
Cold Crematorium
Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz
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Narrated by:
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Laurence Dobiesz
About this listen
New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2024
"Cold Crematorium is an indispensable work of literature, and a historical document of unsurpassed importance.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
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.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
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Critic reviews
"Superb...an unforgettable testimonial to the terror of the Holocaust and the will to endure."—Kirkus (starred)
"József Debreczeni was a journalist and a poet and he brings the skills of both to this remarkable work. Cold Crematorium will awe you with the acuity of its observations and the precision and beauty of its language. It should be read by everyone wishing to understand the cruelty and barbarism of the Shoah, but also the indomitable spirit of its survivors."—Ehud Barak, Former Prime Minister of Israel
"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
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Story
In KL, Wachsmann fills this glaring gap in our understanding. He not only synthesizes a new generation of scholarly work, much of it untranslated and unknown outside of Germany, but also presents startling revelations, based on many years of archival research, about the functioning and scope of the camp system.
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Narrator warning!
- By S R L COTTERILL on 04-24-15
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I Heard Her Call My Name
- A Memoir of Transition
- By: Lucy Sante
- Narrated by: Lucy Sante
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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For a long time, Lucy Sante felt unsure of her place. Born in Belgium, the only child of conservative working-class Catholic parents who transplanted their little family to the United States, she felt at home only when she moved to New York City in the early 1970s and found her people among a band of fellow bohemians. Some would die young, from drugs and AIDS, and some would become jarringly famous. Sante flirted with both fates on her way to building an estimable career as a writer. But she still felt like her life was a performance. She was presenting a facade, even to herself.
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A disappointment
- By basil on 06-13-25
By: Lucy Sante
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The Daughter of Auschwitz
- My Story of Resilience, Survival and Hope
- By: Tova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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A powerful memoir by one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz, Tova Friedman, following her childhood growing up during the Holocaust and surviving a string of near-death experiences in a Jewish ghetto, a Nazi labor camp, and Auschwitz.
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Very interesting and well told
- By Tracy F. on 03-31-23
By: Tova Friedman, and others
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Eyewitness Auschwitz
- Three Years in the Gas Chambers
- By: Filip Müller
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Filip Müller came to Auschwitz with one of the earliest transports from Slovakia in April 1942 and began working in the gassing installations and crematoria in May. He was still alive when the gassings ceased in November 1944. He saw millions come and disappear; by sheer luck he survived. Müller is neither a historian nor a psychologist; he is a source - one of the few prisoners who saw the Jewish people die and lived to tell about it. Eyewitness Auschwitz is one of the key documents of the Holocaust.
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Difficult truth to confront
- By Don on 05-10-21
By: Filip Müller
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Rescued from the Ashes
- The Diary of Leokadia Schmidt, Survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto
- By: Leokadia Schmidt, Oscar E. Swan - translator
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The diary of a young Jewish housewife who, together with her husband and five-month-old baby, fled the Warsaw ghetto at the last possible moment, and survived the Holocaust hidden on the "Aryan" side of town in the loft of a run-down tinsmith's shed. Rescued from the Ashes documents the incredible life story of Leokadia Schmidt and her small family and their daily struggle to survive the Warsaw Ghetto.
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Amazing details
- By Holly H on 12-11-24
By: Leokadia Schmidt, and others
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Beyond the Last Path
- A Buchenwald Survivor's Story
- By: Eugene Weinstock
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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This is the story of No. 22483, who had been shipped from Belgium to Buchenwald. It records what he saw and felt during his calvary from Antwerp to the Malin distribution camp in France and from there to the extermination camp of Buchenwald. He was one of the few people who both entered a Nazi concentration camp and left again. This is his remarkable personal story that records his experiences of one of the most harrowing events in human history.
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Is it a testimony, or a work of fiction?
- By Noa on 01-01-20
By: Eugene Weinstock
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Empire of Destruction
- A History of Nazi Mass Killing
- By: Alex J. Kay
- Narrated by: Tom Lawrence
- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Nazi Germany killed approximately 13 million civilians and other noncombatants in deliberate policies of mass murder, overwhelmingly during the war years. Almost half the victims were Jewish, systematically destroyed in the Holocaust, the core of the Nazis’ pan-European racial purification program. Alex Kay argues that the genocide of European Jewry can also be examined in the wider context of Nazi mass killing.
