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The Druggist of Auschwitz
A Documentary Novel
Dieter SchlesakJohn Hargraves (translator)

Picador; Reprint edition
January 31, 2012 / ISBN 1250002370
Nonfiction Documentary
Amazon

Reviewed by Nicole Merritt

What an amazing and enlightening book! There are so many books on the horrors of Auschwitz, but this one far exceeds anyone's expectation or anticipated interest in this piece of history.

Being the daughter of Russian immigrants, I am familiar with stories of trial and tribulation of European life even though I am living it through another generation.

Brilliantly written and a true masterpiece! Schlesak tells this story uniquely through interviews woven into narratives. The way this information was collected and presented in the book makes it read like a novel. He tells the story through a collective narrator he calls Adam Salmen. He is an unwilling camp worker whose duty it is to report on the gassings to the regime, but in doing so he keeps notes that he hides as a record of the true evils being committed at Auschwitz.

Former pharmacist and SS officer Viktor Capesius shares his Nazi experience through interviews after the war. He was in charge of the Zyklon B used in the gas chambers. Between Adam and Viktor the totality of the concentration camp crimes is incorporated into one fascinating account.

A documentary novel means there is a shred of fiction in the story. It did not read like fiction, unless it was in the reconstructed testimony or the author's own commentary.

This book, with its photographs and detailed accounts of the horror and heartbreak experienced through the eyes of innocent victims, is almost too much to read about and not be forever affected. I found this book most compelling and literally could not put it down. It is haunting in its detail. The photos stayed with me long after I completed the book. It is not for the faint of heart. It is very difficult to digest, so be prepared to be awed.

Reviewed 2012
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