Inside the Gas Chambers: Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz

This is a unique, eye-witness account of everyday life right at theheart of the Nazi extermination machine.

Slomo Venezia was born into a poor Jewish-Italian communityliving in Thessaloniki, Greece. At first, the occupying Italiansprotected his family; but when the Germans invaded, the Veneziaswere deported to Auschwitz. His mother and sisters disappeared onarrival, and he learned, at first with disbelief, that they hadalmost certainly been gassed. Given the chance to earn a littleextra bread, he agreed to become a ‘Sonderkommando', withoutrealising what this entailed. He soon found himself a member of the‘special unit' responsible for removing the corpses from thegas chambers and burning their bodies.

Dispassionately, he details the grim round of daily tasks,evokes the terror inspired by the man in charge of the crematoria,‘Angel of Death' Otto Moll, and recounts the attempts made bysome of the prisoners to escape, including the revolt of October1944.

It is usual to imagine that none of those who went into the gaschambers at Auschwitz ever emerged to tell their tale - but, as amember of a ‘Sonderkommando', Shlomo Venezia was given thishorrific privilege. He knew that, having witnessed the unspeakable,he in turn would probably be eliminated by the SS in case he evertold his tale. He survived: this is his story.

Published in association with the United States Holocaust MemorialMuseum.