The Last Consolation Vanished: The Testimony of a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz

by Zalmen Gradowski, Rubye Monet (Translator), Arnold I. Davidson (Editor)

A unique and haunting first-person Holocaust account by Zalmen Gradowski, a Sonderkommando prisoner killed in Auschwitz.

On October 7, 1944, a group of Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz obtained explosives and rebelled against their Nazi murderers. It was a desperate uprising that was defeated by the end of the day. More than four hundred prisoners were killed. Filling a gap in history,  The Last Consolation Vanished  is the first complete English translation and critical edition of one prisoner’s powerful account of life and death in Auschwitz, written in Yiddish and buried in the ashes near Crematorium III.
 
Zalmen Gradowski was in the Sonderkommando  (special squad) at Auschwitz, a Jewish prisoner given the unthinkable task of ushering Jewish deportees into the gas chambers, removing their bodies, salvaging any valuables, transporting their corpses to the crematoria, and destroying all evidence of their murders. Sonderkommandos were forcibly recruited by SS soldiers; when they discovered the horror of their assignment, some of them committed suicide or tried to induce the SS to kill them. Despite their impossible situation, many Sonderkommandos chose to resist in two interlaced planning an uprising and testifying. Gradowski did both, by helping to lead a rebellion and by documenting his experiences. Within 120 scrawled notebook pages, his accounts describe the process of the Holocaust, the relentless brutality of the Nazi regime, the assassination of Czech Jews, the relationships among the community of men forced to assist in this nightmare, and the unbearable separation and death of entire families, including his own. Amid daily unimaginable atrocities, he somehow wrote pages that were literary, sometimes even lyrical—hidden where and when one would least expect to find them.
 
The October 7th rebellion was completely crushed and Gradowski was killed in the process, but his testimony lives on. His extraordinary and moving account, accompanied by a foreword and afterword by Philippe Mesnard and Arnold I. Davidson, is a voice speaking to us from the past on behalf of millions who were silenced. Their story must be shared.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Holocaust, War, Jewish, European History, World War II

248 pages, Hardcover

Published November 15, 2022

Reviews

[Sarah Friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an easy read, but in the words of Dara Horn, the one book on the Holocaust that must be read.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional eyewitness account. Can count on one hand books that made me cry and this was one of them. Gradowski does a fantastic job at bringing the reader to a death camp. Uses lyrical prose to emphasize the unthinkable tragedy of the Holocaust and absolute cowardice of the Nazis. Should be required reading in school when it comes to teaching World War II.

[Adina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was among the most moving first person accounts of the Holocaust I have ever read, and I have read many. The lyricism is profound. The accompanying essay by Arnold Davidson is an essential companion.

[Laurence Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Consolation Vanished by Zalmen Gradowski presents the surviving writings of Gradowski, who was a sonderkommando at Auschwitz. Gradowski, who died at the camp in October or November 1944, secretly wrote of his experiences, concealed his writings in water bottles, and buried the bottles near one of the crematoria. They were found after the war. Gradowski’s descriptions of working in the gas chambers and crematoria are emotionally wrenching, and they provide a deeper understanding of the horrors of the Nazi regime. A wish that Gradowski expresses in his writings is that his life, which he saw as doomed, should have some meaning. Perhaps this book helps realize that wish.

[Kimalee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for Yom HaShoah. Heartbreaking, everyone should read this book. Profoundly, moving. How is it possible to endure such hell and write with such eloquence?

[Ani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zalmen Gradowski has described life in the concentration camp so beautifully and painfully. The first manuscript serves almost like an introduction for the second. The latter starts with the beauty of moonlit night which obviously threw me off as a reader. It is almost impossible to expect or imagine to read about picaresque moonlight under the pen of a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Yet, Gradowski has done so, perhaps even intentionally. It definitely creates confusion and uncertainty while makes the later descriptions of the deaths of innocent men, women and children all the more tragic. Through Gradowski's manuscripts, we are transported to Auschwitz concentration camp directly, living with other Sonderkommandos, weeping for Jew brothers and sisters as Jew.

True, it is absolutely impossible to bridge the gap between us as reader and the Nazi victims in the concentration camp. We were never there, we never experienced the suffering they went through. However, Gradowski is aware of it and still attempts to take us into their world, a world devoid of light.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel bad rating this so low. I've read many Holocaust memoirs, and I was keen to read this one - a different perspective to the usual experiences. However, the style of writing was difficult to read - very poetic and that's just not my cup of tea (sorry!). The foreword was written too textbook like and I skimmed the afterword. The most interesting section was the Czech Transport, and to be honest, this was what I was anticipating the book would be all about. I wanted to read about this part of his experience and get different information than the usual Holocaust memoirs I've read. I'm grateful he risked so much to write about his experience and tell the world his story - overall it just wasn't the style of writing I like.

[Terminus Best · Rating 5 out of 5]

While it has been said by others (such as Dara Horn) , I think it bears repeating: If you read one book on the Shoah, this is it.

