Customer Reviews

Treblinka

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I have a morbid facsination with the Holocaust and Holocaust literature so I picked up Treblinka. I was not prepared for what was in it, how it would make me feel. I couldn't put it down. For two days I lived and breathed Treblinka, for two days I was beaten, starved, tortured, I saw my family gassed, I saw my fellow inmates hang themselves because death was better than this hell on earth. For two days I was an inmate of Treblinka because Jean-Francois Steiner put me there. Treblinka is quite possibly the most important piece of Holocaust literature ever written. It is non-fiction but it reads like a novel. It told me more about the death camps and Nazi regime than all of the books I have read combined. The most amazing thing about Treblinka though was the psychology behind it all. It gave answer to my question: Why did they not revolt before this? Why did they simply allow themselves to be led to death? On the third day I rose from the bottom of the abyss, I revolted, I left Treblinka along with 700 Jews, survivors of hell. I left but I didn't escape, no one escapes Treblinka. Like how Treblinka will always hold it's prisoners, Treblinka will always hold it's readers in it's mental grasp.

A chance meeting with a university professor in NY years ago caused me to ask the question of what was it really, really like to exist in a place of complete insanity; where you were placed at risk of death at every moment, where every act, every gesture could be your last. What sort of social structure could possibly evolve in such indescrible conditions where inmate sometimes turned on inmate for a crust of bread. And yet in this dark chaos an order did evolve. The inmates organized themselves to such an extent that they ultimately rose up in rebellion, overpowering their opressors and a small number actually escaped.

I have read numerous books on the Holocaust but none of those prepared me for Steiner's superb work. Many of the works I've read concerned Auschwitz. Frankly, I never focused on Treblinka. As there is a relatively large number of Auschwitz survivors, I suspect scholars tend to focus on them. As far as Treblinka survivors go... there were only 75. Steiner's descriptions are so overwhelming; his imagery so clear and lucid that you can see in your own mind, the acts of brutality and barbarism, as well as small acts of kindness as if you are actually there. I found myself cringing at the blows of the clubs and the slash of the whips. And yet he takes pains to describe acts of heroism one can hardly imagine. You see how exposure to this inhumanity affects the inmates. Some degenerate while others work at mostly futile individual escape attempts in order to warn the remaining Jews of what ultimately lies in wait at the railhead at Treblinka Station.

This is strong stuff and is not for everyone. This is not a book that compiles statistics but rather paints a searing description of day-to-day life with the inmates, their struggles to make it another day, their planning and finally their courageous attempt to escape.

If you make it through this book, read Kogon's "The Theory and Practice of Hell" and then the next time you see "ethnic cleansing" taking place in some remote venue such as the Balkans, Rawanda or Timor ask yourself just how far we've really come and how easily we've learned to mouth the words "never again".

Treblinka is an incredible recreation of the human elements of the Holocaust. It portrays real, historical people who as innocent victims and against all odds, not only stayed alive but were able to organize a suicidal uprising, with the sole objective being the successful escape and survival of just One human being, in order to bear witness and testify to the hell and death of the infamous Treblinka. As a historian of the Holocaust I'm certain that this is the most important literary piece that one could find. This book will shock and infuriate you, but ultimately you will find it to be about hope and life. It is a must read for anyone who wants to be an additional witness to the most horrific chapter in the history of our world! This is one of those rare treasures that is truly capable of positively influencing one's life!

I was required to read Treblinka by Proffesor Schonfeld at the University of California at Irvine. I have read a lot of literature on the Holocaust and yet am always amazed by it. This book takes it a step farther in understanding the meticuous perfection the Germans sought in exterminating a whole race of people. It is a book of triamph, but also shows in great detail how the German intentions could never be fulfilled because of a driving natural force within all of mankind to continue living. Not to live as individuals, but to fight in order to continue a whole lineage of people. It is beautifuly written and extremelly enlightening. I Thank Professor Schonfeld for requiring it, and you will thank me for reccomending it. Tricia Taft

"Treblinka" is a powerful novel and a story of things that the Nazis wanted the world to never know. The novel spares nothing in the telling: every gruesome beating, coldhearted murder, inhuman cruelty is captured in shocking detail. I wanted to shed tears as I read this novel. There were so many poignant moments that made me breathless and contemplative of such a world.

However, in the face of the Holocaust (Shoah) the real treasure are how these human slaves kept their humanity... making jokes in the face of genocide. One might think that it would be impossible to laugh when people are being thrown into ovens and turned into consumer goods for the Third Reich (human hair for pillows, rendering people into soap, some things even worse), but the downtrodden victims of Treblinka never gave up. They kept faith in life and living life (not just surviving) in the face of the most horrible death.

I read about some of the humor of these condemned and it is a miracle in and of itself (Pg.238 "Treblinka," 1967 Simon and Shuster Hardcover Edition):

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"Earlier, at the end of the ghetto period, when the best will in the world it had become impossible to preserve the slightest hope, some Jews had taken refuge in humor. The essential metaphysical question had become: "Do you believe in life after the trains?" The standard consolation to friends to whom you had to leave and whose sadness could be read on their faces had become, ""Come on, cheer up, old man, we'll meet again some day in a better world - in a shop window as soap." If the friend was in the know, he was supposed to reply, "Yes, but while from my fat they'll make toilet soap, you'll be a bar of cheap laundry soap."

