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caitlinmchugh24's review
4.0
If you read one book on the concentration camps in the Third Reich, this is the one. It shows the evolution of the camps over time in a compelling, interesting, and personal way. Having survivor testimony and memories helps make this book engaging and not dry. It also has perpetrator memories and testimony so this a balanced portrait of what the concentration camps were like.
Having prior knowledge is helpful but not necessary. I would recommend reading survivor memoirs in addition to this.
Having prior knowledge is helpful but not necessary. I would recommend reading survivor memoirs in addition to this.
bkeving_74's review
5.0
A very complete and comprehensive history of Nazi concentration camps.
This was honestly not an easy book to read. This isn't because of any dense scholarly language but the content. This is probably the most complete history of concentration camps ever written. It is hard to imagine how this could have happened but it did and it is important to come to grips with this reality. This book helps one to do that and I strongly recommend this book to get a full grasp of what happened.
This was honestly not an easy book to read. This isn't because of any dense scholarly language but the content. This is probably the most complete history of concentration camps ever written. It is hard to imagine how this could have happened but it did and it is important to come to grips with this reality. This book helps one to do that and I strongly recommend this book to get a full grasp of what happened.
zezozose_zadfrack_glutz's review
5.0
If there is a more totalizing account of the Holocaust and its origins, I'm not sure I would need to read it after this. This is unceasingly real and blunt about the means of carrying out the organized genocide of millions of people over more than a decade. It dives head first into the most complex aspects of how people are affected by the implementation of fascism and how cynical the product of that process is. After reading this I simply do not see any limit to the depths that people can come to. Particularly disturbing was the portrayal of selfish human instincts overcoming some "ideal" notion of solidarity under misery. This book explodes Hollywood versions of the Holocaust and serves up a much truer representation of misery begetting misery, people setting up hierarchies even within the very bottom rung of a much larger hierarchy. The mechanization of genocide into a dispassionate psychological experiment. Truly bleak stuff.
krissyranae's review
5.0
Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So I read the hard stuff, and oof was this a hard read. But it's one of those books that while you're reading it you find yourself thinking, 'Everyone should read this,' because there is so much there that doesn't find it's way into the WWII docs, and our history classes. Pre war camps are so rarely talked about, and their victims so rarely honored. This book starts at the beginning, and it goes past the end. One of the things I really like about this book is that they name the names of the prisoners. They don't just say "this many people died at this camp at this time" they say "this many people died, this is the name of one of them, this is a little about his family". This is a hard book, but an important one. I think you should read it.
the_old_gray_cat's review
5.0
An extremely well-written history of the concentration camps, KL is informative and heart-breaking. Wachsmann always resists the urge to veer into purple prose, which other historians tend to do when covering the Nazis. He rebuts a number of conclusions people tend to make about the Holocaust, and he provides both the big and little picture. This is important reading for all of us who want to be sure that we do not repeat the horrors of the past.
philibin's review against another edition
4.0
(4.0 Stars)
To say this book is disturbing is an understatement. That doesn't make it a bad book, but it was difficult to read. It was a very long book, filled with atrocity after atrocity, hour after hour. Just when you thought you've heard the the worst thing possible... it gets worse.
Again, that doesn't make this a bad book. If you want a historically accurate account of the evolution of concentration camps in Nazi Germany (and territories), this is the book you should read.
And, yes... reading of the beginning stages of Hitler's rise and how he was able to encourage inhumane treatment of entire groups of people... I couldn't help but notice the parallels to the world today, and how the far-right leaders speak of their perceived "enemies".
To say this book is disturbing is an understatement. That doesn't make it a bad book, but it was difficult to read. It was a very long book, filled with atrocity after atrocity, hour after hour. Just when you thought you've heard the the worst thing possible... it gets worse.
Again, that doesn't make this a bad book. If you want a historically accurate account of the evolution of concentration camps in Nazi Germany (and territories), this is the book you should read.
And, yes... reading of the beginning stages of Hitler's rise and how he was able to encourage inhumane treatment of entire groups of people... I couldn't help but notice the parallels to the world today, and how the far-right leaders speak of their perceived "enemies".
zarco_j's review
5.0
“What is needed is a study that captures the complexity of the camps without fragmenting, and sets them into their wider political and cultural context without becoming reductive. But how to write such a history of the KL?”
― Nikolaus Wachsmann, KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps
The author has succeeded with this hauntingly accurate and beautifully researched history. Covering the start of them when the inmates were political enemies of the swift rising Nazi party to the horror found as they were liberated by the allies at the end of World War II.
Nikolaus Wachsmann holds no punches as he details every part of the camps, mostly dispassionately, as he reveals the true history of them.
I'm going to admit this was difficult to read, I lost count of the amount of times I put it down swearing that I couldn't continue before picking it back up. This is a book that should be compulsory for every student of history to read. We cannot allow anything like this to happen again.
― Nikolaus Wachsmann, KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps
The author has succeeded with this hauntingly accurate and beautifully researched history. Covering the start of them when the inmates were political enemies of the swift rising Nazi party to the horror found as they were liberated by the allies at the end of World War II.
Nikolaus Wachsmann holds no punches as he details every part of the camps, mostly dispassionately, as he reveals the true history of them.
I'm going to admit this was difficult to read, I lost count of the amount of times I put it down swearing that I couldn't continue before picking it back up. This is a book that should be compulsory for every student of history to read. We cannot allow anything like this to happen again.
hannahrhian's review against another edition
Will pick up again - very interesting. Currently trying to read lighter books due to heavy workload.
graemeh's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced