Prisoners of Fear

by Ella Lingens-Reiner

Genres: Holocaust, Nonfiction, History

195 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1948

Reviews

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 3 out of 5]

A doctor in Vienna, Austria—married to a German—Linger-Reiner was sent to Buchenwald for helping Jews leave the country during World War II. Her account is clear-eyed and reasoned to the point of dispassion, the reason for this she explains in her introduction. Her clinical eye details the operation of the camp, the insane reliance on rules and bureaucracy of the Nazis, the interactions of the prisoners based on Nationality and politics, life and death in the infirmaries, and how mundane decisions can create death and suffering. As a doctor, thus valued by those who ran the camp, she was given slightly better treatment and tried to use it to improve conditions—confronted with the reality that those too sick to work would be killed.

[Krista Stubbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really helped me understand the logistics of Auschwitz operations. When I am teaching Holocaust memoirs, students often ask me logistical questions that I don't always know the answer to and this book filled in a lot of those gaps. Of course, like any Holocaust memoir, it is a heartbreaking read. That said, as Holocaust memoirs go, this one is less emotional than others. Her purpose for writing was to record all of her experiences as a political prisoner (she is an Austrian who was arrested for aiding Jews) who worked as a doctor at Auschwitz; hence, her memoir is an informative account of all that she witnessed and saw. She provides a privileged prisoner's point of view, which was quite interesting.