First we are in a train crammed full of people, the destination unknown to any of the passengers, though they have some guesses as to their location. So begins Hungarian journalist and poet Josef Debreczeni’s Cold Crematorium, an account of his survival in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp system from May 1944 to liberation.

Debreczeni’s narration is divided into two sections, each of ten or 11 chapters. Many of these are short, reflecting time spent in a different camp or the day to day vagaries of differing assignments and casual cruelty of the Germans and camp life. His narration is clear and concise, not a diary, but instead a chronology of his experience centered on important and demonstrative anecdotes. There is the journey of the individual in their own clothes, to a sheered, numbered body in clothing scraps spoiled by visible paint splashes. The Killing of camp inmates reduced to numbers to serve as examples. The pilfering of food, further speeding up death by starvation. The fragility of a body to temperature, lack of food, hard work and the threat of disease and sickness.

But there is also the hope, the doctors doing all they can to save patients, sharing of tobacco and occasional updates of where the war fronts are and how close liberation might be. Those who share what food scraps they can find.

Initially published in 1950, this book was lost to the climate that received it, now newly translated in to English, Debreczeni’s account of his survival demonstrates a humanity resilient in the face of unfathomable hatred and cruelty. It was a system designed to dehumanize and kill, but Debreczeni’s writing unravels the process as he learned what was behind the first impressions.

A starkly clear eyed view of the concentration camp from human to haftling (prisoner). Recommended reading to those learning or researching the Holocaust.

We should all be obligated to read these books written by people who lived through the Nazi death camps. They are visceral and horrific, but worth remembering that these aren't just stories. These are actual events that happened to actual people. Horrific events. This gave a different impression and view with the explanation of the hierarchy within the camps. That those doling out abuse and punishment were also victims, but that they rose to power through this system where they wouldn't normally. How they profited from this system and the victimization and death of others. Very chilling, and not something I think I'd heard previously.

Cold Crematorium by József Debreczeni

As a bit of a nerd for WWII and Holocaust history, I was very interested in reading this book. It’s the first time this lost memoir of a Holocaust survivor has been translated to English and it offers a perspective I’ve never read about before.

József arrived in Auschwitz in 1944 and was transported from there to several forced labour camps, and eventually wound up in the “Häftling Krankenhaus”, or Prisoner Hospital, of the forced labour camp Dörnhau near what is now Kolce, Poland. Of course, the term “hospital” is used very loosely, given the place and times. Jòzsef was placed on a wooden bunk, along with up to 7-8 other severely sick and dying people and essentially left to die. Food was scarce, the camp was rife with Typhus, human waste streamed in rivers between bunks and the complex hierarchy of nazis and Nazi underlings spared no mercy for the prisoners. This is the place that the author referred to as the Cold Crematorium. Jews weren’t being gassed and cremated, but they were tortured and left to die in the cold all the same. It’s truly a wonder than anyone could possibly survive what this man did in just 12 months.

It’s hard to rate a book like this. I’ve never read anything so raw, so entirely bleak and hopeless. The author held nothing back, and every sentence and chapter conveyed the absolute living hell these poor people died in. My only critique for this book is that I wished the part from liberation forward had been longer and more in depth instead of just a couple pages at the end.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this free eARC in exchange for my honest review. This title publishes on January 22, 2024 - I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in a different perspective from this important part of history.

Such a sad and totally heart breaking narrative -- incredibly well written and engaging throughout. I think this book was beautifully written, very informative and something that I hope gets the attention it deserves.

Never Forget -- may this magical act of witnessing live on. 5 Stars

It seems no matter how horrifying Auschwitz has been portrayed before, there is always another level to uncover. This survivor's account details the levels of authority, and abusers, within the system and spares no detail in the everyday pain, from the scabies to the shoes. I celebrate the translation of this important work.

Cold Crematorium by Jozsef Debreczeni is a very realistic story that will show you all the horrors of the Holocaust. This author has the best information that I have read about the life in the camps He miraculously survived and lived to tell his story. His voice is finally being heard, even if it took many years for it to come to America.
I want to thank Netgalley and St. Martins press for the ARC. I have given an honest review.

I've read a fair amount of books on the Nazi era and the Holocaust and this was the most informative and realistic feeling one yet. I learned a lot about the running of the camps and the horrific conditions. It's depressing, heartbreaking, sad, and an abhorrent study in human nature, and quite necessary to read especially after the October 7 Israel massacre.

I have read a lot of books on the Holocaust and all the horrors that happened related to it, but this is by far the best account ever. Author Jozsel Debreczeni is a journalist and a poet who spent three years in various work camps until he was sent to Auschwitz in 1944. From there, he was sent to several subcamps ending up at Dornhau and then he was sent to the "cold crematorium" to await the end.

There was so much new information about life in the work camps in this book that I had never come across before which made for an unputdownable read.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this eye-opening book that was hard to put down.

