I was fortunate to have been born after the end of WWII (in 1948), but was always interested in reading about it. As a teenager I had a pen-friend in the then East Germany and visited her a number of times. During one of the visits we went to Buchenwald concentration camp. As it was in the 1960s, one of the survivors was a guide there – an unforgettable experience.
What a pity we don’t learn from history that wars do not solve anything! This book is a fascinating, if harrowing, read. It makes me wonder how it is possible for a man like the commandant of Auschwitz to be two completely different people – a family man on the one hand and the creator of hell on Earth on the other.