What do you think?
Rate this book
Remembering Survival: Inside a Nazi Slave-Labor Camp
A remarkable story of survival for almost three hundred Jews who live to recount the brutalities of a Nazi work camp.
In 1972 the Hamburg State Court acquitted Walter Becker, the German chief of police in the Polish city of Starachowice, of war crimes committed against Jews. Thirty years before, Becker had been responsible for liquidating the nearby Jewish ghetto, sending nearly 4,000 Jews to their deaths at Treblinka and 1,600 to slave-labor factories. The shocking acquittal, delivered despite the incriminating eyewitness testimony of survivors, drives this author’s inquiry.
Drawing on the rich testimony of survivors of the Starachowice slave-labor camps, Christopher R. Browning examines the experiences and survival strategies of the Jewish prisoners and the policies and personnel of the Nazi guard. From the killings in the market square in 1942 through the succession of brutal camp regimes, there are stories of heroism, of corruption and retribution, of desperate choices forced on husbands and wives, parents and children. In the end, the ties of family and neighbor are the sinews of survival. 10 photos.
In 1972 the Hamburg State Court acquitted Walter Becker, the German chief of police in the Polish city of Starachowice, of war crimes committed against Jews. Thirty years before, Becker had been responsible for liquidating the nearby Jewish ghetto, sending nearly 4,000 Jews to their deaths at Treblinka and 1,600 to slave-labor factories. The shocking acquittal, delivered despite the incriminating eyewitness testimony of survivors, drives this author’s inquiry.
Drawing on the rich testimony of survivors of the Starachowice slave-labor camps, Christopher R. Browning examines the experiences and survival strategies of the Jewish prisoners and the policies and personnel of the Nazi guard. From the killings in the market square in 1942 through the succession of brutal camp regimes, there are stories of heroism, of corruption and retribution, of desperate choices forced on husbands and wives, parents and children. In the end, the ties of family and neighbor are the sinews of survival. 10 photos.
300 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
99 people are currently reading
954 people want to read
About the author
Christopher R. Browning
34 books157 followersChristopher Robert Browning recently retired as Frank Porter Graham Professor of History at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. He is the author of numerous books on Nazism and the Holocaust, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 30, 2022
This book made me really sad and really angry for the injustice of no charges for Becker. It is a collection of people’s stories from the Wierzbnik-Starachowice ghetto and slave labor camp, and their eventual stop at Auschwitz. It is very sad, but very important that Browning put together these accounts for the victims and their families.
March 17, 2019
A very well-written and thoroughly researched recounting of the story of Jewish prisoners in Starachowice, Poland. This was a slave-labor camp, not a death camp or concentration camp, though in the last year of the war these prisoners were transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau for labor. The slave-labor camps don't get nearly as much coverage as the death camps do, so this was a soberingly enlightening look into their lives in the early moments of German occupation, ghettoization, the deportation of ~75% of the Jewish population for genocide in Treblinka, the factory and life conditions of the remaining Jewish families, the roles of the Jewish councils and Prominenten, the lives of women and children versus men and poor versus wealthy, escape attempts and ruthless, meaningless murder, cruelty and indifference, transportation to Auschwitz, liberation, further intimidation and violence at the hands of Polish factions post-World War II, and finally the court cases of the main perpetrators, including one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice in the acquittal of Walther Becker.
For people looking for a generalized view of what concentration camp life was like, this may not be the right book. This was a very unique experience that, despite its horrors, entailed a larger survival rate than most other experiences. That in no way, however, makes these events any less important or vital toward the history of the Holocaust. Christopher Browning is an amazing historian and author, and no other book I've read so far has provided such an in-depth first person look from such a wide range of view points, all presented in a clear manner. Would highly recommend for anyone looking for in-depth knowledge of Holocaust history and the tales of the survivors.
For people looking for a generalized view of what concentration camp life was like, this may not be the right book. This was a very unique experience that, despite its horrors, entailed a larger survival rate than most other experiences. That in no way, however, makes these events any less important or vital toward the history of the Holocaust. Christopher Browning is an amazing historian and author, and no other book I've read so far has provided such an in-depth first person look from such a wide range of view points, all presented in a clear manner. Would highly recommend for anyone looking for in-depth knowledge of Holocaust history and the tales of the survivors.
