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Summary: Nazis' Holocaust is UTTERLY DIFFERENT from other slaughters
Review: This Author since he could survive although he was in theSonderkommando (even SS assigned to kilns were killed) is the MOSTIMPORTANT witness of the very particularity of Nazis' Holocaust: their INDUSTRIAL , perfectly organized way to annihilate millions of human beings, their SCIENTIFICLY codified and coordinated organisation for "clean" and total killing. This Author and his books and his witnessing in Nurmberg gives the best explanations how the Nazis' Holocaust is QUITE DIFFERENT, UTTERLY DIFFERENT from all other great slaughters.
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Summary: One telling book
Review: This book I found when reading advances what one already knows of the Holocast. It advances it in ways that can't be imagined. Sure everyone knows some of what happened during the holocast and that it was horrific. You probably don't realize how horrific it was unless you have lived it or read this book. Though just a breif account it will leave you stuned and with tears in your eyes. It is that powerful. To think that human beings could do such a thing to one another. If only every person with hate read this book our society would be hateless. Please buy it and read it.
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Summary: It seems impossible that it happened at all...
Review: This book is particularly fascinating considering the viewpoint from which it's written. This man assisted the death of many people, cowering down from the powers to save his own life. I will not judge too much, because it would be arrogant to assume that I would have done anything different. I have no idea, none of us can even imagine what it must have been like. However, I agree that Nyiszli is a 'repentant soul'...his book shows us what NOT to have done. I believe that he is quite sorry for his actions, but perhaps I am wrong. I believe that during his time at the camp, he in his mind made up for his actions by telling himself that he would try to stay alive just to tell the story afterwards. I suppose in doing this it didn't matter to him that he was killing all these people...but again, who am I to judge? They would have just found someone else willing to do his work anyway. Obviously I'm quite confused about my feelings for this man through his account, so I will leave it at this. Fascinating.
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Summary: Interesting viewpoint
Review: This book is written from the viewpoint of the pathologist who had to satisfy Mengele's sadistic cravings. While Dr. N did what he had to do to preserve his life, did he facilitate and spur Mengele's urges? This book raises the question of whether it was better to be shot immediately for disobedience to the SS, go immediately into the gas chambers/ovens, or should one do whatever it takes to preserve one's life to the last possible moment, no matter what the suffering. I was particular interested in the young Jews who manned the ovens. Each knew that their life expectancy was only 4 months, yet they still undertook gruesome tasks, not to preserve their life for a chance of escape or to help others, but just to live a few months! What difficult choices these poor men had to make! This book spurred me to read other accounts. I have just started "Children of the Flames". It too is hard to put down.
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Summary: An Unbelievable True Story
Review: This book provides us with a first eye look at the operations at the infamous Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz. Dr. Miklos Nyislzi volunteered his services as a doctor/pathologist to the notorious "Angel of Death", Dr. Mengele. The experiments that were performed are unbelievable. How Dr. Nyislzi avoided getting killed on numerous occasions is beyond me. The ending to this book is perhaps the most astonishing part of all. A must read.
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Summary: Some Doctor
Review: This book was recommended to me by some associates as a must read. I was told that this book is like no other book on Auschwitz. A first hand account of not only a witness of but also a contributor to the Nazi evil. As I began the book I read account after account of the many terrible events that occured in the camp, I became physically sickened. I did not become ill from of the details of the events, which are quite familiar to me, but from the casual fashion in which he describes the horrors he performed as Mengele's "Igor". Furthermore, I have never encountered any book containing such petty rationalizes for outright wicked and cowardly actions. He even has the titanic brazeness to attempt to discuss the "humanity" of Mengele, whose evil in my opinion, surpasses that of Hitler himself. Needless to say I could not finish reading this book, although I did read about his remorse and his sorrow for what he had done. So why am I giving it three stars after all I've said? I still believe that this is a most important book. This is an impressive case study on the immense power of the human mind to decieve itself, and how this deception can lead a person to commit the most heinous of acts. Through realization of the possibility of this sort of deception, a person can learn to identify it before the rationale leads him astray.
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Summary: Horrifying look into the Holocaust
Review: This book was very good. The main character did what he could to be able to tell the story to future generations in order to prevent this from ever happening again, and also to survive. Nyiszli, should have died a dozen times in this book, but each time he escaped death. Of the thousands-He may have been the luckiest Auschwitz prisoner to survive. We must continue to read books like this, because as horrifying as they are, they teach us to never forget; for as soon as you forget there is chance that it could happen again.
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Summary: Honest and sensitive account of brutality
Review: This first person account by an anatomist/doctor who assisted Mengele in completing autopsies is suprisingly perceptive and sensitive. It differs greatly from some other narratives I have read. It was not the Dante's Inferno that Elie Weisel describes. I believe Weisel sensationalized. Departing from the transports was not punctuated by brutal Nazi's beating people to death. Instead, the doctor describes order and tolerance; this actually seems believable as the guards want the least resistance in your walking to your death. Moreover, I am sure each experience varied significantly. I must say we can't just "not forget," it is not enough. Rather we must understand the variety of experience and not sensationalize the event needlessly. The danger of this is presenting the material inaccuratley, resulting in our inability to recoginize the signs that it could all be happening again. Miklos does not do this.
What also fascinated me was his relationship with Mengele. Mengele had a bitter harsh side. Once Miklos was humanized, he was treated quite well by Mengele. He even let him find his family and bring goods to assist their survival. Also, the day to day life of the Sonder-Commando's that he is paired with and medically attends to was heartbreaking as they lived under an assured death sentence. See Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone.
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Summary: A horrifying and fascinating account.
Review: This was an early work on the life of an Auschwitz prisoner working as a forensic physician attached to a crematorium. The book is not, as some have suggested, simply another retelling of death camp terrors. It is also the fascinating story of Miklos Nyiszli, a professional scientist who is very proud of his skills. Forced to apply them under the most unspeakable conditions, he carries on - pleased with his new laboratory, his relationship with respected German institutes of race theory and eugenics (as a supplier of gruesome specimens), and eager not just to survive, but to be recognized for his talents by Mengele who was the Camp's chief scientific officer. He recognizes the horror of his position and the tenuous nature of his very existence. He loathes the gas and is in no way a collaborator - yet he takes pride in his technical accomplishments. As a fellow scientist, I am repelled, I am horrified, and I understand
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Summary: Insightful description of horrible place
Review: While Nyiszli does an excellant job of conveying the sanctity of the ground at Auschwitz whilemainting historical integrity, this publication lacks the reality of present day Poland. That said, this book is a great first-hand person account of the trials and travesties that went on at that site, and is a MUST read for anyone in the fieled of Holocaust study
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