The Children's Block by Otto Kraus

 

Having read the Librarian of Auschwitz, the true story of Dita Kraus and her life in the 'Family Camp' in Auschwitz, I was intrigued to read this novel by her husband, Otto Kraus, though they got together after their release.

Obviously this is not light reading but written extremely well, and is a testament to the most unimaginable hellish period of mankind, and one which must never be repeated. It is inconceivable that human beings could treat each other so inhumanly, but unfortunately this is a true account of those times.

The book is written as if the author was keeping a diary to be found after the war. Many accounts and pictures were secretly created and hidden during the war, to be found much later, and this gives us a good insight into the lowest time of mankind.

When 100 people die in a plane crash, or many hundreds when a tower block collapses, the world mourns - people are in shock. However the sheer magnitude of 6 million people being killed in such an inhumane, systematic act of genocide is beyond our imagination, and makes it hard to conceive.

Books like this break down 6 million faceless people into a smaller, personal group and makes it easier to grieve for the whole. This is a book that should be read by everyone, and the world should say 'never again'.