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Das War Dachau
A complete, scholarly presentation of the history of the Dachau concentration camp, which opened on March 22. 1933, two months after Adolf Hitler took power.
435 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 26, 2012
This book is very comprehensive and "horribly" informative ! especially since the author is a former inmate himself of Dachau ; it gives this biography even more weight.
It took me more than a year before being able to finish this book, it was so painful for me to read it. My father was there for more than two years, as an Austrian political prisoner until the Americans arrived in 1945. He has never been very talkative about it and who could blame him. This book was an opportunity for me to read more about what he went through. He was only eighteen years old at the time ! I wonder how someone who has known and lived all this is able to go on with his life !? All I can say is that I wouldn't like to have these memories ...
A must read for those who are interested in the subject. It's a reminder of what happened there and something that nobody should ever forget.
It took me more than a year before being able to finish this book, it was so painful for me to read it. My father was there for more than two years, as an Austrian political prisoner until the Americans arrived in 1945. He has never been very talkative about it and who could blame him. This book was an opportunity for me to read more about what he went through. He was only eighteen years old at the time ! I wonder how someone who has known and lived all this is able to go on with his life !? All I can say is that I wouldn't like to have these memories ...
A must read for those who are interested in the subject. It's a reminder of what happened there and something that nobody should ever forget.
May 31, 2017
I, like many of the other reviewers, first encountered this book when visiting Dachau, but I unfortunately could not purchase it at the time because I was backpacking through Europe and had nowhere to store a book of this size in my luggage. Fast forward a year and I have finally returned to a book I dearly wanted to obtain in situ.
Reading brought me back to the long day my husband and I spent in the camp memorial, a day we could have easily extended due to the availability of content, but which we couldn't because content led to a level of emotional fatigue that finally slew us in Hour Five or Six in the camp when we were essentially trapped in the (mercifully, in relativity) unused gas chambers waiting out an early spring downpour. As if the sky gave out before human endurance could.
There's a scene in Richard Attenborough's movie, Gandhi, when the Mahatma sends for the services of some young friends of Nehru's so that he may quote, coldly and rationally record what is happening in the Indian independence movement. This is what historian and survivor Stanislav Zamecnik is attempting to do with a book that the Prague Spring nearly prevented him from completing, because history moves in its cosmic circles in endless repetition. I once tried to explain to someone who despised what he considered the "emotional sentimentality" of Elie Wiesel's Night that Holocaust literature is interdisciplinary, and each survivor brings a piece of the whole to the genre. For we need the literary pathos of Wiesel (the tortured voice of the children and teenagers whose growing personhoods were indelibly stamped by this hell) as much as we need the rational documentation of scientist-survivors (Primo Levi) and historian-survivors (Zamecnik). How else are we to even begin to comprehend the incomprehensible, if not through every lens? This is my long-winded way of saying this book is an invaluable part of an increasingly vanishing whole. I worry for the future when the last survivor - and their story - is gone, because we are a little more than seventy years away from Liberation and already we sow doubt and revisionism into the cataclysmic nadir of the modern Western world. Zamecnik and the others rage against the dying of the light, for which I am grateful. But the burden is shifting from them to us and I can only hope we can remember.
Reading brought me back to the long day my husband and I spent in the camp memorial, a day we could have easily extended due to the availability of content, but which we couldn't because content led to a level of emotional fatigue that finally slew us in Hour Five or Six in the camp when we were essentially trapped in the (mercifully, in relativity) unused gas chambers waiting out an early spring downpour. As if the sky gave out before human endurance could.
There's a scene in Richard Attenborough's movie, Gandhi, when the Mahatma sends for the services of some young friends of Nehru's so that he may quote, coldly and rationally record what is happening in the Indian independence movement. This is what historian and survivor Stanislav Zamecnik is attempting to do with a book that the Prague Spring nearly prevented him from completing, because history moves in its cosmic circles in endless repetition. I once tried to explain to someone who despised what he considered the "emotional sentimentality" of Elie Wiesel's Night that Holocaust literature is interdisciplinary, and each survivor brings a piece of the whole to the genre. For we need the literary pathos of Wiesel (the tortured voice of the children and teenagers whose growing personhoods were indelibly stamped by this hell) as much as we need the rational documentation of scientist-survivors (Primo Levi) and historian-survivors (Zamecnik). How else are we to even begin to comprehend the incomprehensible, if not through every lens? This is my long-winded way of saying this book is an invaluable part of an increasingly vanishing whole. I worry for the future when the last survivor - and their story - is gone, because we are a little more than seventy years away from Liberation and already we sow doubt and revisionism into the cataclysmic nadir of the modern Western world. Zamecnik and the others rage against the dying of the light, for which I am grateful. But the burden is shifting from them to us and I can only hope we can remember.
