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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Deportation
dark
Did not finish all the stories but did read most of them. It feels weird to rate this book so low, but I guess the writing style and short story format did not work for me. The stories are short and the first person narrator changes between each, but the nihilistic perspective is unchanging and the stories start to blur together and become repetitive. The writing has some good lines and horrifying passages, but I guess I find historical accounts more interesting than fictional ones (even if these were written by a survivor). Sometimes a lot feels lost in translation and I’m sure the writing works better in Polish.
The parts about the brothels were horrifying (as was the stuff about the train cars and everything else obviously), and I hate in war stories where we are just expected to understand that men “need” women. There really should be more awareness of the horrifying sexual slavery that goes on in war prisons. Had never heard much about it in previous WW2 media I’ve read/watched, and it was sickening.
The parts about the brothels were horrifying (as was the stuff about the train cars and everything else obviously), and I hate in war stories where we are just expected to understand that men “need” women. There really should be more awareness of the horrifying sexual slavery that goes on in war prisons. Had never heard much about it in previous WW2 media I’ve read/watched, and it was sickening.
“Between two throw-ins in a soccer game, right behind my back, three thousand people had been put to death.”
Very powerful. Very dark. Brutal, harsch, haunting, chilling.
He writes with cold indifference and detachment. It's sharp and dispassionate with vivd imagery.
"Ordinary trucks bring people, return, then bring some more. No hocus-pocus, no poison, no hypnosis.
Why is it that nobody cries out, nobody spits in their faces, nobody jumps at their throats? We doff our caps to the S.S. men returning from the little wood; if our name is called we obediently go with them to die, and—we do nothing. We starve, we are drenched by rain, we are torn from our families. What is this mystery? This strange power of one man over another? This insane passivity that cannot be overcome? Our only strength is our great number—the gas chambers cannot accommodate all of us.”
Like Blood Meridian it's a very difficult book to read. I cried a number of times and felt sick another number of times.
No matter how hard I try I will n.e.v.e.r. understand man's cruelty. Sixty years later and this is still relevant. War, slavery, starvation and inhumanity still goes on.
This is a must read in my opinion.
Very powerful. Very dark. Brutal, harsch, haunting, chilling.
He writes with cold indifference and detachment. It's sharp and dispassionate with vivd imagery.
"Ordinary trucks bring people, return, then bring some more. No hocus-pocus, no poison, no hypnosis.
Why is it that nobody cries out, nobody spits in their faces, nobody jumps at their throats? We doff our caps to the S.S. men returning from the little wood; if our name is called we obediently go with them to die, and—we do nothing. We starve, we are drenched by rain, we are torn from our families. What is this mystery? This strange power of one man over another? This insane passivity that cannot be overcome? Our only strength is our great number—the gas chambers cannot accommodate all of us.”
Like Blood Meridian it's a very difficult book to read. I cried a number of times and felt sick another number of times.
No matter how hard I try I will n.e.v.e.r. understand man's cruelty. Sixty years later and this is still relevant. War, slavery, starvation and inhumanity still goes on.
This is a must read in my opinion.
A collection of short stories that highlight the horrors of Nazi concentration camps, the way depravity become routine, and the things people will do to survive. Told in a bleakly matter of fact manner, that at times feels too dismissive of the situation, but is in fact reflecting the reality that the minds of those living through these periods cannot look directly at the collapsing morality 24/7… it also means those horrific episodes that do break through the mental defences/writing style hit with full force. There are 3 scenes that will stay with me for life.
These stories are all based on the authors own experiences in Auschwitz, written when he was 24, the year after he was freed. He was a relatively privileged prisoner, but what he experienced and saw over 3 years ultimately contributed to his suicide aged 28.
I am well versed in the soul destroying realities of the concentration camps, but if you aren’t, or have only engaged the the questionable fictionalised (and at worse, romanticised) stories of the human spirits triumph over adversity …brace yourself.
Honestly I’d recommend this as a must read for everyone, especially now with incremental genocides taking place around the world. It holds up the dark underbelly of humanity, how it is tolerated, how it is fed. It also powerfully demonstrates the lasting trauma that continues to flow down families and societies after the event - that shines a light on why so many survivors, descendants and those complicit to various degrees, can never speak of those experiences, or are vehemently, vocally, ‘never again, to anyone’, and also why so many can tolerate the cognitive dissonance of supporting atrocious war crimes against ‘others’.
“𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘴. 𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭 𝘪𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘷𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵 ...”
Horrifying stories of the holocaust - an incredibly chilling title.
There are sentences in this collection of short stories that are so sharp, so sudden, they cut through the page and leave a scar. Borowski says it better, but it truly is horrifying the evil humans can inflict on one another, both explicitly and implicitly.
I'm on the third chapter and loving it, it's an amazing inspirational book! It has brought tears to my eyes. The way it's written is simply outstanding, I can't wait to finish it.
As always with this genre- such an important historical account of the worlds most depressive, lost and inhumane time. First hand accounts of what people can do to other people when people stand back and let it happen.
A must read by all, the general public and within schools.
As always- a warning from the past to the future!
A warning that IS NOT being heard!
A must read by all, the general public and within schools.
As always- a warning from the past to the future!
A warning that IS NOT being heard!