Eyewitness Auschwitz - Three Years in the Gas Chambers

Grade Level: Recommended for grades 11-12.

Strong language throughout and intense horror, violence, and gore.

Book Review:

The book Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers, written by Filip Muller, is a gripping eyewitness acount of Filip Muller's experiences working in the crematoria in Auschwitz-Birkenau. He vividly brings to life the horrors and incomprehensible inhumanity he and his fellow inmates endured in the Nazi concentration camp.  

The story begins in Auschwitz as Filip and a friend of his named Maurice were caught drinking out of the vats of tea while they are supposed to be in their bunks. As punishment, sentenced to work in the crematorium. Filip worked in the gas chambers for three years and somehow lived to tell his story.The prolific stench of rotting and burning flesh, the brutality of the unprincipled kapos and camp leaders, and the detestable living and working conditions he and the other prisoners were subjected to all were expressed in a clear and simple manner, allowing the horrors of camp life to speak for themselves.

 His way of writing is starkly clear and concise,  but this does not in any way minimalize the cruelty and despair  behind the gates of the camp. He states what happened with little or no decoration, yet his feelings and others' feelings around him clearly understandable. This book was very horrific, painful, and heart-breaking, but excellent and profound. 

Determined not to let the Nazis break his will to live, Filip learns how to deal with his superiors, the routine of camp life, and the lack of proper sustenance. His goal is simply to survive, in order to tell to those on the outside just what had occurred at Auschwitz.

Definitely a worthwhile and necessary read on the Holocaust, a time of unfathomable inhumanity and destruction.

About the Author:

Eyewitness Auschwitz was written by Filip Muller, a Slovak Jew who arrived in Auschwitz right at the beginning in April 1942, and survived until the liberation of the camp in November 1944. Filip is neither a psychologist or historian, but a rare source as a surviving prisoner of Auschwitz. He saw thousands upon thousands enter the gas chamber and never come out. His testimony is unforgettable and indispensable.

Historical Note:

The Auschwitz concentration camp began operating on June 14, 1940. Throughout its use during World War II, between 1,100,000 and 1,500,000 victims were murdered there, most of them in the gas chambers. As the Soviet armies advanced deeper into Poland, Hitler's armies recognized their impending defeat. He ordered Auschwitz to be evacuated and dismantled so that evidence of its existence would be eliminated. Evacuation began on January 17, 1945, when the prisoners were led on the infamous "Death March." Before this was completed, the Red Army arrived on January 27, 1945 and liberated those still remaining in the camp.

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