Book Club Discussion Questions and Guide for Cold Crematorium by József Debreczeni

Book Club Discussion Questions

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Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Why didn't Jozsef and the Jews of Backa escape before they were deported to Auschwitz? Where might they have gone? What would have you done?
2. If you were in the camps, do you think you would have become a "kapo?" Why or why not?
3. What scene(s) from the book affected you most deeply?
4. Did the author exhibit any prejudices of his own? Against whom?
5. What feeling(s) do you think the author wanted to create in the reader? Pity? Rage? Something else?
6. What did you know about the Holocaust before reading Cold Crematorium? How has your thinking about the Holocaust changed because of reading the book?
7. What does this book tell us about how the Holocaust happened? Do you think another one is possible?
8. What is the meaning of the first line of the poem found before the map at the beginning of the book: "What is any damn thing worth?" In the same poem, Debreczeni refers to "my mother's murderer," finding a "new uniform." What did he mean by this?
9. For Jews, can anything be "normal" again after the Holocaust?
10. Recent surveys consistently report that over 20% of U.S. adults below the age of 30 believe the Holocaust was a myth or is exaggerated. Why do you think that is? What, if anything, should be done?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of St. Martin's Press. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.