New Book: Auschwitz - Tater, Gehilfen, Opfer und was aus ihnen wurde: Ein Personenlexikon

On August 2013 Fischer Verlage form Frankfurt am Main published next unique book of Ernst Klee (1942-2013) who was one of the pioneers in deep research of Nazi crimes at a large scale. This book shows how huge was private documentation center of Ernst Klee who included in this massive opus around 4.000 biographies of Auschwitz staff and these prisoners who worked with the camp's crew voluntarily or under duress. Without a doubt, this book is the culmination of studies by Ernst Klee who died in May this year.

Each of Nazi concentration and extermination camps was a concentration of large numbers of people - there were prisoners changed into impersonal "numbers" and people who created and controlled these institutions and the process of extermination. In the years 1941-1945 a total crew of Auschwitz death camp was nearly 7,000 SS-men and about 200 SS-Aufseherinn (female guards in Nazi concentration camps). New book of Ernst Klee Auschwitz - Täter, Gehilfen, Opfer und was aus ihnen wurde: Ein Personenlexikon is about these people. Some biographies are biographies of real human monsters and some of people who were in critical circumstances and did not see their own morality and humanity.

Lexicon is not - of course - a study of one man, so we can not expect deep analysis and psychological study of each character presented inside. But Klee wrote most of biographies in extended form, includes not only basic informations but also short memories sometimes and informations what happened with the people after a war. Some of them were accused in the trials but more of them just disappeared after the war in society and never spoke about their crimes.

But the book includes not only biographies of perpetrators. It has long been known that used prisoners in the process of extermination. We can find in Klee's lexicon, fo example, biographies of almost all members of the Jewish Sonderkommando who were forced to work in crematories, throughout the whole process of extermination - from the dressing room, via the gas chambers to the ovens. It was like factory of death. These biographies are extremely sad, because - as we know today - Sonderkommando members were repleacing with new arrivals at intervals of approximately 4 months; the first task of the new Sonderkommandos would be to dispose of their predecessors' corpses. Therefore since the inception of the Sonderkommando through to the liquidation of the camp there existed approximately 14 generations of Sonderkommando.

This book was created through the years of deep reserach and the final result is excellent. This book - after the death of the author - shows enormous research possibilities of Ernst Klee, which of course is not surprising, because he was one of the greatest scholars of the Holocaust, Action T4 and interpretation of Nazi crimes.Ernst Klee book Auschwitz - Täter, Gehilfen, Opfer und was aus ihnen wurde: Ein Personenlexikoncan be used for educational purposes or or be a stating point for deeper scholar analysis and discussion. As always Klee provides a comprehensive collection of literature and sources in bibliography section which makes the job easier for future researches.

It is worth mentioning that the book was great released, it is very effective graphic an colour sense, almost minimalistic which contrasts with frightening content. This is the great merit of book designer.

If you would like to buy this book please visit official FISCHER Verlag page

Book Details
Hardcover: 512 pages
Publisher: Fischer (Frankfurt/Main 2013)
Language: German
ISBN 978-3-10-039333-3
Dimensions: 22,2 x 15,4 x 4,2 cm
Printed in Germany