{"product_id":"the-last-consolation-vanished-by-zalmen-gradowski-9780226636788","title":"The Last Consolation Vanished","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA unique and haunting first-person Holocaust account by the late Zalmen Gradowski, a Sonderkommando prisoner in Auschwitz.\u003c\/b\u003e\n\nOn October 7, 1944, a group of Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz obtained explosives and rebelled against their Nazi murderers. It was a desperate uprising that was defeated by the end of the day. More than four hundred prisoners were killed. Filling a gap in history, \u003ci\u003eThe Last Consolation Vanished\u003c\/i\u003e is the first complete English translation and critical edition of one prisoner’s powerful account of life and death in Auschwitz, written in Yiddish and buried in the ashes near Crematorium III.\n\nZalmen Gradowski was one of the \u003ci\u003eSonderkommandos\u003c\/i\u003e (special squads) at Auschwitz, a Jewish prisoner given the unthinkable task of ushering Jewish deportees into the gas chambers, removing their bodies, salvaging any valuables, transporting their bodies to the crematoria, and destroying all evidence of their murders. \n\nSonderkommandos were forcibly recruited by SS soldiers; when they discovered the horror of their assignment, some of them committed suicide or tried to induce the SS to kill them. Despite their impossible situation, many Sonderkommandos chose to resist in two interlaced ways: planning an uprising and testifying. Gradowski did both, by helping to lead a rebellion and by documenting his experiences. \n\nWithin 120 scrawled notebook pages, his accounts describe the process of the Holocaust, the relentless brutality of the Nazi regime, the assassination of Czech Jews, the relationships among the community of men forced to assist in this nightmare, and the unbearable separation and death of entire families, including his own. Amid daily unimaginable atrocities, he somehow wrote pages that were literary, sometimes even lyrical—hidden where and when one would least expect to find them.\n\nThe October 7th rebellion was completely crushed and Gradowski was killed in the process, but his testimony lives on. \n\nHis extraordinary and moving account, accompanied by a foreword and afterword by Philippe Mesnard and Arnold I. Davidson, is a voice speaking to us from the past on behalf of millions who were silenced. Their story must be shared.\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46855870677228,"sku":"9780226636788","price":47.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/18596163482268.jpg?v=1759281452","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/the-last-consolation-vanished-by-zalmen-gradowski-9780226636788","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}