The Death Camps (Holocaust Library)

School Library Journal

Gr 9 UpThis series title uses primary- and secondary-source quotations in addition to the straightforward, and, yes, judgmental narrative to tell the whole horrific story. Sidebars highlight important figures and present compelling anecdotes, and well-reproduced archival photos extend the information. Lace relates the establishment of concentration camps throughout Nazi-occupied territory, and the sixAuschwitz-Birkenau, Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Majdanekthat were designated as "extermination facilities." Readers are told that children under five who were difficult to kill with gas were shoved into the crematorium furnaces and burned alive. The author describes the ruses the Germans used to deceive the passengers on the death trains and to prevent riots. After detailing the killing, the suffering, the impossible tragedy of it all, the text continues with stories of escape, rebellion, and liberation. An epilogue discusses how and why these events occurred, concluding, "There is no why." An appendix reveals the fate of select death camp figures. This is a terribly wearing, but an important and well-documented book.Marcia W. Posner, Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Nassau County, Glen Cove, NY