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A review by emcbee
Auschwitz Syndrome by Ellie Midwood
5.0
"Until one day, when we looked around and saw what we did and were suddenly so terrified of what we had become..."
The above quotation is from "Auschwitz Syndrome," and I think it sums up one of the themes of this book perfectly. The book is based on the true story of a young Jewish woman who fell in love with a camp guard at Auschwitz. More than the details of every day life in Auschwitz, it also analyzes how those details changed over time, and how life was different for different classes of prisoner. More, it explores how the captors became the prisoners.
I thought the book was well-written. The author shows the narrator's unreliability through unexpected ways, and it becomes clear that she filters her memories through her later experiences. When the point of view changes, it's easy to tell the difference among the narrators. Having some of those narrators be medical professionals provided a little much-needed distance from the real-life scenes (the unforgettable Hungarian action, for example) that the characters survived. Those scenes were still very detailed and horrifying.
The author's research was meticulous, and she detailed where some of the less well-known aspects of life inside KZ Auschwitz were found. I had not known previously that the first women didn't arrive in Auschwitz until 1942, for example, or how the symbol of the Red Cross was used to calm the inmates. I look forward to reading more from this author.
The above quotation is from "Auschwitz Syndrome," and I think it sums up one of the themes of this book perfectly. The book is based on the true story of a young Jewish woman who fell in love with a camp guard at Auschwitz. More than the details of every day life in Auschwitz, it also analyzes how those details changed over time, and how life was different for different classes of prisoner. More, it explores how the captors became the prisoners.
I thought the book was well-written. The author shows the narrator's unreliability through unexpected ways, and it becomes clear that she filters her memories through her later experiences. When the point of view changes, it's easy to tell the difference among the narrators. Having some of those narrators be medical professionals provided a little much-needed distance from the real-life scenes (the unforgettable Hungarian action, for example) that the characters survived. Those scenes were still very detailed and horrifying.
The author's research was meticulous, and she detailed where some of the less well-known aspects of life inside KZ Auschwitz were found. I had not known previously that the first women didn't arrive in Auschwitz until 1942, for example, or how the symbol of the Red Cross was used to calm the inmates. I look forward to reading more from this author.