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Auschwitz: A History

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In this short book, Sybille Steinbacher, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Modern and Contemporary History at Ruhr University, gives a compelling account of Auschwitz. Professor Steinbacher, and her able translator, Shaun Whiteside, writes in a concise, stark, understated, and eloquent way. She avoids the tendency to sensationalize and overdramatize and allows her material to speak for itself. The stylistic, nonsensationalistic excellence of this book adds greatly to its impact.

In brief, measured chapters, Professor Steinbacher discusses the long history of the Polish town of Oswiecim, and its history of Jewish habitation, before it became notorious as Auschwitz. She explains how Auschwitz lay in the path of Germany's eastern expansion and how it inexorably became a killing camp. It moved from a camp for political prisoners and a labor camp to, beginning in mid-1942, a death camp for Jews. She discusses how this change came about as a result of high policy within the Nazi regime and how it was implemented in the camp with mass gasing, shootings, beatings, starvations, and medical torture. She describes the role of the German corporation IB Farben in organizing the camps, using the labor of the prisoners, and providing the cyanide gas, Zyclon B, for the killings. Following her discussion of the founding of the camp, and its development into a site for mass murder, Professor Steinbacher discusses how the Nazi's abandoned the camp, took the remaining prisoners on lengthy death marches, and attempted to destroy the evidence of their brutality as the Soviet Army moved closer and ultimately occupied the camp. She describes the attempt, following the end of the War, to bring some of the perpetuators of Auschwitz to justice, with mixed results. Finally, a short chapter considers those who have denied the Holocaust and the crimes perpetuated at Auschwitz. Professor Steinbacher discusses the extent to which people in the town of Auschwitz, in Germany, and in the outside world were aware of the events in the camp. She also discusses, briefly, the decision of the Allies not to bomb the camp when they learned of the ongoing atrocities. The book includes detailed maps of the complexes at Auschwitz and a good bibliography.

With its tone of restraint, careful factual presentation, and considered judgment, Professor Steinbacher's book was highly valuable in helping me think about Auschwitz.

Robin Friedman

The name Auschwitz is so loaded with associations of almost universal evil that it barely occurs to people that there is a reality to be known. Using the name as a shortcut for the Holocaust, for genocide, mass murder, poison gas, crematoria, Nazi SS terror troops, and more actually cheats us. This rather small book takes on the big task of telling in a very straightforward way how Auschwitz came to be, what happened there during the Second World War, and its aftermath.

Auschwitz is the name the Germans applied to a Polish town as they moved to the East to provide "Living Space" and a buffer against the Soviets. At first they moved the Poles out of the town to other prison camps and then brought them back and killed thousands. IG Farben decided it could use the slave labor such camps could provide and so a huge factory was built. But the camp was too far away for malnourished prisoners to travel each day. They had hoped these prisoners would be at least half as effective as a healthy German. The prisoners, starved, beaten, and traumatized, were only about 20% as effective. So, a camp was built next to the plant.

Soviet Prisoners of War by the thousands were also brought to an Auschwitz camp to be slaves, they ended up being useless for that purpose. More than 10,000 of them were killed as well. When the war effort began going badly the camps moved into extermination and a huge third camp was begun with enough capacity to burn more than 4,500 bodies per day. They were never all in service at the same time, but what did exist was so overburdened with use that they became damaged and required repair. Bodies were burned in open trenches during the repairs.

The author teaches us that the 4 million killed in Auschwitz was based by the Soviets on theoretical crematoria capacity. Scholars studying the subject now believe that between 1.1 and 1.5 million were killed there in various ways. There was the Zyklon B and cremation, but there was also shooting, starvation, disease, beating, medical experimentation, and even doctors injecting phenol directly into prisoners' hearts. We are shown how this easily fits in with the number of 6 million Jews killed during the war. In the beginning only about half of those killed were Jews, by the frantic last days it was almost all Jews.

The book also takes us through the trials related to Auschwitz (not all the war crimes trials) and what was uncovered and how punishment was meted out and strangely avoided by some for decades and some escaped entirely. Finally, the author gives us a tour of the revisionists who try to deny the truth about the mass murders at the three Auschwitz camps.

