punkrockingnerd's review
challenging
dark
informative
sad
I need to put my brain through a garlic press
magsbord's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Body horror, Deportation, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Violence, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Child death, Genocide, Death, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Slavery, Suicide, War, and Xenophobia
annie77's review
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
4.0
I have read many books and seen many movies about the Holocaust. This is one of the most horrific books I have ever read. Dr. Miklós Nyiszli, the author and a Jewish doctor who is assigned to work with Josef Mengele. Their work areas are located near the crematory. Dr. Nyiszli did not participate in Mengele's "experiments" and mostly did autopsies as demanded by Mengele. Dr. Nyiszli did get to know the Sonderkommandos, Jewish prisoners forced to do various duties at the crematories. The author relates what he saw at the crematories and at the pyre and the murders done by guards and others.
thinkingbookishthoughts's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
xxstefaniereadsxx's review
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
This book was horrifying. Miklos Nyiszli was a Jewish doctor who was sent to Auschwitz. He was spared from the gas chamber for the gruesome task of performing autopsies on Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Most of those were experimental victims of Joseph Mengele. The things that he experienced were staggering. The things he saw, I cannot even imagine. This was an amazing and important book. I highly recommend.
rayreyes's review
challenging
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
4.75
Visceral and vivid. Haunting to walk alongside him in his memories. Grateful for this work and the truths of the holocaust it shares with the world.
mirel's review
5.0
Unique and chilling account
It is rare to find such a coherent account of life in Auschwitz, and more specifically, of those who worked in the camp's crematoria of Auschwitz. Although Dr Nyiszli, who worked under the infamous Mengele, reminds us that he is a doctor, not a writer, the writing is simple but eloquent.
It is rare to find such a coherent account of life in Auschwitz, and more specifically, of those who worked in the camp's crematoria of Auschwitz. Although Dr Nyiszli, who worked under the infamous Mengele, reminds us that he is a doctor, not a writer, the writing is simple but eloquent.