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Bleak, terrifying. Plumbs the depths
- By Dr Philip N Best on 11-22-22
By: Alex J. Kay
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The Master of Auschwitz:
- Memoirs of Rudolf Hoess, Kommandant SS
- By: Rudolf Hoess
- Narrated by: Tim Dalgleish
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The first-hand account of the life, career, and the practices of horror at Auschwitz, written by Auschwitz Kommandant SS Rudolf Hoss as he awaited execution for his crimes. Including his psychological interviews at Nuremberg.
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The Banality of Evil…a Memoir
- By Tim on 03-16-17
By: Rudolf Hoess
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Last Stop Auschwitz
- My Story of Survival from Within the Camp
- By: Eddy de Wind
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Written in the camp itself in the weeks following the Red Army's liberation of the camp, Last Stop Auschwitz is the raw, true account of Eddy's experiences at Auschwitz. In stunningly poetic prose, he provides unparalleled access to the horrors he faced in the concentration camp. This poignant memoir is at once a moving love story, a detailed portrayal of the atrocities of Auschwitz, and an intelligent consideration of the kind of behavior - both good and evil - people are capable of.
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wow
- By Ann on 02-08-20
By: Eddy de Wind
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Into the Forest
- A Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph, and Love
- By: Rebecca Frankel
- Narrated by: Natalie Pela
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1942, the Rabinowitz family narrowly escaped the Nazi ghetto in their Polish town by fleeing to the forbidding Bialowieza Forest. They miraculously survived two years in the woods—through brutal winters, Typhus outbreaks, and merciless Nazi raids—until they were liberated by the Red Army in 1944. After the war, they trekked across the Alps into Italy, where they settled as refugees before eventually immigrating to the United States.
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Great story with an added benefit
- By Scottsville Stu on 12-30-21
By: Rebecca Frankel
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The Forbidden Daughter
- The True Story of a Holocaust Survivor
- By: Zipora Klein Jakob
- Narrated by: Robin Siegerman
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Elida Friedman was not supposed to have been born. In the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania, Nazi law forbade Jewish women from giving birth. Yet, despite the fear of death, Dr. Jonah Friedman and his wife Tzila choose to bring a daughter into the world, a little girl they name Elida—meaning non-birth in Hebrew.
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Born in Fire, Died in Fire, Elida✡️ 💙🇮🇱🇺🇸💙✡️
- By michael petro on 11-10-24
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The Secret Holocaust Diaries
- The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister
- By: Nonna Bannister, Denise George, Carolyn Tomlin
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gallagher
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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For half a century, a terrible secret lay hidden, locked in a trunk in an attic... photos, official documents, and scraps of a diary written by a young girl. "The time has come when I must share my life story... some facts from the past that could make a contribution, however small it may be, to the history of mankind." The Secret Holocaust Diaries is a haunting eyewitness account of Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister, a remarkable Russian-American woman who saw and survived unspeakable evils as a young girl.
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I respect Nonna
- By Susan on 12-26-11
By: Nonna Bannister, and others
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The Long Road to Auschwitz: A Tale of Tyranny and Heartbreak 1
- By: Anthony Vincent Bruno
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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A British soldier storming the Normandy D-Day beachhead, a man whose girlfriend had been deported to Auschwitz four years previously - "Whenever I see a German in SS black? I see a dead German in SS black." The #1 Amazon charts bestseller - The Long Road to Auschwitz explores the horrors of the Holocaust whilst looking to what would eventually end Nazi tyranny in Europe - the Allied soldiers landing on Normandy Beach. Pre-War Europe - May 1939. A couple meet and fall in love on a Parisian street. Max is a British Territorial soldier and Zia is a Jewish girl from the south of France. Zia's ...
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Mengele
- Unmasking the "Angel of Death"
- By: David G. Marwell
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Mengele describes the international search for the Nazi doctor in 1985 that ended in a cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the dogged forensic investigation that produced overwhelming evidence that Mengele had died - but failed to convince those who, arguably, most wanted him dead. This is the riveting story of science without limits, escape without freedom, and resolution without justice.
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A Good Lesson in Historical Investigative Techniques
- By PCMusicGadgetMan on 06-30-20
By: David G. Marwell
Fantastic recollection of the holocaust
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Stunning
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Harsh Reality
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Beautifully written, beautifully read
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Sad State of Humanity, and a Brave, Necessary Work
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Masterpiece
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Never Again
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This needs to be read!
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Detailed beyond all else
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Agonizing detail
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