In Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account, to say that Auschwitz is an interesting read would be a gross understatement. Auschwitz is a historical document, a memoir but, most importantly an insider’s tale of the horrors that the captives of one of the most dreadful concentration camps in the history of mankind. Auschwitz, is about a Jewish doctors, Dr. Nyiszli, experience as an assistant for a Nazi, Dr. Mengele. Dr. Nyiszli arrived at Auschwitz concentration camp with his family unsure if he would survive the horrific camp. This memoir chronicles the Auschwitz experience, and the German retreat, ending a year later in Melk, Austria when the Germans surrendered their position there and Nyiszli obtained his freedom. The author describes in …show more content…
almost clinical detail and with alternating detachment and despair what transpired in the crematoria and the dissecting room during his tenure as chief pathologist working directly under Dr. Josef Mengele. Dr. Nyiszli writes he was driven to survive so that he would be able to inform the world of what had taken place at Auschwitz. Dr. Nyiszli was a Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp survivor which was located in Poland. Reading his story provided me and the rest of the world with a description of the horrors that took place in the concentration camp in 1944. Being separated from his wife and daughter, Dr. Nyiszli volunteered to work under the supervision of the head doctor at the concentration camp which was Josef Mengele. Being a Jew and a medical doctor, he was spared death to do worst then a death, to perform scientific research on his fellow inmates with the infamous “Angel of Death”- Dr. Josef Mengele. Dr. Nyiszli was named Mengele’s personal research pathologist. In that capacity he also served as physician to the Sonderkommando, the Jewish prisoners who worked exclusively in the crematoriums and were routinely executed after four months. There were several thoughts that ran my mind after reading Dr. Nyiszli’s account and one was the propensity of the human mind to deny what is plainly before them. This was probably the one thought that emerged my mind and that I found the most disturbing. The way many of those within the camps, both prisoner and captor alike, accepted the normalcy of the situation. This was the plight in which they were made to make the best of it in whatever way they could. Dr. Nyiszli writes he was driven to survive so that he would inform the rest of the world of what had taken place in Auschwitz.
He knew if he survived he would be able to give a firsthand account of what happened since he was very close with all the operations that took place under Dr. Mengele, “The Angle of Death.” But for most of them, the hope was far from gone. As I read the book, this really disturbed me. How could they make sense of this? In the end, they didn’t try to and just gave up. Over 6 million people lost their lives because they had lost hope of survival. The prisoners and the guards just took each day as the only day they needed to worry about except Dr. Nyiszil. He had a sense of purpose to get his experience across the world so that people can have a better understanding of what had happened behind the closed doors in Auschwitz. It is difficult for me as I write this in the safety of my home, on my laptop to understand how life could turned out to be so descend into that kind of sinister routine. My second observation was the wide contradiction of the human spirit to see hope or despair in the same circumstances. The most disturbing thing I notice was the way people responded to circumstances in which they found themselves. There are some that found ways to survive by giving
soldiers bribes and that is how they were making it through each moment. Other’s surrendered to the situation and gave up all hope of survival or rescue. The greatest shock of this was that not just hundreds, not just thousands, not just hundreds of thousands, but millions of people allowed themselves to be herded to their death sentence. And this is how Bruno Bettelheim records this nothing in this forward, “Strange as it may sound, the unique feature of the extermination camps is not that the Germans exterminated millions of people–that this is possible has been accepted in our picture of man, though not for centuries has it happened on that scale, and perhaps never with such callousness. What was new, unique, terrifying, was that millions, like lemmings, marched themselves to their own death. This is what is incredible; this we must come to understand”(Nyiszli, 4). Dr. Nyiszli was exposed to many of the circumstances and cruelties in Auschwitz. After the first time that he was made aware of over 3000 innocent people were being killed with gas, he made a vow to himself. He writes, “I felt it my duty to my people and the entire world to be able to give an accurate account of what I had seen if ever, by some miraculous whim of fate, I should escape” (Nyiszli, 52). Dr. Nyiszli was emotionally distraught after seeing what he saw and who would not be? I personally think writing his accounts of all the horror he went through is commendable to come out in the open and write all of this. More importantly, after reading this book I was left with a sense of sadness and sorrow. Only because the human spirit may not be as strong as some may paint it to be. To go through what over 6 million people went through is more than tough on any individual. I feel sad because the depth of evil to which one man can subject another is truly dreadful. Dr. Nyiszli's account portrays the terrible crimes and the injustice meted out to the Jews in the name of racial purification. The demented doctors, who he unequivocally calls criminals, the cruel and heartless SS soldiers, the helpless sonderkommandos, the crematoriums, the deaths, the cries for help, the sound of bullets ending lives all flash vividly in front of the reader. Reading this book does give the reader a glimpse, even though a small one, of a time when torture and killing en masse was commonplace. The accounts are so horrific, that for a person in the 21st century cribbing about internet freedom, it seems so little. There is no doubt that the Holocaust was one of the darkest periods in history and Dr. Nyiszli reveals from his unique perspective the tale of a masses who had to suffer tragedies of unimaginable proportions to suit the whims and fancies of a delusional and troubled animal they once called the Fuhrer.
In Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account, to say that Auschwitz is an interesting read would be a gross understatement. Auschwitz is a historical document, a memoir but, most importantly an insider’s tale of the horrors that the captives of one of the most dreadful concentration camps in the history of mankind. Auschwitz, is about a Jewish doctors, Dr. Nyiszli, experience as an assistant for a Nazi, Dr. Mengele. Dr. Nyiszli arrived at Auschwitz concentration camp with his family unsure if he would survive the horrific camp. This memoir chronicles the Auschwitz experience, and the German retreat, ending a year later in Melk, Austria when the Germans surrendered their position there and Nyiszli obtained his freedom. The author describes in almost clinical detail and with alternating detachment and despair what transpired in the
Six million Jews died during World War II by the Nazi army under Hitler who wanted to exterminate all Jews. In Night, Elie Wiesel, the author, recalls his horrifying journey through Auschwitz in the concentration camp. This memoir is based off of Elie’s first-hand experience in the camp as a fifteen year old boy from Sighet survives and lives to tell his story. The theme of this memoir is man's inhumanity to man. The cruel events that occurred to Elie and others during the Holocaust turned families and others against each other as they struggled to survive Hitler's and the Nazi Army’s inhumane treatment.
The Holocaust will forever be known as one of the largest genocides ever recorded in history. 11 million perished, and 6 million of the departed were Jewish. The concentration camps where the prisoners were held were considered to be the closest one could get to a living hell. There is no surprise that the men, women, and children there were afraid. One was considered blessed to have a family member alongside oneself. Elie Wiesel was considered to be one of those men, for he had his father working side by side with him. In the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel, a young boy and his father were condemned to a concentration camp located in Poland. In the concentration camps, having family members along can be a great blessing, but also a burden. Elie Wiesel shows that the relationship with his father was the strength that kept the young boy alive, but was also the major weakness.
Thousands of people were sent to concentration camps during World War Two, including Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel. Many who were sent to the concentration camps did not survive but those who did tried to either forgot the horrific events that took place or went on to tell their personal experiences to the rest of the world. Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi wrote memoirs on their time spent in the camps of Auschwitz; these memoirs are called ‘Night’ and ‘Survival in Auschwitz’. These memoirs contain similarities of what it was like for a Jew to be in a concentration camp but also portray differences in how each endured the daily atrocities of that around them. Similarities between Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi’s memoirs can be seen in the proceedings that
The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel gives an in depth view of Nazi Concentration Camps. Growing up in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Wiesel, a young Jewish boy at the innocent age of 12, whose main focus in life was studying the Kabbalah and becoming closer in his relationship with God. In the memoir, Elie Wiesel reflects back to his stay within a Nazi Concentration Camp in hopes that by sharing his experiences, he could not only educate the world on the ugliness known as the Holocaust, but also to remind people that by remembering one atrocity, the next one can potentially be avoided. The holocaust was the persecution and murder of approximately six million Jew’s by Aldolf Hitler’s Nazi army between 1933 and 1945. Overall, the memoir shows
During World War 2, thousands of Jews were deported to concentration camps. One of the most famous camps in Europe was Auschwitz concentration camp. From all of the people sent to this concentration camp only a small amount of people survived. These survivors all will be returning to Auschwitz to celebrate 70 years after liberation.
