NetGalley ARC | Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is perhaps the most clinically detailed, unflinching, unemotional account of life inside Auschwitz that I have ever read. This likely has to do with the fact that the author was a journalist in his life before being sent to the death camp. I've read countless books over the years, many from survivors, but this one was on a whole different level. I knew so many things on a surface level - the prisoner hierarchy, the German corporations making big money off slave labor, Kanada and Mexico, and so on - but there are so many more details as Debreczeni moved from place to place, job to job, and managed to make it out alive when so many others did not.

After twelve horrifying months in multiple camps doing back-breaking work with very little food, Debreczeni ended up in what was referred to as the "Cold Crematorium" - the "hospital" at his final camp. There, prisoner who could no longer work waited to be executed. As the war was coming to its close in Europe Nazi camp commanders evacuated, leaving the prisoners to die.

The book was published in 1950, but not translated from its original Hungarian until now - nearly lost for all time. This would have been an utter travesty. There can never be too many accounts of the horrors that millions suffered at the hands of the Nazis. Sometimes there is the possibility of something being "lost in translation", but there is no issue here. The author's vivid descriptions of the brutality, the harsh reality of the day-to-day struggle to survive, it all comes through clearly.

All works pertaining to the Holocaust are important, but I feel like this one stands out in its detail. From the moment the author is loaded into the rail car to his liberation twelve months later, every excruciating moment is here. One of the many things I keep coming back to over and over is the many corporations who benefitted from the slave labor of the hundreds of thousands who were deemed useful enough to be worked to death. I knew that this happened, but the sheer number of companies that were involved, and the fact that so many still exist today, is beyond comprehension. I started looking into this independently once I finished the book and found some interesting sites, if you are interested in more information:

https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/bibliographies/labor-camps.html - dozens of books about the topic

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/german-firms-that-used-slave-labor-during-nazi-era - extensive list of company names then and now, location, and slave labor numbers used from which camps

https://listverse.com/2024/09/15/top-10-still-existing-companies-that-supported-the-nazis/ - the ten most recognizable companies still in existence today

I guess I should not be surprised, because there is nothing corporations love more than saving money. Not to mention the fact that after the war, they got to use the excuse that they were forced to by the Nazis and didn't have a choice.

This is a much-needed addition to the plethora of survivor stories we already have. It is a testament to the will to survive against all odds, in the most brutal of conditions.

Highly recommended.