman and children were immediately sent to their deaths in the gas- chambers, and in which the able- bodied sent to the work- camp at Buna. Levi tells the story , detail by detail of his getting into the work- order of the Camp. He describes in clear precise language the horrible humiliations the prisoners were subject to. He also describes in one central chapter, four different kinds of survivors, and the strategies they use to escape death. His accounts of his own getting through to the liberation include his appreciations of his friend Albert, and a few other individuals who with no reward to expect for it, helped him on the way.
The bestiality of the Nazis and their helpers is not sermonized about, but rather portrayed in specific incidents of unusual terrible cruelty.
Levi is deeply concerned with the whole question of what it means to be human , and how it is possible to retain human dignity in the most extreme circumstances.
His carefully written record of his own horrifying experience is to this day considered one of the most moving and effective of Holocaust memoirs.

Book Review for Survival in Auschwitz.......2007-01-13

The book Survival in Auschwitz is by Primo Levi. It is about a twenty-five year old chemist named Primo Levi, who is an Italian citizen of the Jewish race. He was captured by Italian Fascists in 1943 and was transported to a concentration camp in Auschwitz where he spent 10 months known as Haftling 174517. At the concentration camps they were authorized to build a Buna- a rubber processing plant. Those who were unable to work were immediately killed. Those who worked in the "Lagers" had a better chance of living because the Germans decided that the Jews in the lagers would be more of use alive than dead. Levi who works in the lager talks about how some people would trade possessions such as clothing, spoons, bowls, shoes etc. for rations of bread or food in the lagers. Those who got injured in work in the lagers were sent to Ka-Be. Ka-Be is the abbreviation of Krankenbau, which is a temporary infirmary. Those who seem to get better at Ka-Be were sent back to work and those who seem to get worse are sent from Ka-Be to the gas chambers. Later on in this book Levi and two other chemists were authorized to work in the labs. This job had some benefits. They were given a new shirt and were to work indoors, rather than out in the winter weather, and this job wasn't strenuous.

This is a book about survival. I dint like this book too much. I found this book hard to understand at some points and most of the German words are hard to pronounce. I would recommend this book to people who have interest in World War 2 or the Holocaust.

Great book on the Holocaust.......2006-12-19

Ever since I first studied the Holocaust in the eighth grade, I love reading and listening to the stories of the people who were in the Holocaust. This is the first Holocaust book that I read. I first read this book when I was in high school. This is one of my favorite Holocaust books.

100% Recommended.......2006-09-29

It recounts the hellish 12 months that Primo Levi, an Italian jew, spent as Haftling 174517, at the notorious Deathcamp (during 1939 and 1944 2 million people were murdered there). He was captured by the Fascist Militia in December 1943 and wished to be charged based on his religious beliefs rather than his political ones in the view that he would be treated more leniently. After a period in a detention camp at Fossili, Modena, he along with the rest of the Jews are transferred to the concentration camps. The opening chapters describe the horrific conditions of the transfer and the hasty selection process used to determine who would go to the camp and who would go to the gas chambers at Birkenau; all the women, children and infirm were sent to cremation without question. In some ways he was fortunate to have avoided arrest until the latter stages of the war as the Germans decided that the prisoners in the lagers would be of more use to them alive than dead, at Auschwitz they were detailed to build a Buna - a synthetic rubber processing plant which never saw a day of production. Prior to this the prisoners were killed without recourse.

It recounts how far a man can sink and yet survive - every action is a matter of life or death, from conserving energy to get through the next day; to the importance of a good pair of shoes that won't cause sores leading to infection and death; keeping an eye out for any article that can be bartered for a ration of bread; the debilitating effects of the Polish winter when 7 out of 10 prisoners would perish; obtaining a position of some responsibility in the camp (unfortunately usually conferred to a german criminal prisoner); to paring ones emotions until the only thing left is the innate sense of survival and concern for one's own wellbeing; he even describes the characters of different prisoners and how they use every human instinct, guile, cunning, pity etc to remain alive for just one more day.

Out of respect for all those that perished in the camps I believe that this book should be read - if for no other reason that inside of us all there is the possibility that we could become one of the people that design, guard, administer such a camp. If you think you're having a tough time - this book may put things into perspective - you will be different for having read this book.

John Pascucci ,The Manhunter - Nazi hunter & member of the US Marshalls Service, who captured Josef Mengele , the Angel of Death of Auschwitz

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John Pascucci ,The Manhunter - Nazi hunter & member of the US Marshalls Service, who captured Josef Mengele , the Angel of Death of Auschwitz
Cameron / John Pascucci Stauth
Manufacturer: Pocket Pub. Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KLJEH4

Auschwitz: The Story of a Nazi Death Camp (Watts Nonfiction)

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Hard To Read

Auschwitz: The Story of a Nazi Death Camp (Watts Nonfiction)
Clive A. Lawton
Manufacturer: Candlewick
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Library Lion

ASIN: 0763615951
Release Date: 2002-07-22

Book Description

Through startling first-person narratives, a rare collection of photographs, and expert storytelling, a renowned authority traces the history of Auschwitz from World War II to the present day.

"In less than ten minutes all the fit men had been selected. . . .
Of the more than 500 others, not one was living two days later."
- Primo Levi, Auschwitz survivor
"When they told us to undress, they made us feel like animals.
The men were walking around and laughing and looking at us.
I wanted the ground to open up and for me to be swallowed by it."
- Lily Malnick, Auschwitz survivor
"By the time they took us back to the barracks at night we could
barely crawl. But we needed to show that we could still walk,
that we were strong enough to give one more day."
- Fritzie Fritshall, Auschwitz survivor

Between March 1942 and January 1945, at least 1.5 million people were systematically murdered at Auschwitz. Some were sent to their death immediately upon arrival, some were sentenced to the slower, living death
of slave labor, and some were the victims of gruesome medical experiments. In the middle of Europe and in the middle of the twentieth century, ordinary people, living ordinary lives, helped to do this. How did it happen?

