Book Review: "I Was At the Auschwitz Crematorium" by Henryk Mandelbaum

  

 

 

Here is a review of a book that I never did actually publish, or even finish, for some unknown reason. I read it, and began my review, but stopped just two paragraphs in.

So, I had to reread it, not having written enough for it to spark my memory and trigger enough to actually complete this review. 

This was a book that I picked up from my visit to Auschwitz. While on my girlfriend's farm in Poland a few hours away from Krakow and Auschwitz, I managed to read the entirety of the book (it's not very long).

It is a revealing work that tells of not only the life of Henryk Mandelbaum before Auschwitz, and during his years long stay, but also afterward, as well. This is a Holocaust survivor, yet he is amazingly non-judgmental. This is a man who met the Pope in 2005!

We learn a bit about his life before the rise of the Nazis, and the Holocaust to come. He grew up during the Great Depression, and before the advent of our modern technology age. At that point, jobs and employment were not particularly steady, so they were highly valued. They made money any way that they could, and Mandelbaum was no different.

In time, of course, his life was more and more impacted by outside events, particularly those which would prove more than a little alarming and troublesome for European Jews. Perhaps especially in Poland, which of course where Mandelbaum and his family were from. 

He talks about his time spent in Auschwitz. It is an unflinching look. I remember feeling after my first reading of this book more than a decade ago, following my first visit to Auschwitz, that I had learned a different aspect about life in the Auschwitz death camps. Mandelbaum was a Sonderkommando, which meant that he cleaned up the room where mass genocide had just taken place. He cleaned up the chimneys, as well. He sorted through the possessions of those recently killed.

Obviously, this was hardly an enviable job. Not everybody could - or would - do it. Of course, refusing meant certain death. But most of these workers could only last a limited time. The level of stress and the psychological toll it took proved too much for most. However, Mandelbaum survived. He literally lived to tell the tale.

Certain aspects of this book reflected unflatteringly towards Mandelbaum. Yet, he tells it as it happened. No sugarcoating, and since he is willing to admit to things which do not cast him in the best light, you really get the impression that this is the pure, unfiltered truth which he is sharing here. 

This is a different account of living through the Holocaust then I have read in other books. It is not like reading Anne Frank or Elie Wiesel. There are other accounts of the Holocaust which I have read about, but again, this was different. This was done in interview form, and again, Mandelbaum really pulls no punches here. But you get a very different account of what life was like living in arguably the worst job to have, as a clean-up crew following what still likely ranks as the most blatantly evil thing that humanity has done, at least in a bureaucratic manner. 

Not a fun or easy read, even if it is short.

Still, quite educational, and highly recommended!