David Cesarani
The Sky over Auschwitz
Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death: Reflections on Memory and Imagination
By Otto Dov Kulka (Translated by Ralph Mandel)
Allen Lane/The Penguin Press 127pp £14.99
In 1946 two Czech survivors of Auschwitz living in Prague published a history of the camp. Ota Kraus was among the few who escaped its clutches during the war; his co-writer, Erich Kulka, was a Jew imprisoned by the Nazis as a political opponent. Their book, The Death Factory, was an immediate success and went through five printings by 1959. It was translated into several languages and eventually sold over a million copies. An English edition appeared in 1966 and, despite the clanking Marxist explanation for Nazi genocide, it remains a serviceable account. One chapter is devoted to the ‘Family Camp’, where successive transports of Czech Jews from the Theresienstadt ghetto, each numbering approximately five thousand, were held for six months before they were murdered in the gas chambers. Kulka did not mention that his wife and son arrived there in March 1944. She survived Auschwitz but perished on a ‘death march’ from the Stutthof concentration camp, where she had been transferred. The boy, ten years old when he entered Auschwitz, was reunited with his father and both made it out alive.
Erich Kulka’s reticence is mirrored by that of his son, Otto Dov, who became a historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem after the family emigrated to Israel in 1968. In the course of a distinguished career Otto Dov Kulka has published numerous studies of anti-Semitism in Germany, the history
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Are iPhones ruining children's lives? A prominent American psychologist thinks so.
@tiffanyjenkins is not so sure:
Tiffany Jenkins - The Smartphone Pandemic
Tiffany Jenkins: The Smartphone Pandemic - The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an...
literaryreview.co.uk
India's 'festival of democracy', or general election, begins next month. Like every good festival, it looks likely to have its fair share of murders and arrests.
@OwenBennettJon probes the state of democracy in India:
Owen Bennett-Jones - New Delhi Confidential
Owen Bennett-Jones: New Delhi Confidential - The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the Search for Democracy in India by Alpa Shah
literaryreview.co.uk
Where is the world's newest narcostate and why is it thriving?
@AdamBrookesWord investigates Asia's meth mecca.
Adam Brookes - Meth Comes to Myanmar
Adam Brookes: Meth Comes to Myanmar - Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Outwitted the CIA by Patrick Winn
literaryreview.co.uk