Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps [Paperback]

Robert H. Abzug (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 1987 | ISBN-10: 0195042360 | ISBN-13: 978-0195042368

Forty years ago Allied soldiers liberated Buchenwald, Dachau, Belsen, and other concentration camps, and came face to face with the human ruins of the Nazi system of slave labor and genocide. What they saw transformed the definition of evil in the Western mind. Inside the Vicious Heart captures the shock of that discovery by telling the story of the camp liberations as experienced by American GIs and other eyewitnesses, including Eisenhower, Patton, Joseph Pulitzer, and Margaret Bourke-White. Through their diaries, letters, and photographs we see how those Americans finally made the world believe what until then had only been rumored.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book halps to keep live that which must not be forgotten."--David B. Chesebrough, Illinois State University

"This sensitive book chronicles the liberators' psychological and emotional reactions to the concentration camps....An important contribution."--Religious Studies Review

"Abzug tells a true and terrifying story of what the American troops found when they entered Germany in 1945. Included are the accounts of Generals Eisenhower, Patton and Bradley, Editor Joseph Pulitzer, novelist Meyer Levin, Photographer Margaret Bourke-White, and American GIs, who desperately tried to save the few remaining survivors."--The Jewish Voice

"Abzug's stunning book takes us back to the moment at which the West lost its innocence and confronted the murder of millions of Jews and other human beings by Germany."--Jacob Neusner, Brown University

"A fine book, a signal contribution to the literature of the Holocaust."--Chicago Sun-Times

"Abzug has done an excellent job sifting both the testimony itself and the reactions of Americans back home....Not a book to dwell on...but not one that should be overlooked, either."--The New York Times

"[This] compelling book examines a hitherto neglected element of the Holocaust--the liberation of concentration camps in France, Germany, and Austria by American soldiers in 1945 and its impact on American moral opinion."--History of European Ideas

"A riveting study of soldiers who liberated the major concentration camps in Germany."--American Historical Review

"A slender, well-illustrated volume...forceful and riveting."--Newsday

"A scholarly and poetic attempt to assess the impact of the concentration camps upon the liberators, the writers and the general public....Language, image, and experience are woven together with great skill."--David R. Blumenthal, Emory University

About the Author

Robert H. Abzug is Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas, Austin, and the author of

assionate Liberator: Theodore Dwight Weld and the Dilemma of Reform.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 8, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195042360
• ISBN-13: 978-0195042368
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #376,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert H. Abzug has taught at the University of Texas at Austin since 1978, and is currently Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies. He is the founding Director of the University's Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies (2007-). He also held the Eric Voegelin Visiting Professorship at the University of Munich in 1990-91.
All of Abzug's work centers on the evolution of moral and ethical sensibilities in American society. Two of his books deal with religion and pre-Civil War reform, two others on America and the Holocaust, and two soon-to-be-published works will address the history of psychology: A biography of the psychologist Rollo May for Oxford University Press and an abridged edition of William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience for Bedford/​St. Martin's.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inside the Vicious Heart, November 5, 2001

By 

David Trkula (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps (Hardcover)

I knew the author personally. I took a Holocaust course from Dr. Abzug while at the University of Texas. I asked him questions about the construction of the book. Placing key photographs right after controversial passages in the book. It was done for effect, and had a profound effect on me. This is a must read book for anyone interested in the Holocaust as well as those interested in how such a event could happen. More than anything else the book showed me how fragile we are as human beings, and that when inudated with violence and horror, how we can become indifferent to it.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Heart of Darkness Exposed, October 6, 2007

By 

Mr. Truthteller (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps (Hardcover)

This book attempts to chronicle the absolute horror that accompanied the discovery of Nazi concentration/slave labor/extermination/death camps at the end of World War II.

The story is primarily told from the perspective of the Americans, from GIs to General Eisenhower, as well as journalists and others, who came upon the camps, what they saw, and how they reacted.

There are separate chapters on the Ohrdurf & Norhausen, Buchenwald, Dachau, and Mauthausen camps, along with a chapter covering the discovery of numerous smaller camps. A brief history and background of the camps are also covered in these chapters. Interspersed with the text are numerous photos of the discoveries at the camps.

Also included are introductory chapters trying to assess America's knowledge of these camps prior to their discovery and closing chapters on the aftermath of the camps on the discoverers, the inmates, the Germans, and the world, and an attempt to make sense somehow of it all.

This is a somber book. The photographs (piles of corpses, burned bodies, humans reduced to skin and bones) and descriptions of what was found in the camps (the smells, the sights, the sounds) are not for the squeamish. Nonetheless, it is a must read for anyone trying to gain some sense (if indeed, any can be found) of what was the Final Solution for the Jewish people as well as the horrific mistreatment of other groups (Gypsies, Communists, criminals, etc.) that the Nazis deemed undesirable.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Moving Book, April 6, 2002

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps (Paperback)

This was an interesting view of the horrors of the holocaust. I think there is better works that detail out what happened in the camps, but this book really gives you the insight into what it was like to roll through the gates of the camp in an American jeep. You almost can feel the chain of emotions the solders go through: confusion, anger, pity, and sadness. This must also be in some small part what the current American solders see in Afghanistan with millions starving. This is a well-written, very unique look at the topic and is well worth the price. You will "feel" this book for a long time after you have finished it.