In this extraordinary resource for young readers, Clive A. Lawton provides a look at those who helped transform an abandoned army barracks into the notorious Nazi death camp known as Auschwitz, and of the countless men, women, and children who lost their lives there. Included are many photographs from what may be the only surviving photo album from Auschwitz, an album found, in a strange twist of fate, by a prisoner escaping from another camp - who discovered within the album’s pages the faces of loved ones who had perished at Auschwitz.

Customer Reviews:

Hard To Read.......2004-02-06

Oh dear God, how could you allow this hell to take place? This book shows us the center of hell, Auschwitz, that killed 2 million innocent Jews. 1/3 of the the 6 mill that perished from that Hitler!!

Morality After Auschwitz: The Radical Challenge of the Nazi Ethic

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Morality After Auschwitz: The Radical Challenge of the Nazi Ethic
Peter J. Haas
Manufacturer: Fortress Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Giver
Leadership for Social Justice: Making Revolutions in Education
Using Data to Close the Achievement Gap: How to Measure Equity in Our Schools
Night (Oprah's Book Club)

ASIN: 0800625811

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Nazi Medicine

Manufacturer: Howard Fertig
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0865274916

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SAVE YOUR MONEY
Badly edited - for historians only
Essential Reading
Bad Report

Dachau Liberated: The Official Report
U S. Seventh Army
Manufacturer: Inkling Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Dachau 29 April 1945: The Rainbow Liberation Memoirs
The Buchenwald Report
Justice at Dachau: The Trials of an American Prosecutor
Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps

ASIN: 1587420074

Book Description

This is the official U.S. Army report of the terrible conditions at the Dachau concentration camp in Nazi Germany and of the camp's liberation on April 29, 1945. It was written within days of that liberation and contains valuable photographs, sketches and first-person accounts. It includes an interview with a woman who claimed to have been Rudof Hoess's mistress at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Copies of the original report are hard to obtain. This is the first time it has been published as a book.

Customer Reviews:

SAVE YOUR MONEY.......2005-04-29

In defense of whoever wrote this report in 1945 they probably were not professional writers nor did they expect their report to be offered to the public 50+ years later. For that reason I gave the book two stars instead of one. This is a very dry, unemotional, bland report that is rather disjointed.

Although I did not expect a professional effort I had expected something substantive -- maybe more along the lines of a description of the advance upon the town of Dachau, the capturing of the camp, the surrender of the German guards left behind, the actions taken against the Germans (including summary executions and reprisals by the inmates), and the liberation of the survivors. Instead it is a very dry attempt to explain the camp organization and what occurred there.

The report was written only days after the liberation and contributes nothing to an understanding about the camp, the inmates, the guards, and the activities surrounding the liberation of the camp. Its historical value is only in when it was written and from where. Otherwise there was no value to this book.

Badly edited - for historians only.......2005-04-18

This booklet is a reprint of the various short reports that the American Army sent home on Dachau concentration camp when they liberated it in 1945. As a source, it is very interesting; how did the liberators react to the camp they found? What was their impression of the Germans who lived in the town of Dachau?
As can be expected from a report written early after the war, there are many mistakes in the reports. This would not have been a problem if the book had been properly edited. Unfortunately, someone who is not very knowledgeable on the subject edited the book. There are many mistakes in the German quotations. The camp is also wrongly referred to as a death camp. Death camps differed from concentration camps in that people did not work there, but were killed immediately after arrival. These camps only existed in Poland. The Dachau gas chamber is described but it is now widely accepted that this chamber was hardly (possibly never) used to kill people. That the editor fails to point this out is not just negligent, but it also gives ammunition to the so-called revisionists or holocaust deniers who claim that gas chambers were never in use. They often use Dachau as an illustration of the "false" impression that there were gas chambers.
There are other illustrations of the lack of insight of the editor. For instance, the report of the former mistress of Rudolf Hoess camp commandant of Auschwitz. Her name is only given abbreviated, while there are other reports on her, giving her name as Eleonore Hodys, for instance Hermann Langbeins book People in Auschwitz. This book also offers more information on the affair. Without a further introduction, Hodys' testimony makes little sense at it is on Auschwitz concentration camp.
For the professional historian it can be a valuable source of information, but general readers should avoid this book. It is a bad introduction on concentration camps for the non-professional. Many other books offer more accurate information on Dachau and other concentration camps.

Essential Reading.......2004-06-10

For serious students of the Holocaust, this report of the United States' Seventh Army staff should be required reading. The chilling diary that is paired with the report lends further evidence to the degradation and beasitality of the Nazi regime as played out in suburban Munich.

Bad Report.......2003-05-03

Disappointed and just a little bit mad, that sums up my feelings after reading this book. I had high hopes for the book given that I had read a similar book on another camp that was very good. This book, on the other hand just was very lacking in detail and organization. The book is the 7th Army's report on the camp issued shortly after the liberation. The book tried to cover the set up of the camp, what took place in the camp, the make up of the SS staff, and a few personnel accounts of time in camp. The authors just did none of these items very well. The book was poorly organized. The coverage of the camp set up and running of the camp was far too short and really lacked in detail. And the personnel accounts were mainly of people in somewhat privileged support roles quite unlike the average prisoner.

I wish this was the extent of my issues with the book, but on top of all this the writing just was not that good. The writing was rather jumpy and not very challenging. It was like reading a bad high school history report. Overall I would pass on this book. There are far too many quality books covering this topic to spend any time on this one. The only reason I am giving the book a two is I somehow feel guilty about giving a very low rating to book dealing with such a horrible event.

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