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Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz
by József Debreczeni
The first English language edition of a lost memoir by a Holocaust survivor, offering a shocking and deeply moving perspective on life within the camps—with a foreword by Jonathan Freedland.
József Debreczeni, a prolific Hungarian-language journalist and poet, arrived in Auschwitz in 1944; had he been selected to go "left," his life expectancy would have been approximately forty-five minutes. One of the "lucky" ones, he was sent to the "right," which led to twelve horrifying months of incarceration and slave labor in a series of camps, ending in the "Cold Crematorium"—the so-called hospital of the forced labor camp Dörnhau, where prisoners too weak to work awaited execution. But as Soviet and Allied troops closed in on the camps, local Nazi commanders—anxious about the possible consequences of outright murder—decided to leave the remaining prisoners to die in droves rather than sending them directly to the gas chambers.
Debreczeni recorded his experiences in Cold Crematorium, one of the harshest, most merciless indictments of Nazism ever written. This haunting memoir, rendered in the precise and unsentimental style of an accomplished journalist, is an eyewitness account of incomparable literary quality. The subject matter is intrinsically tragic, yet the author's evocative prose, sometimes using irony, sarcasm, and even acerbic humor, compels the reader to imagine human beings in circumstances impossible to comprehend intellectually.
First published in Hungarian in 1950, it was never translated into a world language due to McCarthyism, Cold War hostilities and antisemitism. More than 70 years later, this masterpiece that was nearly lost to time will be available in 15 languages, finally taking its rightful place among the greatest works of Holocaust literature.
"Superb...an unforgettable testimonial to the terror of the Holocaust and the will to endure."
―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A holocaust memoir worthy of Primo Levi."
—The Times of London
"Debreczeni writes with a cinematic clarity, a determination to make detail triumph over mass dehumanization."
—The Telegraph (UK)
"Debreczeni's book is not only an epic of a human Golgotha, nor only an illustration of all forms of depravity and debasement. It is certainly that and more, but also a painful cry and dark warning to all humankind."
―Daily Paper (Serbia)
"Always present in this book―even behind the most mundane descriptions―are living beings, which, once visualized, even if illuminated for only a second, cannot be forgotten."
―Új Könyvek (Budapest)
"Cold Crematorium is an indispensable work of literature, and a historical document of unsurpassed importance. It should be required reading."
―Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated
"A timely reminder of man's inhumanity to man―especially for the young generation."
―Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans
This information about Cold Crematorium was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
József Debreczeni was a Hungarian-language novelist, poet, and journalist who spent most of his life in Yugoslavia. He was an editor of the Hungarian daily Napló and of Űnnep in Budapest, from which he was dismissed due to anti-Jewish legislation. On May 1, 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz after three years as a forced laborer. He was later a contributor to the Hungarian media in the Yugoslav region of Vojvodina, as well as leading Belgrade newspapers. He was awarded the Híd Prize, the highest distinction in Hungarian literature in the former Yugoslavia.
Paul Olchváry has translated more than twenty books, including György Dragomán's The White King, No Live Files Remain, Budapest Noir, and Károly Pap's Azarel. He has received translation awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN America, and Hungary's Milán Füst Foundation. His shorter translations have appeared in The Paris Review, The Hungarian Quarterly, and turnrow.
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