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July 6, 2014I don't know how to give a number rating to a book like that - it was not a fun read. I did not enjoy reading this. But I'm glad I did - it was a quality historical account humanized by personal memories of the author as well as others.
Ashley and I purchased this book at Dachau.
I learned much.
Ashley and I purchased this book at Dachau.
I learned much.
June 10, 2013
I bought this book when we visited Dachau during our honeymoon. The book is excellent. I wish I would have read it sooner but it is a difficult read at times.
October 3, 2016
Bought the book while on a visit to the Dachau concentration camp this summer. Must see place for history lovers. The camp is a bit of a harrowing repository of the Dachau archives, houses a museum which really is a time machine, whereby one can hark back to Third Reich and it's barbarity. About the book, the author has stunningly captured the details, shored up by statistics and ample evidence. He has done a painstaking and arduous job of research which is commendable . The fact that he had done this despite the sanction imposed on him by the authorities in the wake of Prague Spring , which prohibited him from working as a historian , in itself is one of the reasons which make it a must read for all, in particular The Third Reich history pursuants.
September 20, 2021
There's a monument on the grounds at the site of the Dachau concentration camp that bears the inscription "Never Forget." I think it's important to know what went on there, so I bought this book at the bookstore when my family visited. The author is doubly qualified to write on the subject, as he was both a professional historian, and a survivor of the Dachau camp.
I found it interesting how the environment morphed during the 12 years the camp was in operation. At first, relatively few people actually died there -- and they weren't Jewish. Many were there temporarily, with a fixed date for release. At one point, the author describes football games that were allowed during prisoners' free time. Different camp commandants came with differing styles of leadership. Of course, as the war went on and things got worse for Germany, things got proportionately worse for the prisoners as well.
Himmler crops up often and of course, as the credited creator of the concentration camp system, the author treats him deservingly disdainfully. The reader would really like to see him get his due reward in the end -- I found it unfortunate that the author did not reveal that Himmler took the easy way out and committed suicide by cyanide pill after being captured by the British.
Some of the most notorious events at the camp were the medical experiments carried out by young Dr. Sigmund Rascher, whose wife had some kind of access to Himmler. The author, whose job was in the infirmary, was on hand for many of these and was able to objectively describe experiments from first-hand knowledge. He also describes how the doctor, Himmler's former favorite, discovered fraud perpetrated by Rascher, who was then arrested, sent to Buchenwald, and eventually executed at Dachau without benefit of trial.
The writing is very fact-based and scientific. Zamecnik's personal observations are rare. Perhaps this is for the best, as describing events at Dachau with any increase in emotion would make the book even tougher to read than it already is. I was amazed at how many names are recorded -- there are 7 pages in the index of names at the back of the book. I find it's one thing to "never forget" what happened there, but I find it compassionate to "never forget" the names and personal experience of so many of the people who suffered there. Zamecnik also seems to be very meticulous about numbers: how many were in this or that transport, how many were taken out and shot on this particular day, etc. It seems like he's trying to honor each and every soul that was snuffed out.
I found it interesting how the environment morphed during the 12 years the camp was in operation. At first, relatively few people actually died there -- and they weren't Jewish. Many were there temporarily, with a fixed date for release. At one point, the author describes football games that were allowed during prisoners' free time. Different camp commandants came with differing styles of leadership. Of course, as the war went on and things got worse for Germany, things got proportionately worse for the prisoners as well.
Himmler crops up often and of course, as the credited creator of the concentration camp system, the author treats him deservingly disdainfully. The reader would really like to see him get his due reward in the end -- I found it unfortunate that the author did not reveal that Himmler took the easy way out and committed suicide by cyanide pill after being captured by the British.
