Cold Crematorium. Hunger and Hope in Auschwitz

Jozsef Debreceni is one of the most gifted Hungarian-speaking journalists and poets. Upon arriving in Auschwitz, he was supposed to die exactly forty-five minutes later. Strictly according to the established schedule. That was the time required to sort the half-alive prisoners into groups, undress them, and send them to the gas chambers. However, the guards decided that it was more profitable not to kill Debreceni immediately, but to make him work. What followed was a torturous twelve-month journey through the "Country of Auschwitz." Like Dante, the author went through all the circles of hell: he was thrown from one camp to another until finally Jozsef sank into the chilling darkness of the "Cold Crematorium" - a place where everyone is meant to die... And because of this, he was saved.
Debreceni’s memoirs are called "the harshest and most merciless indictment of Nazism ever written." The author reveals the mechanisms of slavery, the social hierarchy in the camps, and the ways in which the Nazis destroyed not only human bodies but also the souls of all the people trapped in the meat grinder of the Holocaust, where there is no closeness, no comfort, no community, no heroism... The clear and analytical narrative style is combined with the artistic expressiveness of the text. And although the gruesome and naturalistic descriptions of earthly hell sometimes become almost unbearable, nevertheless, thanks to the talent and sincerity of the author, the book is impossible to put down.