March 1, 2010
Browning presents a very readable history of a slave labor camp during World War II. He starts with the city prior to the formation of a Ghetto, goes though the Ghetto, and then discusses the camp. Most of Browning's work is from stories from survivors. Unlike many authors, Browning, while enraged that one overseer got off, keeps his tone cool and professional. He logically evalutes story, seperately myth from reality.
The book is very nuanced. Too often, in say Defiance: The Bielski Partisans for example, the victiminzed group is usually shown as the long suffering victims who were wonderful and supportive of each other and never, ever, did a mean thing in a trying, horrorific experience. When I read Defiance for instance, I found it hard to believe that all the sex was totally consentual, considering the ability to find food and shelter was in part dependent upon whether a woman could get a male protector. Considering human nature, it is amazing that every single person was perfect in such a sitution. In many ways, it is like the "what if" exercise that gets used in many classrooms. Students will say that they would have never looked the other way, but then you consider what if your children were in danger and not just you? Well, as Francine Prose it's easy to say that, but in reality, who knows.
Browning presents a detailed and unbiased view. He doesn't blame the victims, but he also discusses the outcome of power struggles and examines why it is hard to discover true stories about some events (the surviviors for many reasons don't want to talk about it). It is this close look that really makes the book. Browning shows us people, not suffering matyrs. Because of this, his book is far more compelling than other histories.
The book is very nuanced. Too often, in say Defiance: The Bielski Partisans for example, the victiminzed group is usually shown as the long suffering victims who were wonderful and supportive of each other and never, ever, did a mean thing in a trying, horrorific experience. When I read Defiance for instance, I found it hard to believe that all the sex was totally consentual, considering the ability to find food and shelter was in part dependent upon whether a woman could get a male protector. Considering human nature, it is amazing that every single person was perfect in such a sitution. In many ways, it is like the "what if" exercise that gets used in many classrooms. Students will say that they would have never looked the other way, but then you consider what if your children were in danger and not just you? Well, as Francine Prose it's easy to say that, but in reality, who knows.
Browning presents a detailed and unbiased view. He doesn't blame the victims, but he also discusses the outcome of power struggles and examines why it is hard to discover true stories about some events (the surviviors for many reasons don't want to talk about it). It is this close look that really makes the book. Browning shows us people, not suffering matyrs. Because of this, his book is far more compelling than other histories.
January 1, 2011
Christopher Browning's book is about trying to survive day to day life in a little-known Nazi slave-labor camp as seen from the perspective of Jewish survivors.
Because it is based on a large number of postwar testimonies and subject interviews, the book isn't easy or quick reading. Every paragraph - sometimes every sentence - tells a Holocaust survivor (or victim's) story....you can't skim this, or you'll miss something important. One story comes to mind....when a Polish authority was kicking a Jew out of her home and going through her belongings, he found something he liked. He said, "This is very pretty, will you wrap it for me?" By the same token, the author paints a portrait of Jews as complex characters and normal fallable human beings who did whatever was necessary in order to ensure their survival and to protect their families and friends. They were put in a position that made it necessary to make decisions that nobody should ever have to make!
One thing I learned from this book is that, in Poland, Jews weren't required to "register." They were simply given up to German authorities by anti-semitic Poles. But the book makes it clear that for every act of evil (or even just turning a blind eye to what was going on around them) - there were good Polish people willing to commit mind boggling acts of kindness and bravery to help Jews in a variety of ways.
Not wanting to give the ending away, I assure you that it will absolutely astonish you.
Because it is based on a large number of postwar testimonies and subject interviews, the book isn't easy or quick reading. Every paragraph - sometimes every sentence - tells a Holocaust survivor (or victim's) story....you can't skim this, or you'll miss something important. One story comes to mind....when a Polish authority was kicking a Jew out of her home and going through her belongings, he found something he liked. He said, "This is very pretty, will you wrap it for me?" By the same token, the author paints a portrait of Jews as complex characters and normal fallable human beings who did whatever was necessary in order to ensure their survival and to protect their families and friends. They were put in a position that made it necessary to make decisions that nobody should ever have to make!
One thing I learned from this book is that, in Poland, Jews weren't required to "register." They were simply given up to German authorities by anti-semitic Poles. But the book makes it clear that for every act of evil (or even just turning a blind eye to what was going on around them) - there were good Polish people willing to commit mind boggling acts of kindness and bravery to help Jews in a variety of ways.