Her writing is clear and straightforward. She tells us these monstrous things without adding emotion into her writing. We don't need any help in feeling the horror and revulsion. We know she feels it, too. The book never gets gruesome or clinical and provides an amazing number of facts in its 168 pages. There are maps of the area and diagrams of the three camps and a picture taken by prisoners in the camp of bodies being burned on the ground.

This is quite an amazing little book and can help its readers understand the realities behind the word that we all use as a brand name for unspeakable evil.

Very interesting history of Auschwitz and the surrounding area. After visiting there it was great to learn more. Would recommend this for anyone interested.

Professor Steinbacher tells the truth and only the truth. There are no embellishments or sensationalisms in her book. This book "cuts to the chase." Again, there are "no" over-the-top sensationalisms(like Rees' book, with too many wondering/airy/undocumented side stories - give me the facts!) This book gives you the facts! Every class and school should have this book. You will learn a whole lot in this book, which is not very long, because it gets to the point and dosen't have the 'personal opinion, un-substanciated endless babble' that other books on this important topic have that cost 4 times as much as Steinbacher's. Steinbacher's book is a "find;" or a "needle in the haystack." It teaches Auschwitz, without the "reckless and 'overly' graphic" details, but brilliantly gets the message across/gets the job done. Highly, highly recommended for "all" teachers and students. A lot of well researched info for a mere $9ish dollars. Again, there's a lot of learning in this concise book. Truly, the most objective and well-written book on Auschwitz. One tip on reading Steinbacher's book; Before reading the whole book, read page "29," and learn something about Auschwitz you've never heard... WOW!!! Solid book.

There are many larger and more detailed (and perhaps, more emotional and horrifying) books about Auschwitz, but as a short, factual and accurate rendering of that gigantic horror story, this book is excellent. Sybille Steinbacher covers a surprising amount of detail in a very short space. These days, when current political events have created entire nations of holocaust deniers, this should be a required text.

The name Auschwitz is so loaded with associations of almost universal evil that it barely occurs to people that there is a reality to be known. Using the name as a shortcut for the Holocaust, for genocide, mass murder, poison gas, crematoria, Nazi SS terror troops, and more actually cheats us. This rather small book takes on the big task of telling in a very straightforward way how Auschwitz came to be, what happened there during the Second World War, and its aftermath.

Auschwitz is the name the Germans applied to a Polish town as they moved to the East to provide "Living Space" and a buffer against the Soviets. At first they moved the Poles out of the town to other prison camps and then brought them back and killed thousands. IG Farben decided it could use the slave labor such camps could provide and so a huge factory was built. But the camp was too far away for malnourished prisoners to travel each day. They had hoped these prisoners would be at least half as effective as a healthy German. The prisoners, starved, beaten, and traumatized, were only about 20% as effective. So, a camp was built next to the plant.

Soviet Prisoners of War by the thousands were also brought to an Auschwitz camp to be slaves, they ended up being useless for that purpose. More than 10,000 of them were killed as well. When the war effort began going badly the camps moved into extermination and a huge third camp was begun with enough capacity to burn more than 4,500 bodies per day. They were never all in service at the same time, but what did exist was so overburdened with use that they became damaged and required repair. Bodies were burned in open trenches during the repairs.

The author teaches us that the 4 million killed in Auschwitz was based by the Soviets on theoretical crematoria capacity. Scholars studying the subject now believe that between 1.1 and 1.5 million were killed there in various ways. There was the Zyklon B and cremation, but there was also shooting, starvation, disease, beating, medical experimentation, and even doctors injecting phenol directly into prisoners' hearts. We are shown how this easily fits in with the number of 6 million Jews killed during the war. In the beginning only about half of those killed were Jews, by the frantic last days it was almost all Jews.

The book also takes us through the trials related to Auschwitz (not all the war crimes trials) and what was uncovered and how punishment was meted out and strangely avoided by some for decades and some escaped entirely. Finally, the author gives us a tour of the revisionists who try to deny the truth about the mass murders at the three Auschwitz camps.

