Inside the Gas Chambers cover art

Inside the Gas Chambers

Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz

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Inside the Gas Chambers

By: Shlomo Venezia
Narrated by: Peter Noble
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About this listen

Slomo Venezia was born into a poor Jewish-Italian community living in Thessaloniki, Greece. At first, the occupying Italians protected his family; but when the Germans invaded, the Venezias were deported to Auschwitz. His mother and sisters disappeared on arrival, and he learned, at first with disbelief, that they had almost certainly been gassed. Given the chance to earn a little extra bread, he agreed to become a 'Sonderkommando', without realizing what this entailed. He soon found himself a member of the 'special unit' responsible for removing the corpses from the gas chambers and burning their bodies.

Dispassionately, he details the grim round of daily tasks, evokes the terror inspired by the man in charge of the crematoria, 'Angel of Death' Otto Moll, and recounts the attempts made by some of the prisoners to escape, including the revolt of October 1944.

It is usual to imagine that none of those who went into the gas chambers at Auschwitz ever emerged to tell their tale—but, as a member of a 'Sonderkommando', Shlomo Venezia was given this horrific privilege. He knew that, having witnessed the unspeakable, he in turn would probably be eliminated by the SS in case he ever told his tale. He survived: this is his story.

©2009 Polity Press (P)2022 Tantor 20th Century Military Modern War
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Most relevant
Shlomo’s is certainly for the faint hearted. It’s honest, horrifying, sad and makes me question humanity plus what I would do in situations such as these poor souls were put in.

Nothing like this can ever happen again. How one race can be despised so much by another and then by others due to the beliefs of one utterly crazy man leaves me speechless.

Thank you Shlomo for sharing your painful story with us. It’s audiobooks such as this we all should listen to especially for future generations so we never forget and we never let these atrocities happen again.

Shlomo tells the haunting facts

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