Not wanting to give the ending away, I assure you that it will absolutely astonish you.
October 29, 2011
Browning prefaces his book by saying that his original intent was to put a wrongly-acqitted Nazi camp leader in a "historian's hell". despite its vengeful beginning, 'Remembering Survival' is a deeply compassionate historical account of the flow of Jews into and out of Staracowize. his methods and experiences while writing the book, described in the introduction, provide great insight into the process of interviewing, researching, and composing an account of history based on survivor testimony. although the subject matter can be hard to face at times, Browning's account is a fantastic read.
June 11, 2010
"Man's inhumanity to man" is certainly depicted in this true story of labor camps in German-occupied Poland during WW2. A true tale of survival in the face of horrifying circumstances, and how the German judicial system following the war did not adequately punish the German perpetrators. This book is well written, and easy to read, while not sparring any of the terrible truths.
December 7, 2018
Browning is one of the best. I'm sad he's retired and his major work is at an end. His detailed breakdown of the issues historians face when analyzing and weighing conflicting and unreliable sources was extremely helpful and refreshingly rational. I believe his approach could be applicable across disciplines; even, say, in the public arena when allegations surface regarding alleged crimes committed decades ago.
• Historians should usually be concerned with both authenticity and factual accuracy of witness testimony. Multiple witnesses experiencing the same thing will have different perspectives and each remembers, refashions, forgets, and represses aspects of this experience in his or her own way. In many cases, multiple perspectives on the same events are very illuminating, for they provide a fuller and more multifaceted understanding than could be obtained from a single witness. But you also run up against conflicting and contradictory – in some cases, clearly mistaken – memories and testimonies. In some instances, differing memories and testimonies simply should not and cannot be reconciled, and critical judgments must be made.
• The emotional desire to believe should not eclipse the critical approach that should apply to any historical source. The historian needs accuracy, not just sincerity.
• Method: gather a sufficient critical mass of testimonies that can be tested against one another. A core memory often emerges from these that has remained basically stable despite passage of time. You test these witness statements against the following:
o Overall credibility of survivor’s testimony
o Vividness and detail of the particular events being recalled
o Absence of contradiction with other plausible narratives
o The highly subjective intuition of the individual historian that gradually develops from prolonged immersion in the materials
Browning argues that there are different layers of memory:
o Deepest layer: repressed memory, in which the witness is unaware of what has been experienced – more prevalent when events in question are especially traumatic and painful
Example: Browning’s uncle was a missionary in Singapore in 1942. When Japan invaded, he sent his wife and child away but purposefully chose not to go with them because he didn’t think he’d be able to return to his congregation if he left. He was captured and tortured in a prison camp for 3.5 years. When he emerged, he had no memory of making the decision to stay. He only discovered it when he dug up an old diary. “It is doubtful he could have survived if every day he had had to live with the constant awareness that his suffering had been avoidable except for his own naïve miscalculation. What would have been an utterly debilitating memory was mercifully repressed as a psychological defense mechanism crucial to survival.”
o Secret Memories: Memories that are so searing and painful that they have never been shared with others. Often related to “choiceless choices” or shameful acts performed to survive.
o Communal Memories: Memories that are shared and discussed among survivors from the same towns and camps, but a consensus that outsiders wouldn’t understand and so are not shared. Sharing would be inappropriate and antisocial to the community.
o Public Memories: Those memories that are openly shared and constitute bulk of the survivor testimonies.
• Problem with victim testimony:
o Specifically in regards to Holocaust memories, because there has been so much conversation about the Holocaust in the public domain, victims are very likely to replace/supplement their own memories with images and tropes that have become iconic and pervasive in public discourse. Thus, those who were in village/camps like this one, which have not been portrayed in novels and films, are more likely to have “pristine” memories, untainted with others’ memories of their experiences. (Camp witnesses in this book have testimonies that abruptly change in nature when they arrive in Auschwitz.)
o Humans suppress trauma as a coping mechanism.
o Experiences prior to the trauma are usually idealized as they are colored by later experiences. For instance, most prewar accounts of childhood memories were “refracted through the horrible experiences that followed, so they were extremely idealized and seldom captured the realities of Jewish life in Poland in the 1930s. Overwhelmingly, the gist was that Jewish life in Poland was wonderful except for the presence of the Poles.”
o ON THE OTHER HAND: he found that later testimony often proved to be more reliable than earlier testimony – in other words, the assumption that proximity to the event produces a more accurate account is not always the case, especially when it comes to sexual trauma (these memories started to become public memories about 45 years after the event).
