The Kingdom of Auschwitz: 1940-1945 [Paperback]

Otto Friedrich (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0060976403 | ISBN-13: 978-0060976408 | Publication Date: August 19, 1994

A short and thoroughly accurate history of the Auschwitz concentration camp, this compelling book is authoritative in its factual details, devastating in its emotional impact.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brings the reality of this evil place so directly, vividly, accurately, movingly and clearly to the mind of the reader." -- --Paul Johnson

"Brings the reality of this evil place so directly, vividly, accurately, movingly and clearly to the mind of the reader." -- Paul Johnson

About the Author

Otto Friedrich, born in 1929 in Boston, majored in history at Harvard, where he received a degree magna cum laude in 1948. He went to Europe and worked for the Stars & Stripes in Germany and United Press in Paris and London. Returning to New York, he served as an editor at the Daily News, Newsweek, and the Saturday Evening Post. He was managing editor at the Post from 1965 until the magazine's suspension in 1969. Friedrich's account of the Post's last years, Decline and Fall, appeared in 1970 and was hailed as `a classic of American journalism.' It won the George Polk Award as that year's best book on the press. Among his other books are Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s (1972); Going Crazy: A Personal Inquiry (1976); The End of the World: A History (1982); City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s (1986); Glenn Gould. A Life and Variations (1990); Olympia. Paris in the Age of Manet (1992); and The Kingdom of Auschwitz (1994). Friedrich also wrote two novels and, in collaboration with his wife, nine children's books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (August 19, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060976403
• ISBN-13: 978-0060976408
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intensely Readable Synthesis of the Best Historical Accounts, August 1, 2001

By 

R. W. Rasband (Heber City, UT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Kingdom of Auschwitz: 1940-1945 (Paperback)

"The Kingdom of Auschwitz" is an extract from Otto Friedrich's larger, sadly out-of-print "The End of the World: A History." In that book Friedrich examined several earth-shaking events in world history including the Black Death in Europe, the 1905 Russian revolution, and the fall of Rome. The book's climax is this long essay on Auschwitz (with an epilogue speculating on the effects of possible nuclear war circa 1982.)

Friedrich was a very talented journalist with a rich appreciation of history and a hypnotically readable prose style. Here he synthesizes the best available literature about the death camp to produce what is probably the best short history of that black hole at the heart of Western civilization. This is a good place to start if you are just beginning to read about the Holocaust. Expert readers will have their sense of the horror of the place renewed. Friedrich writes that Auschwitz does not disprove God: "Two men arguing about the existence of God is like two worker ants debating the existence of Mozart." A small masterpiece.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introduction to Auschwitz and the Final Solution, May 21, 2007

By 

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

This review is from: The Kingdom of Auschwitz: 1940-1945 (Paperback)

This is an excellent historical primer on the initiation, conduct, discovery, and destruction of the Auschwitz extermination camp (albeit with a couple of factual and critical thinking errors that need not be delved into here) as well as the disputes after World War II regarding the preservation, administration, and ideation of the camp.

The author discusses in an even-handed, almost dispassionate, manner not only the tragic events that occurred at the camp itself but (1) the association of certain German companies, namely, chemical giant I.G. Farben, with slave labor by camp inmates, (2) the failure of the West to do anything even though it was suspected as early as 1942, and duly reported in London newspapers, that 1 million people had already died in the camp (although this apparently turned out to be an exaggeration), and (3) the failure of the Allies, primarily the U.S., to bomb the railways from Hungary to Auschwitz in the closing months of the war when about 300,000 Hungarian Jews were transported (under the stewardship of Adolf Eichmann) to Auschwitz for immediate termination. (The reason the Allies repeatedly gave for not intervening was that the concentration camps were of no military importance and military assets could not be diverted from the war effort. Although, if memory serves me correctly, the complete and utter lack of a military objective did not stop Patton from diverting his troops to rescue his son-in-law from a German prisoner of war camp.)

As for whether the German people (that is, the public in general) knew about what was going on, the author gives no definitive answer. Certainly anyone involved with the use of slave labor cannot claim ignorance of their mistreatment. Nor, obviously, could anyone who worked in these camps feign lack of knowledge. On the other hand, the author correctly points out that the Final Solution itself, i.e., the ongoing decimation and eventual extermination of the Jewish population in Europe, especially as it was put into place at Auschwitz, was in effect a State secret and disclosure of it was punishable by death.

For anyone who wants to learn about and try to understand Auschwitz and what happened there, this book may be the best place to start. As for any final answers on the Final Solution, that may not be possible. As concentration camp survivor Elie Wiesel aptly put it, the more he read, studied, and learned about the Final Solution, the less and less he understood it.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice and Easy, July 17, 2002

By 

Wallace V. French III (Boston MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Kingdom of Auschwitz: 1940-1945 (Paperback)

This is a good little book about Auschwitz. It is extremely thin and easy to read (128 pages). If you just want to know a little bit about Auschwitz and are not inclined to read one of the heavy books on the subject then this may be a good alternative. I found it easy to read and did not lack any of the intensity found in the bigger volumes on the subject. It is very detailed. It is also a great book to introduce yourself on the operations of the death camps. This book may spark your interest and you may want to read further on the subject. I finished it in only a few hours. Nice and easy reading.