Author’s Preface Foreword Introduction 1. Comrade Berger 2. Kapo Emil 3. Kapo Ignatz – Kapo of all the Kapos 4. The Two Professors 5. The Gypsy Kapo 6. Recollections Photographs Amsterdam Publishers Holocaust LibraryA memoir of near-miraculous survival in the death camps, Liblau’s gripping portraits of his torturers reveal how the SS turned ordinary men into monsters – and forces us to question our own morality.“A strikingly original book. Here is the voice of a witness able to describe bottomless cruelty in enduring and unforgettable ways.” – Professor Jay Winter, Yale University“An astonishing text. Liblau’s account is especially terrifying because he so brilliantly and intimately reveals the humans, of very different backgrounds, who were both victims of the Nazis and yet for the most part capable of astonishingly sadistic inhumanity.” – Professor Tony Kushner, Southampton UniversityThis memoir of one man’s miraculous survival in Auschwitz is told through the compelling portraits of six kapos who were his torturers – a Jewish communist, a Bosnian Gypsy, a delusional Polish sadist, a pair of homosexuals and a German burglar, who also saved his life. The kapos were sinister characters in the camp hierarchy. Prisoners themselves, either recruited to the job or volunteers hoping for preferential treatment, they were cynically used by the SS to do their dirty work – to inflict extreme violence and degradation on the detainees. Liblau deftly interweaves his own story with their biographies and behaviour, making for a gripping narrative and forcing us to ask – what might we ourselves be capable of in such circumstances? A remarkably talented narrator, Liblau never lost his humanity – or his humour – during his journey through hell. He dedicated the memoir to his children and other young people so that, by understanding “some details of this dark period,” they would make sure it was never repeated.“A strikingly original book. Here is the voice of a witness able to describe bottomless cruelty in enduring and unforgettable ways.” – Professor Jay Winter, Yale University“An astonishing text. Liblau’s account is especially terrifying because he so brilliantly and intimately reveals the humans, of very different backgrounds, who were both victims of the Nazis and yet for the most part capable of astonishingly sadistic inhumanity.” – Professor Tony Kushner, Southampton UniversityThis memoir of one man’s miraculous survival in Auschwitz is told through the compelling portraits of six kapos who were his torturers – a Jewish communist, a Bosnian Gypsy, a delusional Polish sadist, a pair of homosexuals and a German burglar, who also saved his life. The kapos were sinister characters in the camp hierarchy. Prisoners themselves, either recruited to the job or volunteers hoping for preferential treatment, they were cynically used by the SS to do their dirty work – to inflict extreme violence and degradation on the detainees. Liblau deftly interweaves his own story with their biographies and behaviour, making for a gripping narrative and forcing us to ask – what might we ourselves be capable of in such circumstances? A remarkably talented narrator, Liblau never lost his humanity – or his humour – during his journey through hell. He dedicated the memoir to his children and other young people so that, by understanding “some details of this dark period,” they would make sure it was never repeated.