Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chamber

There have been countless books written about Hitlers Final solution mostly by historians and occasionally by eyewitness survivors.

You can read account after account of conditions in the final months leading to the Russians eventual entry into the camp but few books will be as informative as this one written by camp Sonderkommando Filip Muller whose actual job was to operate the crematoria and dispose of the thousands of corpses.

During the latter half of 1944 an incredible 10,000+ were liquidated on a daily basis.This may appear too far fetched to comprehend at first but when you realise that those in command from Hitler right down to Himmlers eventual realisation that the war was turning against them a dramatic escelation in gassing took place until mass shootings were the norm and corpses were burnt round the clock in open pits.

Filip was there as all this was going on and later as the mass of bodies became too overwhelming to cope with it was the Sonderkommandos duty to remove the rotting corpses for disposal in the ovens.

There are certain passages that will really make one think momentarily on the question of mans inhumanity towards his fellow man.

The arrival and first trial of mass gassings where under extream brutality men women and children were forced to undress knowingly they were facing certain death.

Possibly the most heart rending extracts are to be found on page 48 where Filip having discovered the arrival of his father at the camp has to cremate his body after his death from tythus.Fellow workmen working alongside him at the blazing ovens recite a prayer.

The book really brings the true barbarity of camp life to the reader.

The inhumanity of certain Kapos or team leaders given trusted duties by the SS who were extreamly sadistic beating fellow prisoners to death due to anger against what the SS were doing to his fellow countrymen.

Whilst reading the first two chapters one clearly realises these are the genuine testimony of somebody who lived on a daily basis where systematic murder was common place.Unless you witnessed at first hand you couldnot make up such testimony such as these.

As i have already said you can write about this highly documented period in history but unless you were physically there in person to witness these events no amount of research will reveal the actual truth.

This is why Filip Mullers book is so important,as less than a handfull of Sonderkommandos at Auschwitz actually lived to bear witness to their testimony.

Unless you were actually there in person you cannot envisage the horrors and brutality of camp guards and SS officers.Muller recounts day to day life within the confines of Auschwitz-Berkenhau like only a fellow prisoner could relate.

His matter of fact account of unimaginable horrors makes compelling reading if not unpleasant reading.He has not withheld any of the material that will disgust or distress us,everything has been accounted for right up to his amazing survival.

As a Sonderkommando he was to some extent safe as his services were of great importance to the camps efficient running.Without him and other workers the mass murder couldnot have taken place at such a large scale.

A book that is extreamly well written by somebody who actually knows what went on within the camp.Few books can bring home the true meaning of genocide as can this one.

If you are looking for great detail on events and life within Hitlers largest death camp then this book will not disappoint.

Brings the Reality of what went on home ! (1/1 people found this helpful)

I visited Auschwitz earlier this year. I wish I had read this book before I had gone as it really brought home the terrible crimes that went on in this place. If you are interested in Auschwitz then this is a must read !

Gripping (1/1 people found this helpful)

What an amazing account of the holocaust and believe me I have read a few!
This book gives a gripping account of one mans survival in the death factory that can only be described as hell on earth.
The author is a testimony to courage and mans desire to stay alive at all costs.
Buy this now!

A tragic waste (6/7 people found this helpful)

As an avid reader of Holocaust material, it seems that there will never be an end to the literature devoted to the subject; nor should there be. AS familiar as I am with much of this tragic period in Polish history, I still found this a staggering and heart-wrenching read.

The horror we need to know (7/9 people found this helpful)

My Father recently visited Aushwitz

Something that we were never taught about at school in the 1990's only that Hitler was an evil man.

I read this book in one reading and in someway feel guilty that I did not realise the horrors that people of mr Grandfathers generation went through. I find it unbelievable that as an educated man of thirty I now only realise the true horrors of what went on.

An amazing book which makes the unreal unfortunately real. We cannot change the past but hopefully the future will be better. Read it and hope that something will change.

Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chamber

Filip Muller

Reader Reviews:

An account by somebody who witnessed everything first hand. (1/1 people found this helpful)

Brings the Reality of what went on home ! (1/1 people found this helpful)

Gripping (1/1 people found this helpful)

A tragic waste (6/7 people found this helpful)

The horror we need to know (7/9 people found this helpful)

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