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A review by braella
Last Stop Auschwitz: My Story of Survival from within the Camp by Eddy de Wind
5.0
Notes before I start - 1) I feel ridiculous checking the spoilers box, because the Holocaust is a well documented historical fact. At the same time, Eddy's life is not known as well, and so I will leave it to the reader whether they wish to read this review before or not. 2) The book itself is well worth reading. It is not an easy read, it is very emotionally charged, and it is an incredible treasure. 3) I apologize for the length of the review. I chose to use quotes from the book because I feel that Eddy's words have power that can never be replicated in summation.
When I started reading this recollection of life in Auschwitz, I did not realize that it was written in the third person - Eddy de Wind found that he simply could not relate these agonizingly painful and fresh experiences in a first person narrative. In many ways this made the book easier to read because an artificial emotional distance was created between the reader and the narrative voice. There are certain moments in the book, however, where this distance vanishes with the power of a thousand exploding suns, when the reader is reminded that the author was describing a hell that he personally experienced: "Anyway, that evening a few more of us were sick."
De Wind had a deep understanding of the horror of concentration camps that served as both extermination centers and forced labor camps that wrung every last drop of effort out of the people they sought to destroy: "No, Auschwitz was more than torment writ large. With its factories and mines it was an important part of the Upper Silesian industrial area and its workers were cheaper than anywhere else in the world. They didn't need any pay and they ate almost nothing. And then, when they were exhausted and fell victim to the gas chamber, there were still enough Jews and political opponents in Europe to make up the numbers yet again." The psychological horror inflicted on the prisoners followed them all the way through complete physical infirmity because "[i]t's a law of nutrition that, even when wasting away, the heart, brain, and organs maintain their normal weight the longest. As a result, most of them were all too aware of what was happening to them."
Having studied the Holocaust and concentration camps from that and other eras, I am well familiar with the concept of gallows humor that often developed among the prisoners. It is, nevertheless, always jarring to hear it related by a survivor. One notable example here is an offhand comment that: "Arbeit macht frei... Krematorium drei!" (Work will set you free... [in] crematorium three!) Likewise, it seems inconceivable to hear a stint of hard labor that nearly led to de Wind's demise referred to as an "adventure." Without resorting to gallows humor and light-hearted references to their inhumane circumstances, people imprisoned in these camps of horrors would likely have given in to their despair and perished from this world.
At the same time, "after years in concentration camps even the best of people develop their own 'sense of justice.'" After all, "[r]esistance, even a show of pity, would have been pointless suicide." It is in such recurrent narratives about the dual reality of being tortured and having to accept that choices must be made that can lead to torture and/or death for others, that de Wind started what would become his life's work - learning to process and help others process the trauma resulting from concentration camp imprisonment.
However, de Wind drew a sharp distinction between the prisoners would had to learn to survive by giving up a measure of their humanity, and the Nazis who suppressed their own humanity in the name of the ideals they adopted. When speaking about Nazis who sometimes made kind decisions, he told Friedel that: "I don't think that's a point in their favor. On the contrary. The youngsters have been raised in the spirit of blood and soil. They don't know any better. But those older ones, like the Lagerarzt, show through those minor acts that they still harbor a remnant of their upbringing. They didn't learn this inhumanity from an early age and had no need to embrace it. That's why they're guiltier than the young Nazi sheep, who have never known better." This condemnation becomes all the more powerful because it is directed at Josef Mengele, who showed through acts of interceding on the behalf of Eddy and Friedel on 2 separate occasions, that he fully understood and was capable of humane behavior.
This narrative of one man's experiences is an incredible historical account of a dark stain on human history. It should become required reading for students, alongside Maus. Together, the two works form a powerful picture of life under the bootheel of the German Reich.
When I started reading this recollection of life in Auschwitz, I did not realize that it was written in the third person - Eddy de Wind found that he simply could not relate these agonizingly painful and fresh experiences in a first person narrative. In many ways this made the book easier to read because an artificial emotional distance was created between the reader and the narrative voice. There are certain moments in the book, however, where this distance vanishes with the power of a thousand exploding suns, when the reader is reminded that the author was describing a hell that he personally experienced: "Anyway, that evening a few more of us were sick."
De Wind had a deep understanding of the horror of concentration camps that served as both extermination centers and forced labor camps that wrung every last drop of effort out of the people they sought to destroy: "No, Auschwitz was more than torment writ large. With its factories and mines it was an important part of the Upper Silesian industrial area and its workers were cheaper than anywhere else in the world. They didn't need any pay and they ate almost nothing. And then, when they were exhausted and fell victim to the gas chamber, there were still enough Jews and political opponents in Europe to make up the numbers yet again." The psychological horror inflicted on the prisoners followed them all the way through complete physical infirmity because "[i]t's a law of nutrition that, even when wasting away, the heart, brain, and organs maintain their normal weight the longest. As a result, most of them were all too aware of what was happening to them."
Having studied the Holocaust and concentration camps from that and other eras, I am well familiar with the concept of gallows humor that often developed among the prisoners. It is, nevertheless, always jarring to hear it related by a survivor. One notable example here is an offhand comment that: "Arbeit macht frei... Krematorium drei!" (Work will set you free... [in] crematorium three!) Likewise, it seems inconceivable to hear a stint of hard labor that nearly led to de Wind's demise referred to as an "adventure." Without resorting to gallows humor and light-hearted references to their inhumane circumstances, people imprisoned in these camps of horrors would likely have given in to their despair and perished from this world.
At the same time, "after years in concentration camps even the best of people develop their own 'sense of justice.'" After all, "[r]esistance, even a show of pity, would have been pointless suicide." It is in such recurrent narratives about the dual reality of being tortured and having to accept that choices must be made that can lead to torture and/or death for others, that de Wind started what would become his life's work - learning to process and help others process the trauma resulting from concentration camp imprisonment.
However, de Wind drew a sharp distinction between the prisoners would had to learn to survive by giving up a measure of their humanity, and the Nazis who suppressed their own humanity in the name of the ideals they adopted. When speaking about Nazis who sometimes made kind decisions, he told Friedel that: "I don't think that's a point in their favor. On the contrary. The youngsters have been raised in the spirit of blood and soil. They don't know any better. But those older ones, like the Lagerarzt, show through those minor acts that they still harbor a remnant of their upbringing. They didn't learn this inhumanity from an early age and had no need to embrace it. That's why they're guiltier than the young Nazi sheep, who have never known better." This condemnation becomes all the more powerful because it is directed at Josef Mengele, who showed through acts of interceding on the behalf of Eddy and Friedel on 2 separate occasions, that he fully understood and was capable of humane behavior.
This narrative of one man's experiences is an incredible historical account of a dark stain on human history. It should become required reading for students, alongside Maus. Together, the two works form a powerful picture of life under the bootheel of the German Reich.