Crucible of Terror: A Story of Survival Through the Nazi Storm [Hardcover]

Max Liebster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2003

On September 11, 1939, Max Liebster, a young German Jew, learned firsthand what it meant to be an enemy of the Nazi State. After his arrest, followed by four months of solitary confinement in a Nazi prison, Liebster plummets headlong into the nightmare

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

About the Author

Max Liebster was born in 1915 in Reichenbach, Germany. After he was freed from the Buchenwald concentration camp, Liebster emigrated to the United States where he lived from 1947 to 1956. He married Simone Arnold who also spent two years in a Nazi penitentiary home. Since 1994 the Liebster have traveled extensively throughout Europe and North America, lecturing at schools, universities, and public events about their experiences. In 2002 the Liebsters established the Arnold-Liebster Foundation to foster education about the Holocaust, human rights, and the lessons of history.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 154 pages
• Publisher: Grammaton Press LLC (September 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967936624
• ISBN-13: 978-0967936628
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,073,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and Inspiring - a poignant holocaust memoir, December 28, 2003

By 

thecastlebookroom "thecastlebookroom" (Bakersfield, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crucible of Terror: A Story of Survival Through the Nazi Storm (Hardcover)

Max Liebster was a handsome and spirited young man, a Jew, living in Viernheim Germany during Hitler's rise to power, and the ensuing Nazi takeover. His style of writing is spare but powerful ("As I witnessed the Hitler Youth parades, my blood turned to ice. I beheld the heaving of swastika flags. I saw the edge of the abyss.") He describes the false security, then the confusion, and finally, the despair of the Jewish situation in Nazi Germany.

He himself was imprisoned in Auschwitz (his father's hometown), Sachsenhausen, and Neuengamme. Like all the concentration camp victims, he witnessed atrocities it is painful even to read about. He carried his father's dead body to the mass crematorium, the last tiny dignity he could bestow upon a broken man.

Never bitter, he describes his wonder at the pervasiveness of the virulent anti-Jewish sentiment that swept the nation. During his incarceration and torment, he converted from Judaism to a messianic Christianity, "Bibelforschers," who were prevalent in the concentration camps. Not the doctrine so much as the living examples of faith that he witnessed won him over - he describes the inner tranquility and compassion that attracted him to the group.

His book is valuable on several counts, probably moreso than I can fathom at present. I enjoyed the insights into his traditional Jewish upbringing and belief system - the faith that to him was Judaism. He describes the differences between the devout and the peripheral practicer, the country and the city Jew. I was touched by the faith of his father, even in such bleak and hopeless surroundings, pronouncing a traditional Jewish blessing on his son, just prior to his own death. And I was surprised at the insight the book gave to the tragic plight of even many Nazis - imprisoned by an ideology futureless and dying, from which there seemed no escape but death.

It was enlightening to see the juxtaposition of the strength and yet frailty of the human psyche - an unbroken inner dignity of faith, but yet a latent emotional frailty in the wake of such numbing human cruelty - to the point that a visit to the site of such trauma provoked a heart attack in the author even some half-century after the fact.

Mostly, I think the benefit of this work is the lesson that survival of the spirit is dependent, not upon an abstract or intellectual faith of doctrine or dogma, but upon a human bond of pragmatic love and recognition of the dignity of the human condition, even in the most vile and desperate surroundings - a faith that is lived in the heart, not merely professed with the mouth. This is what saved Max Liebster in the true sense of the word, and I think there is a lesson for all of us in that fact.

I can't imagine anyone reading this important biography and not being moved, but then I can't imagine those who could perpetrate such atrocities - and yet they were everyday people, as Mr. Liebster demonstrates. A study in the dichotomy of the human condition: cruelty and kindness; weakness and strength; desperation and faith, fear and love. Recommended to students of the Holocaust, of the Jewish and the "other" victims, to students of the reaction of the human condition when under test in what truly is a "crucible of terror."

My only complaint is that the book ended too quickly - I wanted more! I almost gave it a 4 instead of a 5, for this reason, but in the end I couldn't think of what else it needed, only that I resented it ending so quickly. Which may, in the final analysis, be more of a positive than a negative - so I'm going with 5 after all. An important and thought-provoking work.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely inspiring, May 5, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Crucible of Terror: A Story of Survival Through the Nazi Storm (Hardcover)

Mr. Liebster's experience was heart wrenching to say the least. I find that the reviewer from Bakersfield, CA, summed up the book quite nicely, and nothing really needs to be added accept the fact that Mr. Liebster was never ashamed to mention who the "Bibelforschers" were in the concentration camps. He makes no bones about the kindness he experienced from these "Bibelforschers," better know today as Jehovah's Witnesses. In fact he credits his very survival due to their sincere altruism, and upon his release from the concentration camp was baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Jehovah's Witnesses were also persecuted in these camps, and were given purple triangles to set them apart from the other prisoners. Just for being one of Jehovah's Witnesses, they were subject to 25 strokes upon arrival to the camp. No other group had to suffer this torment upon arrival. Then all the Witnesses were put in the punishment block for further beatings. Although their release hinged on only signing a document renouncing their faith, they refused to do. They faced long sentences and even execution, rather than compromising their faith.

Other religious groups compromised in order to save their skin and gain favor with the Nazis' even to the point of persecuting those of their own nationality or faith. In contrast, Jehovah's Witnesses stood alone in keeping their resolve not to compromise even to the point of death. They became targets of the Nazi regime because of their unyielding loyalty to God alone, and not the state.

This book was very inspiring, therefore I encourage all to read it.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This story has to be told, October 17, 2004

By 

manueldsottir (Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crucible of Terror: A Story of Survival Through the Nazi Storm (Hardcover)

While everyone is aware of the persecution and slaugther of the Jews in Europe during the Nazi regime, not much attention has been given to other repressed groups, smaller in number, but not unimportant when it comes to courage, humanity, resolution and faith, Jehovah's Witnesses being a good example of all those. Max Liebster, moreover, is a Jew by birth and a converse Witness by conviction.
This personal account is a lesson to those willing to forget too lightly.