Solution: Don’t wait till you have perfect evidence to write a history. Instead, recognize the problems of evidence, take them into account, and then move forward.
• Historians should usually be concerned with both authenticity and factual accuracy of witness testimony. Multiple witnesses experiencing the same thing will have different perspectives and each remembers, refashions, forgets, and represses aspects of this experience in his or her own way. In many cases, multiple perspectives on the same events are very illuminating, for they provide a fuller and more multifaceted understanding than could be obtained from a single witness. But you also run up against conflicting and contradictory – in some cases, clearly mistaken – memories and testimonies. In some instances, differing memories and testimonies simply should not and cannot be reconciled, and critical judgments must be made.
• The emotional desire to believe should not eclipse the critical approach that should apply to any historical source. The historian needs accuracy, not just sincerity.
• Method: gather a sufficient critical mass of testimonies that can be tested against one another. A core memory often emerges from these that has remained basically stable despite passage of time. You test these witness statements against the following:
o Overall credibility of survivor’s testimony
o Vividness and detail of the particular events being recalled
o Absence of contradiction with other plausible narratives
o The highly subjective intuition of the individual historian that gradually develops from prolonged immersion in the materials
Browning argues that there are different layers of memory:
o Deepest layer: repressed memory, in which the witness is unaware of what has been experienced – more prevalent when events in question are especially traumatic and painful
Example: Browning’s uncle was a missionary in Singapore in 1942. When Japan invaded, he sent his wife and child away but purposefully chose not to go with them because he didn’t think he’d be able to return to his congregation if he left. He was captured and tortured in a prison camp for 3.5 years. When he emerged, he had no memory of making the decision to stay. He only discovered it when he dug up an old diary. “It is doubtful he could have survived if every day he had had to live with the constant awareness that his suffering had been avoidable except for his own naïve miscalculation. What would have been an utterly debilitating memory was mercifully repressed as a psychological defense mechanism crucial to survival.”
o Secret Memories: Memories that are so searing and painful that they have never been shared with others. Often related to “choiceless choices” or shameful acts performed to survive.
o Communal Memories: Memories that are shared and discussed among survivors from the same towns and camps, but a consensus that outsiders wouldn’t understand and so are not shared. Sharing would be inappropriate and antisocial to the community.
o Public Memories: Those memories that are openly shared and constitute bulk of the survivor testimonies.
• Problem with victim testimony:
o Specifically in regards to Holocaust memories, because there has been so much conversation about the Holocaust in the public domain, victims are very likely to replace/supplement their own memories with images and tropes that have become iconic and pervasive in public discourse. Thus, those who were in village/camps like this one, which have not been portrayed in novels and films, are more likely to have “pristine” memories, untainted with others’ memories of their experiences. (Camp witnesses in this book have testimonies that abruptly change in nature when they arrive in Auschwitz.)
o Humans suppress trauma as a coping mechanism.
o Experiences prior to the trauma are usually idealized as they are colored by later experiences. For instance, most prewar accounts of childhood memories were “refracted through the horrible experiences that followed, so they were extremely idealized and seldom captured the realities of Jewish life in Poland in the 1930s. Overwhelmingly, the gist was that Jewish life in Poland was wonderful except for the presence of the Poles.”
o ON THE OTHER HAND: he found that later testimony often proved to be more reliable than earlier testimony – in other words, the assumption that proximity to the event produces a more accurate account is not always the case, especially when it comes to sexual trauma (these memories started to become public memories about 45 years after the event).
Solution: Don’t wait till you have perfect evidence to write a history. Instead, recognize the problems of evidence, take them into account, and then move forward.
January 22, 2019
Christopher Browning presents a detailed account of two concentration camps located in Poland where Polish Jews and other Poles were sent after the Nazis overtook Poland. Until the very last 2 chapters, the presentation is clear and factual. The work is a guide to how histories should be researched and written, in my opinion. What happened as the Nazis stormed the Ghetto herding Jews first to the Ghettos and then to the camps is horrific.