Her writing is clear and straightforward. She tells us these monstrous things without adding emotion into her writing. We don't need any help in feeling the horror and revulsion. We know she feels it, too. The book never gets gruesome or clinical and provides an amazing number of facts in its 168 pages. There are maps of the area and diagrams of the three camps and a picture taken by prisoners in the camp of bodies being burned on the ground.

This is quite an amazing little book and can help its readers understand the realities behind the word that we all use as a brand name for unspeakable evil.

This is a short, brilliant overview of Auschwitz from it's settlement in the 1100's to it's infamous history in the 20th century.The book is written by Sybille Steinbacher, an assistant professor of history at the Ruhr University in Germany. It is translated into English by Shaun Whiteside. This first rate survey of Auschwitz can be appreciated by both the general reader and the scholar. The author situates the most infamous of the extermination camps within the wider Nazi world and she touches upon Nazi ideology as well as the role of concentration camps and extermination camps. Her chapter on forced labor (in specific I.G. Farben) and it's massive role in the growth of the huge complex at Auschwitz is excellent. She makes a convincing argument of how the death center grew out of several contingent events versus a clear cut vision of setting up a mass killing center in Poland. Those events include the activities of I.G. Farben and the failure of Germans to secure victory in Russia which impacted on their vision of using the Soviet Union as the main area in which to murder millions of Jews. According to Steinbacher, the Germans then turned to an area in Poland that they already controlled. This is a horrible subject to ponder, but the author describes not only the activities of the S.S., but also the thousands of civilians of were connected to the death camp including architects,industrialists, farmers and railroad employees. Of them she notes"Their indifference meant the railwaymen could go about their murderous business as if it were quite routine. Out of a sense of obedience, and also stamped by the pedantic precision of their profession, they showed no misgivings about their actions. That the burden of knowing about the systematic killing that was happening had no consequences for them shows how people were able to come to terms with mass murder." I wish she had more quotes from primary sources to deal with the lives of the inmates, but that is a minor criticism. The book concludes with an examination of war crimes trials and how modern hate groups have denied the history of the Holocaust and Auschwitz. This book is a necessary volume as we try to ponder the dark side of humanity and the motivations behind genocide. It is a difficult topic but Professor Steinbacher does a fine job in explaining events that are hard to fathom.

This is a short summary of the killing factory of Auschwitz. The author is a German Professor of History and she details how the killing factory came about. I.G. Farben wanted to locate a huge industrial site in this requistitioned site of former Poland. When they killed off the Soviet Prisoner of War population, they decided this may be a good resettlement site for Jewish population of Europe. In actuality, it was not a resettlement camp but a death camp where the workers either had a slow or quick death. Those who survived the initial train selection process were worked to death on starvation food rations.

Steinbacher details the history of Auschwitz well. This is a tough subject and I think she does well overall. The writing was surprisely good, with many technical subjects covered in layman's terms.

The history of Auschwitz, including the way it was before the Nazis came to it, is included in this book. However, this is a slim book and it's a rather easy read for those who don't have that much time to read books. It doesn't appeal to emotion or to the heart in any way and that is probably its greatest strength. The author lays it all bare and that makes the evils of the Auschwitz camps that much more obvious.

I think it is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the Holocaust.

The author presents a fact based history of Auschwitz beginning in the 13th century to post-war reconstruction. Auschwitz survived many Kings and Monarchs from German settlement to Austrian annexation to Polish acquisition and take over from the Third Reich. The Jewish settlers went through periods of freedom and prosperity to persecution from the Catholics and Hitler's final solution. The book consists of ten chapters with factual content of how Auschwitz was chosen by the Nazi's as an epic center for the Final Solution. Brutal treatment of the jewish people and other prisoners are described in detail as well as the unethical medical experiments performed by the likes of Joseph Mendele and Horst Fisher. The publications of the denial of mass murder which took place by persons in Britain and Germany were very enlightening and a nice addition to the book. The illustrations of the concentration camps and Death camps landscape were very well done and helps the reader to envision daily life at Auschwitz. The industry side of the crematoriums and munitions factories sheds light on the market side of the Third Reich regarding free labor, enterprise for willing businessmen, and how the towns people lived under the guise of genocide. The history of Auschwitz is ironic in that the polish word for Auschwitz means "saint". Accounts by survivors are cogent.