Auschwitz

Croci, Pascal. Auschwitz. 2002. 88p. ISBN 0-8109-4831-1. Available at GFX CRO on the library shelves.

Kazik, Cessia and their daughters are Jews who arrive in Auschwitz. Quickly separated after getting off the train, Kazik’s only desire is to be reunited with his wife and child. An older prisoner takes him under his wing and shows him the tricks of surviving in the death camp. And when the occasion presents itself for working in the Death commandos, Kazik takes it, knowing that it is a death sentence. The commandos’ job is to dispose of the dead bodies, but they can travel from camp to camp, and Kazik hopes to find his family.

When he discovers his daughter under a mass of dead bodies in one of the gas chambers, Kazik is shocked that she is still alive. He manages to revive her, but then he must beg for her life with the local S.S. commander. The commander tells him he will see what he can do, but Kazik is never sure whether he followed through or not. He managed to escape a month later.

Cessia then picks up the story, and tells Kazik that their daughter in fact did survive the horrors, and was reunited with her mother, only to die of typhus two days before the camp was liberated.

Hauntingly beautiful, the graphic quality of this story displays in images the horror that words can never describe.