But when we finish reading the final two chapters where Browning states the conclusions he drew from his book, the reader begins to understand the true horror not just of the Holocaust but the lengths to which German Courts went to cover up the murders, thefts of property and other crimes that were committed by Germans. The system of jury trials in Germany--the Staatsanwaltschaft-- required 6 lay jurors and 3 judges appointed from the district in which the trial was held. But, as Browning points out, lawyers in the Third Reich were more apt to join the Nazi Party and particularly attracted to the SS, endorsing Nazi political beliefs and tactics in their judgments. This continued after the war, and Browning cites cases of 2 well-known murders being acquitted of all charges because the judges found various reasons to discredit the testimony of camp survivors. He states that his research of available records showed that testimony of Jews was simply disregarded. There is even the case of a chief judge during the post-war trials of Nazi perpetrators of crimes being able to sit in judgment because his Nazi file was removed from the public record.
Browning writes that "every court had to begin with the presumption of innocence [of the German officers being tried for murder][but] not every court began with the presumption that the Jewish survivors who came to give testimony were 'bad witnesses' before even examining their evidence. . . . . the court categorically had to dismiss from consideration the testimony of whole groups of witnesses. It created whole categories of evidentiary flaws, whereby the least suspicion about the reliability of a witness's testimony in one regard led to its dismissal in all regards. Category by category, entire blocks of witnesses were removed from further consideration concerning their testimony on the crucial issue as to whether Becker had played an active role in the Aktion (herding and transporting Jewish citizens into and out of the Ghetto to the camps and his governance there).
The Nazi officers were tried under the criminal law adopted in 1940 during the Nazi regime. Only murder was deemed lawfully to be outside the Statutes of Limitations, but virtually all other crimes charged had to be dismissed as barred by the Statute of Limitations, unless a finding of base motive (racial hatred), maliciousness, or cruelty were proved. Given the discretion given to triers of fact in making their findings based on the evidence including witness testimony, the role of dismissing eye witness accounts as biased contributed directly to dismissal of charges of murder, manslaughter, and assault against those charged with carrying out the Nazi horrors. Thus, to me, the Holocaust did not end with the liberation of the camps but continued with post War cover-up.
The final irony, the one self-imposed by Jewish captives on themselves is the "less than zero-sum game" in which the choices given to prisoners to protect themselves or a loved one meant causing harm to another Jewish prisoner or even family member.
Browning is thoroughly objective in his reporting and his analysis, which makes his conclusions credible, and, I would say, verifiable. He left unsaid any conclusion about the German people and German officials perpetuating a cover-up on Nazi atrocities, but I drew that conclusion as well as the conclusion that both official Germany and the German people sanction the greatest atrocity in history, even though they may have, at some point, regretted those atrocities.
But when we finish reading the final two chapters where Browning states the conclusions he drew from his book, the reader begins to understand the true horror not just of the Holocaust but the lengths to which German Courts went to cover up the murders, thefts of property and other crimes that were committed by Germans. The system of jury trials in Germany--the Staatsanwaltschaft-- required 6 lay jurors and 3 judges appointed from the district in which the trial was held. But, as Browning points out, lawyers in the Third Reich were more apt to join the Nazi Party and particularly attracted to the SS, endorsing Nazi political beliefs and tactics in their judgments. This continued after the war, and Browning cites cases of 2 well-known murders being acquitted of all charges because the judges found various reasons to discredit the testimony of camp survivors. He states that his research of available records showed that testimony of Jews was simply disregarded. There is even the case of a chief judge during the post-war trials of Nazi perpetrators of crimes being able to sit in judgment because his Nazi file was removed from the public record.
Browning writes that "every court had to begin with the presumption of innocence [of the German officers being tried for murder][but] not every court began with the presumption that the Jewish survivors who came to give testimony were 'bad witnesses' before even examining their evidence. . . . . the court categorically had to dismiss from consideration the testimony of whole groups of witnesses. It created whole categories of evidentiary flaws, whereby the least suspicion about the reliability of a witness's testimony in one regard led to its dismissal in all regards. Category by category, entire blocks of witnesses were removed from further consideration concerning their testimony on the crucial issue as to whether Becker had played an active role in the Aktion (herding and transporting Jewish citizens into and out of the Ghetto to the camps and his governance there).