Authors sometimes refer to their past experiences to help cope with the exposure to these traumatic events. In his novel Night, Elie Wiesel recalls the devastating and horrendous events of the Holocaust, one of the world’s highest points for man’s inhumanity towards man, brutality, and cruel treatment, specifically towards the Jewish Religion. His account takes place from 1944-1945 in Germany while beginning at the height of the Holocaust and ending with the last years of World War II. The reader will discover through this novel that cruelty is exemplified all throughout Wiesel's, along with the other nine million Jews’, experiences in the inhumane concentration camps that are sometimes referred to as “death factories.”
Mr. Wiesel had intended this book to describe a period of time in his life that had been dark and sorrowful. This novel is based on a survivor of the greatest Holocaust in history, Eliezer Wiesel and his journey of being a Jew in 1944. The journey had started in Sighet, Transylvania, where Elie spent his childhood. During the Second World War, Germans came to Elie and his family’s home town. They brought with them unnecessary evil and despair to mankind. Shortly after young Elie and thousands of other Jews were forced from their habitats and torn from their rights of being human. They were sent to different concentration camps. Elie and his family were sent to Auschwitz, a concentration and extermination camp. It would be the last time Elie sees his mother and little sister, Tzipora. The first sights of Auschwitz were terrifying. There were big flames coming from the burning of bodies and the crematoriums. The Jews had no idea of what to expect. They were not told what was about to happen to them. During the concentration camp, there was endless death and torture. The Jews were starved and were treated worse than cattle. The prisoners began to question their faith in God, wondering why God himself would
In the story “Survival In Auschwitz” by Levi Primo. Moral thoughts during the holocaust were proven to be adaptable during extreme circumstances. In the camps the Jews were treated as if they were animals as a result animalistic behavior was adapted, being human did not exist behind the barbed wires of the camp. In order to survive in Auschwitz also viewed as hell one has to lose their self respect and human dignity.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Classic House, 2008. Print.
Surviving was just an option for Dr. Nyiszli. In 1944 Dr. Nyliszli was among the first Hungarian Jews sent to Auschwitz (Nyiszli 15.) When arrived in Auschwitz ...
On December 13, 1943, a twenty four year old, Jewish-Italian man’s life was changed forever. This Jewish-Italian man’s name is Primo Levi. Survival In Auschwitz, a book written by Primo Levi, portrays the horrific experience Levi lived through. Levi was captured by the Fascist Militia who forced Levi, along with hundreds of others, into wagons where they would be transported to a holding camp until they were taken to Auschwitz. There were 12 wagons that would take all of the 650 captured men to the camp of Auschwitz in Poland. Immediately upon their arrival to the camp, they were asked simple questions, such as “healthy or ill?’. Depending on the response they would give, they would be sent in two different directions. The book describes this
Primo Levi: Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996) [first published as If This Is a Man], p. 86.
“Arbeit Macht Frei”, I read, as I walked through the gate. I remember my experience vividly, as if it happened only yesterday. A beautiful, March morning, soon morphed into a dreary, morbid afternoon. I’m not a religious individual, but I consider myself quite the spiritualist. As one who sees a world after the orthodox term that is death, I felt a connection. I walked the steps where numerous individuals marched to what would soon be their termination of life. I walked in places where an innocent person was forced to sit execution style, while a Gestapo officer blew his brains out, simply for existing. This was a compound in which people were forced to subject themselves to the barbaric hands of the Nazis. They lived a life that no human being should ever be forced to endure. For this, was Auschwitz.
It is currently very cold outside and I am suffering from exhaustion. I am a man from Poland who was torn away from my wife and two little girls named Emma and Josie. I loved those 3 girls with all my heart and would do anything to get to see them just one last time. What they do to us in Auschwitz is so horrific that words cannot even describe it. We are treated like dogs and can do nothing about it.