Gripping new view of various work/death camps and the experience of the jews and others captive there. Survival in the most hopeless situation. Well written and descriptive.

Instantly this reminded me of Night and its trilogy. The brutality of Nazi Germany is ever present throughout this book. But it is a great example of survival and the conditions of camp. It’s a tough read but one I hope many get to!

I received a free advanced copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“Cold Crematorium” is the memoir of József Debreczenia, published in 1950 in Hungary. Jozsef was a journalist and poet. He had been in a camp for Jewish people in Hungary for 3 years and then was sent to Auschwitz in 1944.

Reading a memoir of the Holocaust is far different from reading a fictional account of the atrocities. In fiction, there can be a love story, or a fearless prisoner or a good-hearted camp official. There is none of this in “Cold Crematorium”. This is a stark, clearly written account of nothing but suffering, extreme forced labor, incredibly horrible food- when there was any- revolting living conditions, dreadful epidemics of diseases such as typhus or infestations of bed bugs and lice. All horrific.

Few positive things happen to Mr. Debreczenia. The first was- at his brief stop in Auschwitz, he chooses the correct line to be in and thus avoids the gas chamber. (He is sent to an industrial work camp, where he experiences all the depravity.) Another positive is that he did have friends, including a doctor who cared for him. And the third good thing is- he survived.

This book is only now being published in America. I’m glad that his voice is being heard. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance review copy. This is my honest review.

Amazing read. The Author gives a real insight on the history behind the tragic events of the Holocaust. The sufferings of the human condition is utterly astounding. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in the history of the war and holocaust.

I read a free digital advance review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

In general, Jews in Hungary managed to avoid entering the Nazi death machine until 1944. Though Hungary had been allied with the Nazis, and its right-wing government was antisemitic, they “only” oppressed and ghettoized their Jews. Things changed when Germany, correctly suspecting that the Hungarian government was seeking a separate peace with the Allies, invaded in and took over in March of 1944. Although it was clear Germany was losing the war and needed to devote all its resources to the fighting, the Nazis still prioritized deporting Hungary’s Jews to Auschwitz.

József Debreczeni, a writer and journalist, had been interned in a Hungarian work camp for three years, but in May of 1944 he joined the hundreds of thousands of Jews put in cattle cars and sent to Auschwitz. This book is his depiction of his experiences.

Though the story is told in language that is often dispassionate, frequently almost lyrical—but also sometimes bitingly sarcastic—it is harrowing from the very beginning. I don’t know when I’ve read anything that made me better understand how the operation of the Nazi genocide machine would crush the will of its victims before they even arrived at the camps. The Hungarians had heard that Auschwitz was bad news, but they didn’t know the particulars. They stumbled off the cattle cars, exhausted and overwhelmed with hunger and thirst, and were told to leave all their luggage behind, along with all their clothing. They lost everything that identified them and belonged to them, which only added to their disorientation and despair.

When they went through the selection process, those who went to the right were told they would be transported by truck and that anybody who didn’t feel up for the walk to the camp could join them. Debreczeni was shocked to learn an hour or so later that his friends and acquaintances who had gone in the trucks were, at the moment, nothing but the smoke billowing from the chimneys a few hundred yards away from where he was, standing naked in a line waiting for kapos to throw striped prison uniforms and wooden shoes at the new arrivals who’d been selected for labor.

There are thousands of books describing the Holocaust, but I haven’t read many that go into detail about the experiences of those sent to the labor sub-camps. Many don’t know that there were hundreds of prison/extermination/work camps in Germany and the Nazi-occupied countries and regions. Debreczeni was almost immediately sent from Auschwitz into the Gross-Rosen system, with its dozens of camps, and spent time in three of them: Eule, Fürstenstein, and Dörnbau. His travels from camp to camp and the horrific experiences within them make it easy to understand why so many died without being shot or gassed—and why many came to think of being shot or gassed as a better to the Nazis’ slave labor. Debreczeni observes that while the Hungarian fascists were cruel, they lacked the special ingenuity of the Nazis, who had such varied ways to torture their prisoners. And they didn’t even need to always do it themselves, because they set up the camp systems to have a prisoner hierarchy that resulted in self-policing and pitting the prisoners against each other, to the advantage of their captors.

Debrezceni survived, though he certainly couldn’t have made it much longer. He is sent to his final camp near the end of 1944 and put in an old unheated factory that is filled with prisoners who can no longer work. There they are left to die on pallets, with barely anything to eat or drink, and no sanitation facilities. Debrezceni’s descriptions of his time there are nightmarish. (Note: This is a place in the book where I think some annotation would have been nice, to add historical context. I’m sure some readers will wonder why the Nazis would transport infirm prisoners rather than gas or otherwise execute them, considering they hadn’t hesitated to do that in earlier years. But things were different by the time Debrezceni was sent to Dörnbau. In late 1944, Heinrich Himmler and most of the SS and Wehrmacht saw the handwriting on the wall. Gassings had ended and the crematoria were being destroyed to get rid of evidence. Soldiers at the camps were no longer sure it was a good idea to execute their prisoners outright.)