The Nazi officers were tried under the criminal law adopted in 1940 during the Nazi regime. Only murder was deemed lawfully to be outside the Statutes of Limitations, but virtually all other crimes charged had to be dismissed as barred by the Statute of Limitations, unless a finding of base motive (racial hatred), maliciousness, or cruelty were proved. Given the discretion given to triers of fact in making their findings based on the evidence including witness testimony, the role of dismissing eye witness accounts as biased contributed directly to dismissal of charges of murder, manslaughter, and assault against those charged with carrying out the Nazi horrors. Thus, to me, the Holocaust did not end with the liberation of the camps but continued with post War cover-up.
The final irony, the one self-imposed by Jewish captives on themselves is the "less than zero-sum game" in which the choices given to prisoners to protect themselves or a loved one meant causing harm to another Jewish prisoner or even family member.
Browning is thoroughly objective in his reporting and his analysis, which makes his conclusions credible, and, I would say, verifiable. He left unsaid any conclusion about the German people and German officials perpetuating a cover-up on Nazi atrocities, but I drew that conclusion as well as the conclusion that both official Germany and the German people sanction the greatest atrocity in history, even though they may have, at some point, regretted those atrocities.
February 6, 2018
The desperate struggle of Polish Jews in the slave-labor camps of Wierzbnik-Starachowice might have been left to the ravages of memory and time if not for Christopher Browning’s detailed reconstruction of their fight for survival. In order to chronicle the plight of these Polish Jews, the author conducts an in-depth and comprehensive study of resources that include: official Nazi documentation, a memorial book (yizker-bikher) compiled by former residents of the town, and interview testimonies from 292 survivors over several decades. The author simultaneously describes the challenges he faced in the process of this reconstruction, including the nuances of detail between, and the fragmented pieces of, testimony which rely on speculation. Across the spectrum of testimony investigated, Browning states that, “[f]or most aspects of the Jewish experience in Starachowice, there is consistency between earlier and later survivor testimonies” (168). The consistency throughout this critical mass of testimony centers on a core memory which allows the historian to confidently recreate the history of Wierzbnik-Starachowice.
August 20, 2019
I had mixed feelings about this book.
Kudos to the author for an amazing work of scholarship and research. Ditto his organizational, analytics and writing skills. It is an important work and quite different from standard individual testimonies. He chose one concentration camp system, drilled down into minute detail of the enormous number of survivor stories and drew many valuable conclusions about the whole experience in contrast to other locations. A unique situation and outcome for those in the camp. It was a bit of a slog reading the book because of its scholarly tone but I understand why it was written that way. I read a bit at a time and stuck with it and am glad I did. The last two chapters were especially elucidating. A bit too much time was spent on the "unreliabillity" of survivor testimonies for various reasons. But I can see why an historian needs to be sceptical and go with the truth in multiple witness agreements on certain facts. A worthwhile read for a different view of Holocaust perspective.
Kudos to the author for an amazing work of scholarship and research. Ditto his organizational, analytics and writing skills. It is an important work and quite different from standard individual testimonies. He chose one concentration camp system, drilled down into minute detail of the enormous number of survivor stories and drew many valuable conclusions about the whole experience in contrast to other locations. A unique situation and outcome for those in the camp. It was a bit of a slog reading the book because of its scholarly tone but I understand why it was written that way. I read a bit at a time and stuck with it and am glad I did. The last two chapters were especially elucidating. A bit too much time was spent on the "unreliabillity" of survivor testimonies for various reasons. But I can see why an historian needs to be sceptical and go with the truth in multiple witness agreements on certain facts. A worthwhile read for a different view of Holocaust perspective.
February 19, 2018
Somehow I wash there was a rating system that allowed a mix between the importance of the "data" in a book and the style of writing. This story of horror under the Nazis in Poland is truly mind-numbing in its savagery and inhumanity. At the same time, the writing is flat, almost clinical, more like a turgid PhD dissertation than a story of pain and loss. Its description of the Nazi labor camps, and what Jews there did to survive, is a valuable historical record, nevertheless.
August 29, 2019
revealing and evil
What people do to others is difficult to conceive. People hate for no reason, they take for personal gain and seem to have no conflicts with their conscience. Greed and envy are hard to justify , this book tells the tale.
What people do to others is difficult to conceive. People hate for no reason, they take for personal gain and seem to have no conflicts with their conscience. Greed and envy are hard to justify , this book tells the tale.
Read
June 1, 2020As with his other books, well done. It's amazing to me that there is always so much more to learn, even after all this time. Maybe it's because the hate lives on?
November 14, 2022
A very well done book. Offers insight into this dark period of history.
