Customer Reviews

The Last Survivor: Legacies of Dachau

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I enjoyed this book thouroughly. When I finished, it left me wondering who Martin really was. I am in the Army, and was recently stationed in Germany. Some friends and I went to Dachau, and the SS shooting range where the Soviet soldiers were executed, and met Martin standing in front of the statue, and he made his speech, just like in the book. While in Germany, I had the opportunity to serve side by side with German soldiers, and met many German civilians, and the past still haunts them. It has been my experience that for the most part, they have come to terms with what happened, and are making sure it doesn't happen again. But it is still difficult for some to deal with the past. I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to learn more about what happened during and after the war, and how the Germans of today are trying to come to grips with history. If the Japanese government would follow Germany's lead and deal with their role in WWII, and not be in such a deep state of denial, they might be able to put the past behind them once and for all.

I highly recommend this book to any reader out there. Although the intriguing character of Martin Zaidenstadt is the locus of this book, the people of the town of Dachau are really its subject. Zaidenstadt is a fascinating character study, but Ryback's non-judgmental portrait of the town, related through his interviews with various townfolk, is truly fascinating. To see the ambivalence and anger in these people today is a testament to the power of a horrible shared history. I think this would be a great book to teach to young people because it raises difficult questions about responsibility, history, identity, and truth. Read it.

Ryback does something I've never had the nerve to do--ask the residents of Dachau about their infamy. He writes beautifully--this is the work of a top drawer journalist--and yet unobtrusively. It reminds me of Krakauer's Into Thin Air. And like Krakauer, Ryback comes from magazine writing. A few years ago when magazines had more room for copy and less space was used on ads this might have appeared unabridged The New York Times Sunday Magazine or The Atlantic Monthly--as cover stories, of course. But now, with small hardback book bindery and clever formatting it suffices as a full-blown book. I read it in 2 hours. Still, it is compelling. As for Martin Zaidenstadt, I never saw him at Dachau any time I visited there (1981 onwards). He appears to indeed be a survivor of WWII and maybe of Dachau--but he also surely is a panhandler preying on the sympathies and guilt of Dachau visitors and (in my humble opinion!) the man is suffering from senile dementia.

In the Winter of 1992, Robert Gottlieb of The New Yorker magazine assigned the Austrian journalist, Timothy Ryback, to write a "report" from Dachau, a 1200 year old Bavarian town 15 miles North of Munich, which for 12 years was the site of the only KZ-stadt, or concentration camp, on German soil. With over half a million visitors per year -- 100,000 per month during the Summer -- Dachau is Germany's permanent reminder of the Nazi Holocaust. Its Mayor and residents are filled with resentment and shame. Two months after Rybeck's first visit, he returned to explore the town in greater depth. This book is the product of his visits. How do the residents deal with the legacy of death? Why do people remain in a town that is clothed in death? Could you give birth to child who must have the name "Dachau" on its birth certificate? Is a resident's license plate that reads "Dachau" a mark of Cain throughout the European Union? And who is Martin Zaidenstadt? Martin is 83 years old and keeps a daily vigil at the Concentration Camp site, speaking several languages to some degree, he approaches visitors and tells his tale of survival. Is he obsessed with remembrance and witnessing? Is he deranged? Or are all residents of Dachau deranged? Born in 1911, in the Polish village of Jedwabne, Martin (Mjetek Zaideta), a Polish soldier, became a POW in 1939. Hiding his Jewish faith, he was sent to several German labor camps but ended up in Dachau in 1943. Why does Martin keep his vigil? What does he say to tourists? What happens in Chapter 14, when Ryback cannot find any mention of Martin in the camp's Nazi archives. What does Ryback learn when he travels to Martin's birthplace to find out what happened to its Jews? The reader might ask, who is the last survivor? Is it Martin? Is it the town? Or is it the author, whose forebearers were Nazi's? A well written tale.

I visited Dachau Concentration camp in May 1994. While at the crematorium site, I saw this old man talking in German with an older couple. I knew instantly that this man must had been a survivor because of the passion in which he spoke and pointed things around the camp. I did followed them for a while and then, overwhelmed by the whole experience, I walked away.

Five years later Mr. Ryback have answered for me who that man was; Martin Zaidenstadt. In what I consider the best book I have read this year (and possibly one of the year's best), Mr. Ryback presents a compelling journalistic account of the everyday existence of Mr. Zaidenstadt, and while doing so, he takes you on a rollercoaster ride as he explores the varied attitudes of present day Dachausers towards the camp and the associated infamous past. Amazing writing, I could not put this book down.

The best thing about this book is the respect Mr. Ryback shows to his readers when he does not passes judgement or reaches conclusions, but rather allows the reader to make his/her own.

Mr. Ryback raises the high mark of excellence in journalistic writing. I am looking forward to more of his work.

I spent half a year in Bavaria during the mid sixties and alas what I got out of this book is that not much has changed. Denial marches on.What the people of Dachau have to come to terms with is that they were part of and are now custodians of history. That men can do these things to each other has to be confronted. Otherwise it will go on -- whether it is in East Timor or Waco.The sign in the camp saying that the gas chamber was never used was there in the 1960's. At the time I thought it was an insult to my intelligence. Martin Zaidenstadt has confirmed my view that this monstrosity would never have been built without a purpose.My thanks go Timothy Ryback for putting together a signifcant book.

I have just finished reading this book and all I can say is that it should be mandatory reading for anyone who has any interest in The Holocaust. This narrative offers a fresh perspective on the horrors of the time and the ugly scar it left on history. Rarely does one find a non-fiction book as absorbing as this one.

An interesting book. Not a book of thrills, it never strays from reality, in particuler how the reality of the holocaust and its aftermath affected the life of one man. It's not what you'd expect.

As someone who has been to Dachau, both the camp and the town, I truly enjoyed reading this book. I don't remember meeting Martin Zaidenstadt, but my recollection of the camp remains vivid. I must admit, at times I thought Timothy Ryback went a little over the top with the use of verbs. It was clear that he researched the topic well and offered many different perspectives, many of which seemed to be how the characters were dealing with the sins of their fathers. I followed this book up with, Night by Elie Wiesel and recommend you do the same.... unbelievable.

I buy quite a few history books, because I can't imagine anything more interesting to read about. Unfortunatly, I don't read a few of them to the end, and the ones I do finish usually take months to plod through. I read "Last Survivor.." in two nights. A powerful work of many threads and lives, I was captured by Ryback's ability to tie in so many different characters into on seamless story. A terrific history lesson, should be required reading in every US High School.