Debrezceni’s memoir was published in Hungary in 1950, and it’s shocking to me that it is only now, nearly three quarters of a century later, that it’s finally being translated into other languages and published around the world. This is an outstanding work that deserves a wide audience.

4.5 stars rounded to 5.

Cold Crematorium is an emotional and shocking book to read that is based on true events. An important book for all to read. Five stars.

"Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz" was a difficult, sobering and horrifying book to read. This first English translation of Jozsef Debreczeni's 1950 memoir of his time in Nazi concentration camps is an important accounting of the inhuman treatment inflicted on the prisoners by those in power. That people actually survived is a miracle. Since Mr. Debreczeni was a journalist, the format is an eyewitness account in an unadorned style of reporting. As hard as this was to read, we must never forget the horror and inhumanity that existed then. I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC in return for a honest review.

5 stars, Horrors

COLD CREMATORIUM
Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz
by Jozsef Debreczeni

Jozsef Debreczeni barely survived the Land of Auschwitz. He was able to tell the world of the horrors he and the other prisoners experienced there. We should all always remember and not allow it to happen again.

Book quotes: ..."where the people of this tightly locked train of hell were transformed into animals." "The Nazis are not only murderers. They are also cowards." These quotes cause a lump in my throat, to know that someone did horrifying things to other humans.

I received a complimentary copy of #ColdCrematorium from #StMartinsPress and #NetGalley I was not obligated to post a review.

#WWII #War #History #NonFiction #Memoir #Holocaust #Survivor

"Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz" by József Debreczeni is a profound memoir that provides a unique perspective on life within the Holocaust camps. Originally written in Hungarian in 1950, this lost memoir is now available in English, offering readers a deeply moving and shocking account of the author's experiences in Auschwitz and other camps.

József Debreczeni, a Hungarian-language journalist and poet, arrived at Auschwitz in 1944. His survival was a matter of chance, leading him to endure twelve harrowing months of incarceration and slave labor in various camps, culminating in the "Cold Crematorium" — the forced labor camp Dörnhau's so-called hospital, where weakened prisoners awaited execution. As the Allied forces closed in on the camps, local Nazi commanders, fearing the consequences of outright murder, abandoned the remaining prisoners to die en masse rather than sending them directly to the gas chambers.

"Cold Crematorium" stands as one of the most powerful indictments of Nazism ever written. Debreczeni's memoir is marked by its precise and unsentimental style, characteristic of an accomplished journalist. The author employs irony, sarcasm, and acerbic humor to convey the unimaginable circumstances faced by human beings in the camps. While the subject matter is inherently tragic, the evocative prose compels readers to contemplate the incomprehensible reality of life during the Holocaust.

Originally overlooked due to McCarthyism, Cold War hostilities, and antisemitism, this masterpiece is now available in English, translated from the Hungarian, allowing it to take its rightful place among the most significant works of Holocaust literature. "Cold Crematorium" serves as a crucial testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unspeakable horrors and is a poignant addition to the literature that bears witness to the atrocities of the Holocaust.

A very powerful and moving story. The author (and translator) painted a vivid picture of reality during the Holocaust that both broke my heart and gave me hope about some of the good people in this world. The book was very well written and opened my eyes to so many things I did not know about the Holocaust. Thank you for sharing this story. I would definitely recommend this book.

forced-labor, WW2, Hungary, Germany, starvation, cruelty, infectious-disease, forced-imprisonment, death-camps, crematoria, cultural-diversity, cultural-heritage, culture-of-fear, historical-places-events, historical-setting, history-and-culture, human-rights, mass-murder, violence, victimization, inhumane*****

I was so revolted by the author's descriptions that I kept wanting to stop reading and skip right to the review. I did not. I took a (relatively) short break from the horrors and read on through to the end.
Remember those photos repeated in history books and TV where they show the living skeletons of men hanging onto the wire fences watching the allies enter the camps? Joseph was one of those men and, as a journalist, he wrote his memoir in his native language in 1950. This is a clear condemnation of man's inhumanity to man, diarrhea and all.
Well worth everyone's time to read and be repulsed. Never forget. Never again.
Paul Olchváry tackled the unbearable task of translating the author's 1950 original memoir into English.
I requested and received an EARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you.

WOW! What an eye opening book. I have read many holocaust books, but none were as close to details as this book.
You really get a feeling for the camp hierarchy that occurred especially in Auschwitz. The kapos, block leaders, the bigwigs, all got their share before the ordinary "slave" got theirs.
How little a person can live on.
How little space a person had, the thinnest of blankets, the lice. I could feel the lice crawl on me.

It was heart breaking to read, the yearning for food, for news, for freedom never left the author.

I wanted to know more. I wish I knew how his life turned out.

This is a must read book for anyone wanting to learn more about how the block leaders kept people in line.