The Drowned and the Saved

A must read! Brutally truthful.

Sometimes I wish I was an anthropologist. Fascinating psychological/sociological profile of Holocaust survivors & victims.

good

Une leçon de vie

This book was incredible. I am so glad I read it.

The books makes me understand why Holocaust is different from other incidents of genocide. The Holocaust may not be the genocide with the largest number of victims. Its uniqueness lies in its sophistication. Other genocides are primitive in that they only kill and torture the victims. But the Holocaust goes far beyond that. It not just dehumanized the victims but also degraded them. It is really...more

The books makes me understand why Holocaust is different from other incidents of genocide. The Holocaust may not be the genocide with the largest number of victims. Its uniqueness lies in its sophistication. Other genocides are primitive in that they only kill and torture the victims. But the Holocaust goes far beyond that. It not just dehumanized the victims but also degraded them. It is really difficult to find another incident that destroys human soul to such a complete extend. Putting moral issues aside, the planners of the Holocaust (Heydrich?) truly master the manipulation of human mind. It is tragic that these highly competent people use their gifted abilities in the wrong way.   hide

Everyone needs some Primo Levi in their life and on their bookshelf, if only to have a survivor's perspective on the Shoah that is very intellectual but at the same time very human and compassionate.

of course i love reading anything to do with world war II and holocaust survivors, but this was such an interesting book, delving into the psychology of how things happened.

How can you rate a book on holocaust. What was new for me in it was the description of the level of collaboration (the grey zone) in the camps. How much would I collaborate, how much do I, in fact? Genocide is here as we speak.