Description

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"[A] peerless work of documentation and research that sheds new light on this century's darkest address."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

No symbol of the Holocaust is more profound than Auschwitz. Yet the sheer, crushing number of murders—over 1,200,000—the overwhelming scale of the crime, and the vast, abandoned site of ruined chimneys and rusting barbed wire isolate Auschwitz from us. How could an ordinary town become a site of such terror? Why was this particular town chosen? Who conceived, created, and constructed the camp? This unprecedented history reveals how an unremarkable Polish village was transformed into a killing field. Using architectural designs and planning documents recently discovered in Poland and Russia and over 200 illustrations, Auschwitz tells how this town became the epicenter of the Final Solution. A National Jewish Book Award winner.

About the Author

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Debórah Dwork is the director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

Robert Jan van Pelt is a University Professor at the University of Waterloo. He lives in Toronto.

Praise For…

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The authors use photographs, blueprints, and testimonials from survivors as they consider the question of whether Auschwitz could have happened just anywhere.
— Newsweek

This is truly the definitive history of the town and camp.
— Booklist

A milestone in Holocaust literature.
— Nechama Tee, author of Defiance: The Bielski Partisans