I do not have any words that can remotely do service in describing the testimony itself but I can comment on the preface and how it compares to other editions.

I recommend this edition over the "from the heart of hell" edition since this one contains two additional pages of testimony which are particularly impactful and beautifully written and in my view important to understanding how actual victims of the Shoah wish to be remembered. The preface of this edition also contains numerous references and notes to other somderkommando testimony for those interested in additional perspectives. I did not find such helpful enumeration of other testimony in the "Heart of Hell" edition.

[Dan Schiff]

It doesn't feel appropriate to give a star rating to such a remarkable and painful text. I'll say that the beginning and closing scholarly essays are very helpful in providing context. But it's Gradowski's manuscript, written under the direst and bleakest of circumstances in Auschwitz, that is unlike any other historical document I've read. For us reading it today is a small measure of victory (and revenge) for the author and his family who perished around him. I'll always remember the scenes he sketches of Jews crammed into a cattle car en route to the concentration camp, begging guards and bystanders to crack a window so they can eat a snowball thrown into the train. Or the women who march singing into the gas chamber, one slapping a Nazi guard in her last act of defiance and humanity. Hat tip to Dara Horn whose "People Love Dead Jews" was my first exposure to Gradowski's manuscript. It's a painful but essential companion piece to Anne Frank's writing; while her diary is suffused with hope, Gradowski gives us dispatches straight from hell. Given political trends in many parts of the world today, 80 years later, we can't afford to look away.

[Judi Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s impossible to rate this writing. He is literally writing from the pits of hell on earth in Auschwitz. It’s mentally one of the most difficult reads I have ever read in that history anguish is palpable in every word. The foreword and postscript of his words are as important as the words he wrote as they offer an insight to Jewish history, laws, and traditions with context from various rabbis.
Who should read this? Mature audiences who have a clear understanding of the depravity of the Nazi regime. People who may want to understand the Jewish culture in view of the Shoal.

[Emily]

Poland

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and educational experience. Reads like part of Dante. Excellent and striking prose.

[Castles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Silence.

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The origin of this book are hidden writings of Zalmen Gradowski who was a sonderkommando at Auschwitz. I have read many Holocaust memoirs written by prisoners - Night - Elie Wiesel, Survival In Auschwitz by Primo Levi. This is the first true account that I have read from manuscripts written and hidden by a man who was forced ( the only option was to obey or die ) to perform the tasks at Auschwitz that were "too dirty" for the Nazis to do. These men led the inmates to the gas chamber, unloaded the room after the gassing, cut the hair, searched for valuables, pulled the gold teeth, moved the bodies from the gas chamber to the crematorium, burned the victims, and scattered the ashes. The purpose of the Holocaust concentration camps was to dehumanize the inmates. You did not have a name. You were a number. You had no rights. You stole from other inmates to survive or at least contemplated this action. Better conditions for the kommandos were provided. Zalmen slept in a better bed, had better food and medical care. It is impossible to imagine surviving Auschwitz as a prisoner, but I cannot imagine the torture of a prisoner who has aid and abet the Nazis to live. Is there any greater kind of soul murder?????? In his writing Zalman does not speak of his own feelings as much as he expresses himself through empathetic imaginings of what the inmates remember about their lives before the war. He repeatedly lists his family members in the hope that one of them might be found. He describes in detail the conditions of the the prisoners and walks us through their arrival at Auschwitz. Zalmen screams at the moon for still shining down on the atrocities. He devotes a large portion of the second manuscript to the Czech transports. He speaks of the Nazis of high positions who are gathered to witness the efficiency of the killing. "And we, their own brothers, will have to lend a hand to this, to take them off the trucks, lead them to the bunker, strip them naked. And then, once they are completely ready, help accompany them to the bunker - to the grave - of death" The Czecks confound the Nazi spectators by singing the Hatikva, a Zionist hymn that became the national anthem of Israel, and the Czech national anthem.. Arnold Davidson , one of the editors, provides his opinion that despite Zalman's recognition of the fact that all consolation has vanished he is still religious man who believes in the Jewish God. I have a different opinion. The Jewish God is omnipotent and omniscient. My personal credo is close to that of Epicurus: “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” The Jewish / Christian answer is always that man is given free will. Because of my own personal history I can believe in a God of love, but he is INCAPABLE of acting in the world. Otherwise he is evil. I believe a God of love weeps at the depravity of man, but CANNOT act in the physical world. If there is a heaven our souls / spirits join with God and all those present in love. We may rest in that love forever or we may choose to return to earth. God did not act to save the prisoners of Auschwitz. I believe Zalman has lost all consolation that God will act or "save" the victims of the Holocaust. He does not pray to God for rescue. He knows that only men can save men - just as only evil men can create an Auschwitz. He chooses to partake in a rebellion and dies in this revolt. He does not wait for help from God. Kristi & Abby Tabby