SMOKE OVER BIRKENAU

by Seweryna Szmaglewska ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 25, 1947

The sad, somewhat detached story of the horror and fight for survival in this Polish concentration camp in Silesia where 5 million people were burned in the crematories. The author was in Birkenau from 1942 to 1945, and during that time held all types of jobs, but this is only secondarily her story. Rather it presents the camp itself,- the cruelty of the S.S. men, the tortuous days of hunger and work, the long steady line of bewildered people who walked into the gas chambers, the constant humiliation, the diabolical torment, and the magnificent endurance of the human spirit. Calm, lacking in bitterness, impersonal, this is an overall view from the dire grim days of German victories, to the relative comforts installed with the Allied advance.

Pub Date: Aug. 25, 1947

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Henry, Holt

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1947

Categories: NONFICTION