Auschwitz x 4

Auschwitz, a Doctor’s Eyewitness Account
Miklos Nyiszli
Richard Seaver
Tibere Kremer





Behind Enemy Lines
The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany
Marthe Cohn with Wendy Holden












Rena’s Promise – Two Sisters in Auschwitz
Rena Corneich Gelissen with Heather Dune Macadam













The Dentist of Auschwitz
Benjamin Jacobs

During the week I spent laid up with a bad sinus infection/migraines/in the hospital, I managed to read four Nazi survivor memoirs. I say managed like there was some effort required – it was pretty much the only thing I was capable of doing. I will say one nice thing about e-books – they do come in handy when you’re barely capable of making it to the bathroom, let alone the bookstore.

I’m not going to go into much detail for these because I’m catching up on all my work. I chose these books to read while I was sick because I've always been interested in the subject and I was pretty sure that they would be interesting reads – I really didn’t have the mental capacity to search out unknown books/authors. Also, if there’s anything sure to squash a self-pity party, it’s reading accounts of those who had to endure the atrocities of the Third Reich.

Without a doubt, all of the stories are just heart-breaking. One the things that stood out to me, was that those who managed to survive seemed to have first of all, good health to begin with, a lot of luck – but also the ability to identify an opportunity and seize upon it. For example, in The Dentist of Auschwitz, upon arrival at Auschwitz the dentist/author is selected by Mengele for survival and sent to the line that meant life and not instant death in the crematoriums. His father who was there with him was sent to the other line. While they were still standing there, there was a commotion and the dentist took advantage of it to pull his father over to his own line, risking his own life, but also somehow sensing this would be the last chance to save him. Which is why I think I would not have survived – I probably would have dithered weighing the pros and cons of each situation until it was too late. That and I crumple under a cold.

What also touched me was the way that love for others, often sustained them and helped them. In Rena’s promise two young sisters who voluntarily showed up for deportation because they did not want to risk harming the families that were hiding them, depend on each other and on their memories of their mama and papa who are not there and that they imagine are alive waiting for them. When Rena describes how her mother used to take a warm brick at night and run it over her covers at night to warm them and lay it at the foot of her bed, it made me think about what the Offspring might have to hold him over in a difficult time.

And I realized that we are a more selfish generation. I think about how Mr. Inktini and I divvy up his pick up and drop off since we both work and wonder if the Offspring feels like we are divying up a chore. I think about how we want time for ourselves for our own projects. And I think about how we’ve lost a certain amount of the ability to just enjoy what we have. Which is not to say that I pine for the good old days, because they certainly weren’t good in a lot of ways. But I do long for an existence where a warm brick can carry such meaning and love and ultimately life.