Auschwitz - that ultimate place of horror and lasting symbol of Nazi inhumanity in extremis.
Its name is burned deeply into our collective conscience.
It assaults our senses and begs incredulity at man's ability to create such cruelty and barbarity.
Yet here is a book of Auswitz that embraces elements not only of inhumanity but of hope, not only of atrocity but of freedom not only of despair but of determination to survive.
This is a seeking for the actuality of life beyond the camps of death.
It is a seeking also of retribution for the slaughter and mutilation of the innocents -- the captives in Mengele's Zoo
It has a touchstone of vengeance giving a haunting insight into the world of the girl twins mislabelled mishling- the German legal term used in Nazi Germany to denote persons deemed to have both "Aryan" and Jewish ancestry.
All this because their Jewish hair by chance is yellow.
They must endure separation from mother and grandfather and fall victim to the he disfigurement of flesh and spirit by Mengle, their "Uncle Doctor".
One twin believes she has given immortality or "deathlessness" through Mengele's needle.
She will be a survivor.
And then comes the separation as the second girl is taken away not to life, but death.
The survivor lifts herself above the turgid existence behind barbed wire and plays mystical mind games as she converses in her mind's eye with her missing family and friends making human connections from vague "sightings" thereof.
Her dialogue and narrative tale is
filled with soul and lyric and introspection -- touched with simple yet almost melodic prose.
I found great satisfaction in reading those haunting sequences.
She paints word pictures that are simple in style but complex in gravitas and childish truth.
There are imperfections in detail
The word Nazi was not used by the Germans. It was a construct of the British.
And it jars when spoken by a 13-year-old inmate as does the use of "Angel of Death" and the mocking two finger imitation of Hitler moustache,
This aside it is harrowing, haunting wan humorous first attempt that succeeds beyond expectation.
Its name is burned deeply into our collective conscience.
It assaults our senses and begs incredulity at man's ability to create such cruelty and barbarity.
Yet here is a book of Auswitz that embraces elements not only of inhumanity but of hope, not only of atrocity but of freedom not only of despair but of determination to survive.
This is a seeking for the actuality of life beyond the camps of death.
It is a seeking also of retribution for the slaughter and mutilation of the innocents -- the captives in Mengele's Zoo
It has a touchstone of vengeance giving a haunting insight into the world of the girl twins mislabelled mishling- the German legal term used in Nazi Germany to denote persons deemed to have both "Aryan" and Jewish ancestry.
All this because their Jewish hair by chance is yellow.
They must endure separation from mother and grandfather and fall victim to the he disfigurement of flesh and spirit by Mengle, their "Uncle Doctor".
One twin believes she has given immortality or "deathlessness" through Mengele's needle.
She will be a survivor.
And then comes the separation as the second girl is taken away not to life, but death.
The survivor lifts herself above the turgid existence behind barbed wire and plays mystical mind games as she converses in her mind's eye with her missing family and friends making human connections from vague "sightings" thereof.
Her dialogue and narrative tale is
filled with soul and lyric and introspection -- touched with simple yet almost melodic prose.
I found great satisfaction in reading those haunting sequences.
She paints word pictures that are simple in style but complex in gravitas and childish truth.
There are imperfections in detail
The word Nazi was not used by the Germans. It was a construct of the British.
And it jars when spoken by a 13-year-old inmate as does the use of "Angel of Death" and the mocking two finger imitation of Hitler moustache,
This aside it is harrowing, haunting wan humorous first attempt that succeeds beyond expectation.