Auschwitz

A New History

Contributors

By Laurence Rees

On Sale
Jan 10, 2006
Page Count
368 pages
Publisher
PublicAffairs
ISBN-13
9781586483579

This “scrupulous and honest” (Washington Post) history of the most notorious concentration camp of the Holocaust preserves the authentic voices of survivors and perpetrators

The largest mass murder in human history took place in World War II at Auschwitz. Yet its story is not fully known. In Auschwitz, Laurence Rees reveals new insights from more than 100 original interviews with survivors and Nazi perpetrators who speak on the record for the first time. Their testimonies provide a portrait of the inner workings of the camp in unrivalled detail-from the techniques of mass murder, to the politics and gossip mill that turned between guards and prisoners, to the on-camp brothel in which the lines between those guards and prisoners became surprisingly blurred.

Rees examines the strategic decisions that led the Hitler and Himmler to make Auschwitz the primary site for the extinction of Europe’s Jews-their “Final Solution.” He concludes that many of the horrors that were perpetrated in Auschwitz were the result of a terrible immoral pragmatism. The story of the camp becomes a morality tale, too, in which evil is shown to proceed in a series of deft, almost noiseless incremental steps until it produces the overwhelming horror of the industrial scale slaughter that was inflicted in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

  • "This book distills a crucial lesson--perhaps the crucial lesson--of the 20th century: that the human capacity for mass murder is grotesquely widespread and must be faced squarely if we hope to resist it."
    Washington Post
  • "This admirable book deserves to be widely read."
    Ian Kershaw, author of Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris and Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis
  • "Excellent."
    Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
  • "A path-breaking work...the depth and wealth of detail Rees provides make this treatment highly compelling."
    Publishers Weekly (starred review)
  • "Thank God that occasionally books of the stature of Laurence Rees's superb Auschwitz: The Nazis and the "Final Solution" are published... Fascinating."
    Andrew Roberts, Evening Standard
  • "Well-written with striking testimonies from bystanders, perpetrators and victims. The interviews with SS men, and sundry European Fascists, are genuinely revealing, and must have been exceptionally difficult to negotiate."
    Michael Burleigh, Daily Telegraph

Formats and Prices

Price

$19.99

Price

$24.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. Trade Paperback $19.99 $24.99 CAD
  2. ebook $11.99 $14.99 CAD

Laurence Rees

About the Author

Laurence Rees is an award-winning historian and documentary filmmaker. He has authored several books including The Holocaust: A New History, Hitler and Stalin, and the bestselling Auschwitz: A New History, all published by PublicAffairs. He lives in London. 

Learn more about this author