Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers [Paperback]

Filip Muller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 1999

Filip Müller came to Auschwitz with one of the earliest transports from Slovakia in April 1942 and began working in the gassing installations and crematoria in May. He was still alive when the gassings ceased in November 1944. He saw millions come and disappear; by sheer luck he survived. Müller is neither a historian nor a psychologist; he is a source—one of the few prisoners who saw the Jewish people die and lived to tell about it. Eyewitness Auschwitz is one of the key documents of the Holocaust. Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "A shattering, centrally important testimony."—from the Foreword by Yehuda Bauer. "A very detailed description of day-to-day life, if we can call it that, in Hell’s inmost circle...Having read other books of this kind, I had expected to read this one straight through. But no, Eyewitness Auschwitz is jammed with infernal information too terrible to be taken all at once."—Terrence Des Pres, New Republic. "Riveting...It is a tale of unprecedented, incomparable horror. Profoundly, intensely painful; but it is essential reading."—Jewish Press Features.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Riveting...it is a tale of unprecedented, incomparable horror. Profoundly, intensely painful; but it is essential reading. (Jewish Press )

A very detailed description of day-to-day life, if we can call it that, in Hell's inmost circle...jammed with infernal information too terrible to be taken all at once. (Terrence Des Pres )

About the Author

Filip Müller was born in Czechoslovakia in 1922, was deported to Auschwitz in 1942, was liberated in 1945, and afterward lived in Western Europe.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee (August 24, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566632714
• ISBN-13: 978-1566632713
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > History > Europe > Czech Republic
  • #17 in Books > History > Europe > Poland
  • #71 in Books > History > Europe > Germany

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

176 of 184 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Descent into hell July 18, 2001

By Stephen M. Zielinski

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is one of the few books I have read on the Holocaust that takes the reader to a depth of un-imaginable horror. Filip Muller takes you on his life story up to and including his stay at Auschwitz-Birkenau with riveting detail and accuracy. The chapter titled "The Inferno" was the hardest to read, let alone envision. I have seen actual photos of the "pits" as Muller describes them, yet the reality of the ghastly work he was forced to do cannot come through in words. I would cautiously recommend this to any serious student of Holocaust history.

119 of 127 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A memoir is a memoir...... March 15, 2004

By "efoff"

Format:Paperback

[...] This book is an essential eyewitness view of life as a sonderkommando, and how the Nazi establishment in Auschwitz killed three and & half million people, all in a historically unprecidented short period of time. Muller describes the "shower" facade, and the mechanics of destroying that many bodies.

David Irving, the notorious holocaust denier, contends that the Nazis could not have killed eleven million, simply because of the amount of coke/charcoal needed to burn that many bodies. How did that happen in Auschwitz? Muller describes how Master Sergeant Otto Moll (who was in charge of the gas chambers) had the prisoners build large pits to burn an anticipated influx of Hungarians. These pits included brick "channels," which funneled the melted body fat from the fire into large cauldrens. The melted fat was then dumped back on top of the bodies, to encourage the fire & save on coal, fuel oil, and fire wood.

There are dozens--if not hundreds--of books about Auschwitz. Many are better written than "Eyewitness." Just off the top of my head, Borowski's collection of short stories "This Way for the Gas, Ladies & Gentlemen," Wiesel's "Night," Levi's "Survival"--they have better writing. But none of those books grasp the enormity of the sonderkommando experience, because none of those three were in the sonderkommandos like Muller. Similarly, Steiner's "Treblinka" is a more complete picture of the origin and evolution of the gas chambers. But Muller writes what he saw--what he lived--in a way that is unbearably moving. If you want to get a picture of Auschwitz, read this book--and Sara Nomberg-Przuytyk's "Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land."

All that said--let me get down from my high horse. Simply because a book is a holocaust memoir does not automatically make the book worth reading. For example, I found Frister's "The Cap: The Price of a Life" to be completely unreadable. I enjoyed it, but many people will also not care for Glazar's "Trap with a Green Fence: Survival in Treblinka." In fact (taking a deep breath & cringing a little) aside from "Night," I am not wild about Wiesel. I think for historical analysis, Simon Wiesenthal is more informative, and from a moral philosophy perspective, nothing Wiesel wrote can touch Primo Levi's "The Drowned & the Saved."

This is a long way of my saying that while this book is not Shakespeare in its language, it is very readable--and very moving. This book is an important part of the history of the 20th century, and not one that can be replaced....even by a book as good as "Survival in Auschwitz."

55 of 58 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Holocaust Textbook June 13, 2000

By Tipperson

Format:Paperback

Filip Muller's Eyewitness Auschwitz serves as a textbook for those interested (and willing) to examine the mass murder of Jews, Gypsies and political prisoners under the Third Reich. Muller claims to have witnessed the process from it birth in Auschwitz to its death in Birkenau shortly before the camp's liberation; accordingly, he spells out the details in a disturbing, meticulous fashion. The reader finds him/herself escorted through the notorious Block 11, its courtyard, the crematoria and the open burning pits. Muller recounts everything from the logistics of the ovens to the subterfuge the SS employed to lure prisoners into the gas chambers. Instances of revolt and insight into the plans and psychology of the camp resistance are also tackled. Some readers might find the account harrowing in its attention to grisly detail and facts; at times the book reads like a news story. Hence Muller's testimony is, perhaps, best read as a companion to other accounts that delve more deeply into the survivor's mind (such as the works of Tadeusz Borowski or Primo Levi). Further, Muller writes almost exclusively as a member of the Sonderkommando--those charged with the upkeep of the crematoria. This focus comes at the expense of attention to other areas of the camp that a holocaust scholar should explore.