Rating: 
Summary: The Final Civil Rights Movement
Review: There is no doubt in my mind that Charles Patterson has written a great book. It is seldom that such a
comprehensive work of scholarship springs from a heart of compassion in the service of a noble
and necessary idea. All of the ingredients of his thesis'that the oppression of animals serves as
the model for all other forms of oppression'have been available to thinking people for
generations, but it remained for Patterson to pull them together into a case for animal rights that we
as a species cannot afford to ignore. We live in a very sick world. Many alternative therapies work backwards, treating the most
recent disorder before uncovering the older ones, like peeling the layers of an onion. It is my
hope that in peeling away the layers of oppression in our society'the oppression of blacks, of
women, of gays'we have finally reached bedrock: the oppression of animals, and that this, the
final civil rights movement, is at last on the agenda. May this book help to make it so!
Rating:
Summary: Reality
Review: This book does only one thing. It makes us confront reality. The reality of animal slaughter: in all of its gruesomeness and obsceneness.
The problem is that when people eat meat, they think it's just that: meat. They do not realize that what they are eating was once the flesh of an animal; they only see it as their dinner or lunch. Similarly, Nazi's did not see Jews as people; they only saw them as things that needed to be killed for a good cause.
This extraordinary book parallels our treatment of animals with holocaust. Not only the slaughtering of animals, but also the exploitation of animals.
The book starts off by showing us how Humans came to acquire the belief that we are supreme; above all other being on the earth. The book goes on to describe the industrialized slaughter of animals (and humans in genocide), and finally it gives profiles of holocaust survivors. These holocaust survivors can be seen as the voices of the animals; they were the animals at one point. Every few years a book comes out that completely shocks the world. A book that forces people to change their ways, forces them to question what they have believed their whole lives, forces them to ACT, to DO SOMETHING. This is one such book. For those who have been eating meat their whole lives, this book will be a rude awakening. I know, because before this book I was only considering being a vegetarian. Now I am one.
I MORE than urge everyone to read this book. Living in ignorance is NOT a choice. We must expose ourselves to certain realities, this being one: animal cruelty is unjustified and wrong.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This is a great book. One thing though, there are more than 2 examples from ancient literature that focus on the suffering of animals. But I nitpick. Overall a very powerful argument that may help one day to turn the vile human race from its' bloody habits. (fat chance).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent. Should be widely read.
Review: When I first learned that Charles Patterson was going to write a book about "our treatment of animals and the Holocaust," I had some misgivings. I was aware that some animal rights advocates had made superficial, misleading comparisons between the treatment of animals on factory farms and the treatment of Jews and others in the Holocaust, and I knew that this had hurt the vegetarian/animal rights cause by giving people an excuse to avoid considering the many negative effects of animal-based diets. However, I was an early endorser of Patterson's project because I felt that we needed new, creative ways to alert people to the horrors of modern intensive livestock agriculture, and my knowledge of his character, sensitivity, and background convinced me that he would be an ideal person for this project. My confidence in his ability to sensitively carry out this project was well placed. The book is very well researched (with almost 700 end notes), and it is written with great sensitivity and compassion. Eternal Treblinka does not equate animals and people. Rather, it shows how the frequent vilification of people as rats, vermin, pigs, insects, beasts, monkeys, etc., dehumanizes people and makes it easier to oppress, enslave, and murder them. He documents many examples of this process, relating it to the treatment of slaves, native American Indians, Japanese people during World War II, Vietnamese people during the Vietnam War, and other examples. The book carefully shows how the enslavement ("domestication") of animals became the model and inspiration for all the oppressions that followed. In particular. he documents a trail from slaughterhouse production lines to Henry Ford's assembly lines for the mass production of automobiles to Hitler's methods in the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust. He also discusses the myth of Hitler's "vegetarianism"--his diet of little or no meat he often followed to reduce his chronic health problems. Throughout the book, Patterson is sensitive to the views of Holocaust survivors. Lucy Kaplan, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, has contributed an eloquent Foreword. An entire chapter profiles animal advocates who are Holocaust survivors, children or grandchildren of survivors, people who lost relatives in the Holocaust, and those who have given thought to the lessons
of the Holocaust. Another chapter, "The Other Side of the Holocaust," discusses German and German-American animal advocates who began their lives in Nazi Germany. There is also a chapter on the exploitation and slaughter of animals as a major theme in the writings of Yiddish writer and Nobel laureate, Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-91), many of whose characters were Holocaust survivors. The title of the book comes from a statement by one of Singer1s characters: "...for the animals, it is an eternal Treblinka." The connections between the mentality and methods behind the
oppression of animals and the oppression of human beings that are
documented in this important and timely book have great potential to stir Jews (and others) to start to apply Jewish teachings about the proper treatment of animals, and thereby to help shift the world from its present perilous, inhumane path. I hope that Eternal Treblinka will be widely read, that its message will be extensively applied for the benefit of both humans and animals, and that it will help lead to that day when, in the words of Isaiah (11:6), "no one shall hurt nor destroy in all of God's Holy mountain."
Rating:
Summary: Educational and Interesting for All Audiences
Review: When I first picked up Eternal Treblinka I must admit it was with some degree of skepticism. My reservations were not about the quality of the writing or research in the book; I had high expectations in that regard and the book in fact surpassed my expectations. I was concerned that the book might be too esoteric to have any general appeal. After all, people concerned about animals in our society are a relatively small group. People with a strong interest in the Holocaust are also a small and probably shrinking group. A book that combines the two topics, I reasoned, might appeal to very few people.
I was very wrong in my thinking here. This is a book with a very broad appeal. The book is not just about a single event in history (horrific as that event may have been) nor is it about the views of some "fringe" animal rights activists. This book drives at an issue central to all of human history; a problem that arguably has caused most of the preventable suffering since the dawn of civilization.
Patterson adeptly demonstrates how throughout human history mankind has created a division between both their own group and their "inferiors"-both human and animal. And how that division has led to horrific abuse of both humans and animals.
This is a wonderfully enlightening book, filled with overlooked and fascinating historical tidbits. Although history has never been a topic particularly interesting to me, I found myself frequently feeling compelled to stop and tell whoever was in the room, "Hey, did you know that.."
Eternal Treblinka is surprising for its readability as well as its broad appeal. Somehow, Patterson managed to turn this educational work of non-fiction into something of a page-turner.
This book is recommended for readers from a wide range of perspectives. Knowledgeable animal activists will find plenty of new information here. People who have some affection for animals but are on the fence regarding societal animal mistreatment will quite likely have a change in perspective after reading Patterson's unemotional and clearly well-researched historical account. This book may have a particularly powerful effect on readers who have ties to the Holocaust but who may not have given much consideration to the plight of animals. For my friends in this category, I know what their next gift will be.
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