March 19, 2024
read this for class i enjoyed but also it was homework so probably would’ve enjoyed it more outside of class
August 3, 2016
Remembering Survival: Inside a Nazi Slave Labor Camp is by Christopher R. Browning. This nonfiction book is about a formerly unknown series of camps known as Starachowice in Poland. Christopher relies on the testimonies of over three hundred survivors of this camp. At times, there are several testimonies from the same person at different times in their lives and by different entities for different reasons. Some of the testimonies were taken right after liberation while the survivors were still processing these events. Many may have been cautious about revealing too many details for fear of retribution or they may have blocked out details that were too difficult to remember. Some of the testimonies were taken by the German government prior to the trial of Walther Becker for his role in the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in Wierzbnik. These testimonies were focused on a specific time period and a specific man so are limited. Some of the testimonies were a result of the efforts of the Shoah foundation, Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and other museums and entities who have made an effort to record as many testimonies as possible before the survivors are no longer with us. Other than these testimonies and a few memoirs, there are few records of this camp available.
The book takes one from the pre-war situation in this area through the war and to the present day. It is an interesting look at a camp that was specifically set up for slave labor and not for annihilation of the Jews. It is easy for a non-historian to read and understand. It does have an extensive notes section which tells where he got his information. Although the material in itself is upsetting, the way Christopher R. Browning presents it, makes it not overwhelmingly depressing.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the different types of camps the Nazis set up during their regime. You get a different view of some of the perpetrators and you get a view of the various ways the Jews rebelled and resisted.
The book takes one from the pre-war situation in this area through the war and to the present day. It is an interesting look at a camp that was specifically set up for slave labor and not for annihilation of the Jews. It is easy for a non-historian to read and understand. It does have an extensive notes section which tells where he got his information. Although the material in itself is upsetting, the way Christopher R. Browning presents it, makes it not overwhelmingly depressing.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the different types of camps the Nazis set up during their regime. You get a different view of some of the perpetrators and you get a view of the various ways the Jews rebelled and resisted.
February 12, 2013
Christopher Browning's Remembering Survival is definitely not the easiest book to read, because it really lacks a central idea. It is told through survivor testimonies, which perhaps isn't the most historically ideal way to tell history, but the only way in the case of Starachowice.
The best thing about the book is really the minute details that it gives us as readers, and make us connect with survivor with one of the least known camps during Nazi Poland. I believe each of the testimonies given could be made into movies because all of them are so surreal and painful. Just as Browning claims it, even though the history of Starachowice is not of great importance to the course of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, it is a history that still needs to be written because it affected so many people, and because of the injustice the Jews had to suffer even after the war, and Browning does a great job at it with his honesty and candidness.
The best thing about the book is really the minute details that it gives us as readers, and make us connect with survivor with one of the least known camps during Nazi Poland. I believe each of the testimonies given could be made into movies because all of them are so surreal and painful. Just as Browning claims it, even though the history of Starachowice is not of great importance to the course of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, it is a history that still needs to be written because it affected so many people, and because of the injustice the Jews had to suffer even after the war, and Browning does a great job at it with his honesty and candidness.
April 26, 2013
This is an important record of what happened, but...
... it is a dry transcription of events more than a compelling story of what took place and why. Just one example: the author provided no context on how the subject camp fit into the larger use of slave labor throughout Nazi Germany and occupied lands, save for a glossing over whether Jewish slave labor was economically efficient/profitable (at this one site).
The uniqueness of this piece is supposedly in the details/multiple perspectives (sometimes conflicting) the eye witnesses provided on specific events. However, the author seemed much more interested in his research methods than in conveying what actually took place.
... it is a dry transcription of events more than a compelling story of what took place and why. Just one example: the author provided no context on how the subject camp fit into the larger use of slave labor throughout Nazi Germany and occupied lands, save for a glossing over whether Jewish slave labor was economically efficient/profitable (at this one site).
The uniqueness of this piece is supposedly in the details/multiple perspectives (sometimes conflicting) the eye witnesses provided on specific events. However, the author seemed much more interested in his research methods than in conveying what actually took place.
Want to read
June 25, 20106/25/10
December 22, 2012
This book was good, but didn't match my thinking about it. It was detailed, but somehow it wasn't fluent for me.
May 3, 2012
Very good. Very detailed. The majority of the book is based on survivor testimony.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews