Inside the Gas Chambers

Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz

By: Shlomo Venezia

Narrated by: Peter Noble

Slomo Venezia was born into a poor Jewish-Italian community living in Thessaloniki, Greece. At first, the occupying Italians protected his family; but when the Germans invaded, the Venezias were deported to Auschwitz. His mother and sisters disappeared on arrival, and he learned, at first with disbelief, that they had almost certainly been gassed. Given the chance to earn a little extra bread, he agreed to become a 'Sonderkommando', without realizing what this entailed. He soon found himself a member of the 'special unit' responsible for removing the corpses from the gas chambers and burning their bodies.

Dispassionately, he details the grim round of daily tasks, evokes the terror inspired by the man in charge of the crematoria, 'Angel of Death' Otto Moll, and recounts the attempts made by some of the prisoners to escape, including the revolt of October 1944.

It is usual to imagine that none of those who went into the gas chambers at Auschwitz ever emerged to tell their tale—but, as a member of a 'Sonderkommando', Shlomo Venezia was given this horrific privilege. He knew that, having witnessed the unspeakable, he in turn would probably be eliminated by the SS in case he ever told his tale. He survived: this is his story.

©2009 Polity Press (P)2022 Tantor

Vivid

The things humans are capable of doing is astounding. This man is brave to tell his story in such detail. How could this happen? The story must be told so it never happens again.

Concise and powerful account and history

This book provides a unique and rare perspective that I have never heard before (and I've read listened to several Holocaust survival stories). It is concise, well written and well narrated.

As a bonus of sorts, the end of the book provides a full chronology of the Nazi's despicable treatment of European Jews - again, something I've not encountered in any other books on the topic.

As I've said in my reviews of similar books, this is a story that must be heard, especially in today's environment of rising antisemitism. The unique perspective of the author drives home the horror, brutality, and stark inhumanity of the Nazis and illustrates clearly man's capacity for cruelty when groupthink takes over.

Grim details of the horrific life in the camps

The storyline and narration was very engaging but many times during the story the narrator stopped and said “note then further explained something”. That was quite annoying. Should have just incorporated the details in the story

History of the Ovens

Detailed information about how the Natzi's planed the anialation of any people who stood in their way of building the Third Reich. What a detailed plan of physically, psychologically and cold heartedly destroying and committing chaos in the world during World War II. Mostly Jews of Eastern Europe were slaughtered by hate and the bigotry of those in power of Germany. Generations of humans paid the price of one finaticle man who was land grabbing and drunk with power. It took thousands of lives to topple Hitler and his followers and bring Germany down.

Unique

This was an insightful telling of an individual’s experience with the management of various aspects of the cremation process utilized at Auschwitz. It’s inconceivable that these things occurred yet we know they did. I feel an obligation to know about the horrible things that occurred during WWII. These things can never occur again. These horrors cannot be forgotten.