"To understand this humor is to understand the infinite love of life of the Jews. It is to understand both the abdication and the miracle."

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The book also functions as a history of how the "death camp" evolved in the Baltics from gun killings to Xyklon-B (poison gas) vans to the concentration camps that the Holocaust is better known for. Particularly discussed are the machinations of the SS and the "Technicians" to dehumanize the Jews and not only make them captives and victims, but willing accomplices in the process of committing genocide. The novel examines what it means to live while everyone around you dies (often including one's own family and children). The moral burden of such a situation is even difficult to just ponder yet alone have to survive.

Another function of the novel is to disprove the myth of the concentration camp Jew as a meek helpless being to be pitied. The surviving Jews at Treblinka did stage a revolt and out of the eight hundred Jews (themselves the survivors of around eight-hundred-thousand Jews that the Nazis "processed" at the Treblinka) that the Nazis kept as menial labor at Treblinka, forty survived the war. Their testimonies in addition to the few books written about the subject after the war form the bulk of the research sources of "Treblinka."

Sometimes this book is criticized for being "fiction" since it isn't referenced like as academic tome (footnotes, bibliography, etc.), but the author is careful to explain in her introduction and the conclusion that apart from the survivors' testimonies and what little physical evidence could be found, there was little concrete evidence to be had. The Nazis were careful to destroy written records and even incinerated the bodies of their victims in an effort to hide this atrocity. I found the story to be very convincing and don't doubt the author's writing one iota.

Probably the biggest reason to read "Treblinka" is that it's so very readable. Reading about the Holocaust can be an emotionally taxing task, but thanks to the author's easy-to-read and captivating style as well as a focus on the hope that sustained the survivors of Treblinka, "Treblinka" is an easy and enjoyable read. Out of all the novels that I've read about the Holocaust I've read, I would now recommend "Treblinka" to start a study of the Holocaust. Highly recommended.

I read Treblinka in 3 different languages, the most recent in Portuguese. I read it for the first time in Spanish when I was 12 and later in English when I moved to Canada.

In Treblinka all evil gathered.

This is a majestic piece of literature, quasi-historic, If you care to look at perhaps one of the most important events in the history of humankind. Never mind that it contains some reputed historic inaccuracies, Steiner does a genuine job at recreating every moment with sincerity. He's not looking at changing history, his impetus is to relay an important message.

Treblinka is the true manifestation of evil. Man at its worst, relishing pleasure at the expense and suffering of other men.

The book is not really about the camps, despite its obvious content. The history is about an age-old struggle, the struggle between good and evil.

If that's a concept that perhaps you have not yet understood, consider yourselves lucky.

Treblinka leaves many questions. How could man behave with such great cruelty and disregard for the lives of others.

You are in the trains, in the barracks, in the divinding lines marching towards the "showers."

You are a son, a mother, a doctor, a girl undressing for the first time in front of your executioners and your friends. Your human dignity is deprived since the ghetto, and it is never recovered not even in death, as the pliers and scissors continue their work on your life-less corpse.

I cried many times during several passages of the book, and I prayed for those people who suffered an astonishing fate. Their destiny in life and death surpasses all notions that can be contemplated by modern human beings, especially the western civilization.

Today, when I look at my terrible situation, all I have to say is: Treblinka! Remember Treblinka. I can always comeback and fight, even in the heart of the worst situations.

Treblinka leads towards the understanding of suffering, evil, and God.

Adhering to hope and God, in the face of evil, Treblinka is a message that must be understood. Hopefully that will be your case as it was mine...

I've been reading about the Holocaust for quite some time, but this is the first book that really delves into the psychology of why Jews "behaved" the way they did. Based on the survivors' stories, this book places the reader in the experiences of those tortured men who survived to tell their stories. Definately a must read!

During the three years of its existence Treblinka "processed" almost 700,000 victims. This is the story of the building of the camp, its operation, the prisoners revolt and the destruction of the camp. The story is told from the viewpoint of the prisoners who operated the camp under the rule of the SS and Ukrainian guards. About 700 prisoners survived the revolt and escaped. Less than 75 were alive to be interviewed by the author. These interviews plus the testimony given at the various tribunals and Nazi records are interwoven into a narrative that leaves the reader stunned by its detail

Reading this book was an amazing emotional experience. It not only addresses the realities of the Jews' suffering, but also uncovers in wonderful depth the moral and philosophical issues involved in their plight-- the denial of the death camps, the question of resistance, methods of survival and coping. It also uncovers in fascinating detail the strategies used by the Nazis to divide, pacify and liquidate the Jews. A colossal historical work, and a wonderful, inspiring piece of art.END

I am no holocaust historian so I cannot comment on the book being fact or fiction. The book is, however, a VERY compelling read. I literally had trouble putting this down. The writing is very vivid and it is a extremely thought provoking book.