Some of the most notorious events at the camp were the medical experiments carried out by young Dr. Sigmund Rascher, whose wife had some kind of access to Himmler. The author, whose job was in the infirmary, was on hand for many of these and was able to objectively describe experiments from first-hand knowledge. He also describes how the doctor, Himmler's former favorite, discovered fraud perpetrated by Rascher, who was then arrested, sent to Buchenwald, and eventually executed at Dachau without benefit of trial.
The writing is very fact-based and scientific. Zamecnik's personal observations are rare. Perhaps this is for the best, as describing events at Dachau with any increase in emotion would make the book even tougher to read than it already is. I was amazed at how many names are recorded -- there are 7 pages in the index of names at the back of the book. I find it's one thing to "never forget" what happened there, but I find it compassionate to "never forget" the names and personal experience of so many of the people who suffered there. Zamecnik also seems to be very meticulous about numbers: how many were in this or that transport, how many were taken out and shot on this particular day, etc. It seems like he's trying to honor each and every soul that was snuffed out.
July 28, 2020
Most of the time I do not like history books. They are filled with impersonal facts, and names that just blend together. I find myself lost among all of this information and not able to connect with it. Add in the fact that most history writers could take some writing lessons, and you can see why I avoid these books a lot of times. But after a visit to Dachau, I felt like I needed to know about the history of this place, and I picked up this book. Zamecnik did a great job of telling the story of Germany's first significant concentration camp, and how they used this model to help create all of the other concentration camps during World War II. Even though the names and dates and figures started to blend together after awhile, and the German made it hard to get through at times, it still added a personal touch to make me really understand what was going on in this part of the world. The reason being the case is because Stanislav Zamecnik was a prisoner at Dachau during the war, and he was able to add his own observations and personal anecdotes to the narrative really bringing it to life. It is definitely a history book and has been well researched, but it is that personal note that really brings this part of history that everybody should know about and learn from to life.
October 25, 2023
I bought this book at the Dachau Camp bookstore after a completely infuriating tour of the camp. I wanted to get a better understanding of the camp and its dark history. The book was not an easy read at times, I became very angry, not at the author but at the way the Nazis dehumanized and murdered mass number of human beings.
The author gives an authoritative and comprehensive look at the history and horror of the camp. Unlike the previous mention tour guide at the camp, who whitewashed the whole thing. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the history of the Dachau. Again, it is not an easy read when it comes to to the Nazi atrocities and it more like a historical textbook, book it states quite clearly a part of our history that should not be forgotten or whitewashed.
The author gives an authoritative and comprehensive look at the history and horror of the camp. Unlike the previous mention tour guide at the camp, who whitewashed the whole thing. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the history of the Dachau. Again, it is not an easy read when it comes to to the Nazi atrocities and it more like a historical textbook, book it states quite clearly a part of our history that should not be forgotten or whitewashed.
April 28, 2021
I bought this book while visiting Dachau with my wife a few years ago. I spent 4 hours there and felt scarred by the experience. I needed to know more.
It took me several years to read. It required an emotional will I didn't always have.
good writing, very well researched. More a reference book than a novel.
Lest we forget.
It took me several years to read. It required an emotional will I didn't always have.
good writing, very well researched. More a reference book than a novel.
Lest we forget.
May 5, 2021
I worked at the Dachau Memorial site for years as a guide. Whenever asked to suggest a book, not only about Dachau, but about the Nazi Concentration Camp system in general. 'That was Dachau' was always the answer I gave.
January 25, 2023
I would recommend this book to any person who has seen Dachau Concentration Camp. It’s scholarly presentation, so it’s not a fluid read. The editing of the book into English has several mistakes, several words misspelled and some grammar.
December 2, 2023
This was a really hard read for me. It took me months, which is unusual. There is a lot of in depth information into what Dachau was like for the 12 years it was a concentration camp. However, the material was dense and dry, the editing was terrible, and the translation into English was rough.
April 23, 2025
It was what I would expect from a horrible event in our past. Lots of details and dates which are hard to get through. But if you want all the details then this book surely has that.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews