Auschwitz: A Doctor's Story (Women's Life Writings from Around the World) [Hardcover]

Lucie Adelsberger (Author), Susan H. Ray (Translator), Deborah E. Lipstadt (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1555532330 | ISBN-13: 978-1555532338 | Publication Date: September 28, 1995 | Edition: 1

"A taut, terse Holocaust narrative that is all the more powerful for its ironic reserve." -- Kirkus Reviews

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Lest Nazi Germany's brutalities be forgotten, this understated, appalling book, which first appeared in German in 1956, ought to remain perpetually in print. Specializing in immunology and allergy in Berlin at the time, Adelsberger turned down a position at Harvard in 1933 because she was unable to get her mother out of Germany. In May_ 1943, she was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where, under the general supervision of Josef Mengele, she was permitted to practice her profession in one of the large women's areas. Her account of the starvation, cruelty, and sadism meted out to women and children against the backdrop--within sight of the block in which she worked--of the flames and stench from burning bodies will long remain in the minds of readers, as will the chaotic death marches at the end of the war, one more crime against humanity. Adelsberger concludes by asserting that "[t]he legacy of the dead rests in our hands; it's incumbent upon us to tell their story." William Beatty

Review

"A taut, terse Holocaust narrative that is all the more powerful for its ironic reserve." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Lest Nazi Germany's brutalities be forgotten, this understated, appalling book, which first appeared in German in 1956, ought to remain perpetually in print. . . . In May 1943, [Dr. Adelsberger] was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where, under the general supervision of Josef Mengele, she was permitted to practice her profession. . . . Her account of the starvation, cruelty, and sadism meted out to women and children against the backdrop . . . of the flames and stench from burning bodies will long remain in the minds of readers." -- Booklist

A taut, terse Holocaust narrative that is all the more powerful for its ironic reserve. -- Kirkus Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Northeastern; 1 edition (September 28, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555532330
• ISBN-13: 978-1555532338
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,148,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beauty and monstrosity, October 29, 2003

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Auschwitz: A Doctor's Story (Women's Life Writings from Around the World) (Hardcover)

Lucie Adelsberger's memoir of surviving Auschwitz, opens with a description of life in Berlin in 1938. "It began with only a few so called 'trifles,' " she says, citing three incidents which leapt out of the maelstrom of edicts and indignities to confront her with the relentless cruelty of the regime. The first of these limited Jews to public benches marked for them, thereby denying the elderly, many already displaced from their homes, the solace of parks. The second occurred when her elderly mother smiled at a functionary who processed her emigration papers. The official screamed at her mother for her effrontery.
"That's when I realized that these people were beyond the reach of human kindness," says Adelsberger. The third was the denial, after months of wrangling, of her mother's exit visa by the host country. Adelsberger realized finally that "the outside world didn't want to get involved."

Adelsberger missed her last chance to flee when her mother fell sick. As round-ups of Jews accelerated she found herself praying her mother would die before the SS came for her. Those prayers were answered but her own ordeal surpassed her worst imaginings.

In unadorned prose Adelsberger recounts life and the varieties of death at Auschwitz. Her voice is gentle, her eye sharp and compassionate, quick to note small ironies as well as gratuitous kindness and cruelty.

As a doctor, Adelsberger was assigned to the gypsy camp where an epidemic of typhus was raging. There were no medicines and hundreds died daily in their own filth. Why the camp commanders bothered with a hospital at all is a mystery which can be inadequately answered only by the Nazi passion for order.

Meticulous records were kept of everyone. One of the camp's most grueling rituals was the daily roll call. With 25 to 35,000 inmates in the women's camp alone, with the camp's policy of moving inmates from one section to another without notice, and with hundreds dying enroute to forced labor or hidden in a corner of their block, an exact roll call was difficult to achieve. Twice a day, before dawn and after work, inmates stood for roll call. This encompassed everyone except the dead and lasted one to two hours  unless the tally did not match. "A roll call that lasted a day and a night without interruption was nothing unusual."

Roll call, the unexplained withholding of food from already starving people, forced labor, these were routine. Then there were the days that stood out. Sunday in the gypsy camp when gymnasts and musicians put on a show (the Gypsies were allowed to keep their possessions) and an audience of 16,000 sang and danced to music which ended abruptly with an order for "block confinement." After hours of waiting  and the Gypsies know what they're waiting for  the SS appear, calling out names and numbers. That night 2,500 Czech Gypsies were sent to the gas chambers.

Adelsberger also tells of strategies for survival, although she says no one expected to leave the camp alive. But certain work details  the kitchen, the bathhouse where prisoners were stripped of their last possessions, the band, were coveted. Barter and communication systems were devised despite the dangers of detection.

But the vast majority worked in the mills or munitions factories or the potato bunker. Or they dug graves. The worst was reserved for young, healthy Jewish men. Totally isolated from the rest of the camp, they worked in the crematorium. After two or three months they too were gassed. "Sometime while at work, one never knew when, the valves of the gas chamber would close, the gas would be turned on, and  a new Sonderkommando would replace the old."

A heart-rending memoir, yes, but it speaks as much for the beauties and strength of the human heart as for the incomprehensible monstrousness of the experience.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Devastatingly Beautiful, May 12, 2007

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Amazon_Scout (Utah, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Auschwitz: A Doctor's Story (Paperback)

The horrors of the holocaust and the strength survivors had to conjure every second to endure, is beautifully captured by Lucie Adelsberger. Her documentation of the events leading up to Jewish deportation is artful in its simplicity, as each action taken by the Nazis builds upon the last with fatal consequences. This amazing book then takes the reader within the walls of Auschwitz and in exquisite detail invokes the memories of those who were lost as well as those who survived with unflinching honesty. This account documents the strength of the human spirit, and is one that should not be missed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Auschwitz - A Doctor's Story, August 26, 2009

By 

R. Young "Roger the writer" (Victoria, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Auschwitz: A Doctor's Story (Paperback)

A well presented, very matter-of-fact but easy to read personal account from one victim of this Nazi prison camp. As a Doctor, Adelsberger obviously saw things and perceived attitudes which many other writers may have missed. There are footnotes giving cross-references to other historical records from this period in history (1930s to 1945). This is an excellent resource for anyone interested in factual study on the Holocaust.