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

Shlomo Venezia

Dec 2013 · Sold by John Wiley & Sons

About this ebook

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

Slomo Venezia was born into a poor Jewish-Italian community living in Thessaloniki, Greece. At first, the occupying Italians protected his family; but when the Germans invaded, the Venezias were deported to Auschwitz. His mother and sisters disappeared on arrival, and he learned, at first with disbelief, that they had almost certainly been gassed. Given the chance to earn a little extra bread, he agreed to become a ‘Sonderkommando', without realising what this entailed. He soon found himself a member of the ‘special unit' responsible for removing the corpses from the gas 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 by some of the prisoners to escape, including the revolt of October 1944.

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

Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Also available as an audiobook.

Ratings and reviews

Wow! What a powerful description of what went on inside the gas chambers. Thank you Mr. Venezia for sharing your experience, so we may never forget what happened during this period of time.

If this was lies all lies like some of you ignorant fucks why did most of the head of the nazi regime commit suicide these actions could not be dreamed up no one would think of most of the actions these actions are to real to be made up most of the people who denied this happened were either anti semantic or Germans in denial fucking idiots you people make me sick to the core most Germans except these atrocities accured "that's right it never happened "fuck me dead i suppose the camera is a lier

A very bold look into the atrocities of ww2 camps from a survivor, a witness, a man who through torture & hunger survived his ordeal. A very good read.

About the author

Shlomo Venezia was a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz.