Eyewitness Auschwitz,
Three Years in the Gas Chambers
Written By: Filip Muller
Published by Ivan R Dee, Chicago, 1st Ed. By this Publisher, Published in Association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1999, paperback, 180 pages.

"Eyewitness Auschwitz is an exceptionally graphic, in-depth and carefully recounted description of Filip Muller's improbable three-year survival in the Gas Chambers of Auschwitz, one of the most infamous Nazi Extermination Camps"BCM

Filip Muller was born in Sered, Czechoslovakia in 1922. He was a young man with the promising future of being a great fiddle player and possibly as a writer.
Then in 1942, Filip was deported to Auschwitz, when he was just 20 years old and his life and indeed his very soul, would never be the same again.
When he arrived in Auschwitz, Filip was permanently tattooed with the prisoner number 29236 and then sent to work in the gassing chambers soon after.
As a part of the Sonderkommando(Jewish prisoners/workers), Filip Muller was forced to work under the threat of torture...


**Please follow the link to read the rest of my review for "Eyewitness Auschwitz, Three Years in the Gas Chambers" http://bookreviewsbybobbie.wordpress.com/

This is a good book for any holocaust deniers to read. He is one of the only actual witnesses to what happened at Auschwitz.

An outstanding account of one man's experiance. I liked the way the story was told with more of a narative perspective rather than a dramatic one. I think this allows you to feel your own emotions rather than the authors. I intend to visit soon and see it 1st hand. May we never forget.

How can there be eyewitnesses if they were all slaughtered? The stories of German soldiers eating sandwiches in the gas chamber after having just gassed some yids has one scientific problem: the gas exposure would have instantly killed these Germans. This book has caused me to have great sympathy for the German soldiers. Germans are a great people. It is too bad that they continue to be defamed by yids by these ridiculous stories. If the holocaust is true, why is it illegal to deny it in most countries? Apprently yids don't like free speech. Why pay homage to children of the devil? Why keep their lies going?

This book is so amazing. It really brings you to that time period and what he went through every day when he was there. I love this book.

Nobody should be critical of the writing "style" of this book. The man who wrote it doesn't claim to be a professional writer. He relates his own eyewitness accounts of the most horrific scenes, worse than any fiction imaginable. The book details the planned and cunning killing of thousands upon thousands of living human beings, and the struggle by the SS to dispose of the mountains of remains. A terribly sad and unforgettable book. Thanks to Mr. Muller for sharing this horror with the world. Read it if you can. The world needs to experience this, and remember it, forever.

This book was extremely slow. At times it was alright but there are much better books out there about the Holocaust and World War II

This book was extremely slow. At times it was alright but there are much better books out there about the Holocaust and World War II

It is hard to read this book because the subject matter is so grim. It is not written especially well but the unique view of the author makes this an important document. It is clear that the Nazi plan developed over time and it was truly a murder machine. This story from inside the machine is sad and ultimately worth reading and remembering.

Since my tour of duty in Augsburg and Schwaebish Hall W. Germany (mid-60's) I have read fifty books trying to undersand the holocaust. I found the German people warm and generous, thus was unable to put the two continums in the same world.

This book does not help you understand the reasoning behind that most powerful historical event, but it does give you an extremely graphic picture of HOW it was done on a day to day basis.

Filip Mueller, saw things that Hoess (Commandant of Auschwitz) did not see first hand and he tells it all.

Great read.

Highly recommended. Gripping, suspenceful. Manages to unnerve, shock, without hysterics--and this is the best type of approach for something this gruesome.

How did the author live through it? How would you have dealt with it? How would I?

Get it. Read it.

And for those who think by simply saying NEVER AGAIN that it won't, couldn't happen again, are only fooling themselves. Humans never learn a damn thing from history. Why? Because we're basically retarded.

It could happen again, and in fact, it has happened--to a lesser degree. I say any time a Hitler or Saddam wannabe rears his ugly head--you better believe there are a few of them out there even right now--confront
the control-hungry pissant to keep him from attaining enough power to reach his objective.

Read this and live the horror of the Holocaust. You will cry but come away the wiser.

A very interesting and truthful book about what occurred many years ago. The book was written very well and very informative.

What a interesting read. Just amazing that such things actually happened. I have enjoyed this book greatly. It was in excellent condition. Thank You.

I know a good bit about the holocaust. I've studied it, I've taught about it. But I've never read a book like this. This is a first-hand account of someone who survived working in the crematoria at Auchwitz for 3 years. This book is a translation so I don't know if in the original form he talked more about the absolute stress of this situation but I felt it for him. I'll, and most of you, will never totally understand his experience. But I know more than I did. Most importantly, I BEAR WITNESS....we all must do this. This must never happen again.

I bought this book when I went to the Holocaust museum in D.C. This book is unbelievably heart stopping. This book takes you into a world of pain and terror. To be able to read about every momment of torture this man witnessed and partook in, is extremely moving. This book takes you deep inside the morbid ways of Hitler.

I loved this book but I find it hard to say that because of the sheer fact of what the people in this book went through. Muller's account of his years in auschwitz as a prisoner forced to work in the gas chambers is graffic and upsetting yet you wont want to put it down. It's hard to imagine what these people went through but reading this book is almost like you are right there seeing it with your own eyes. If you are interested in the subject i recommend this book to you, and if you arent interested in the subject i recommend this book anyways.

when you know every word is true.The hell this man went through is unimaginable.There isn't a lot you can say,really.The fact that the writer survived is a testimony to his will to keep living and tell the world what he saw and endured.The fact that he can relate his unfathomable experiences at Auschwitz without sliding in to self-pity is remarkable.
This book,along with _Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee_,and the film "Amistad" should be required reading/viewing for any student over the age of 12 years old.Hopefully,those works will tell our children how cruel and greedy and treacherous humans can be,and that they must remain ever vigilant in their quests to live as decent human beings.We cannot allow hatred to flourish.
I offer my thanks and sympathy to the gentleman who wrote this account of his life under the thumb of nazis.I hope they are,in the afterlife, experiencing all of the pain and misery they so willingly doled out to millions of people.Innocent people.

A very chilling account. I had to put it down several times and just sit and cry. I feel it should be required reading for any class on World War II, Nazism or the subject of religion.

I read "Eyewitness Auschwitz" for a book report due for a class I am taking on the Holocaust, but it is a book that will resonate with me long after this class is over. Filip Muller's account of life, and death, in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp, where over a million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, is engaging from the very outset, detailing the function of the Extermination Camp, while also showing the hell that Muller and other prisoners like him lived in. Most moving is his account of the extermination of the family camp, all of whom died bravely.
"Eyewitness Auschwitz" is riveting storytelling that will keep you engaged from the beginning to the end. It is a very important book that should be made required reading in all High School and College History classes. Grade: A+

Eyewitness Auschwitz is the story of the author's three year journey through the hell that was the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Although not a literary masterpiece, Eyewitness provides us with an invaluable and in depth look at what life and death were like in the horrific world that was Auschwitz. How someone was able to survive under these conditions for three years and keep their sanity is a wonder. The only characters missing in the book were Dante and the Devil, both of whom surely would have felt right at home in this living hell. This is a book that must be read by all.

I first read this book in the spring of 1982 when I was 16. I was overwhelmed by the content and the author's description of the gas chambers at Auswitz, as well as the fine detail of the burning pits that were constructed to minimize fuel consumption as well as maximize the diposal of murdered persons. Later when I was 30 I read it again and wept for mr Muller and all those who did suffer so within the dark machinery of the SS. What I found fascinating was that the author became numb to the Horrors around him with the passage of time. This too happened to me while I read his words. He portrayed what he saw in a very vivid manner. I recommend this personal narrative very highly to those who wish to get a first hand look into the Holocaust.

[...] This book is an essential eyewitness view of life as a sonderkommando, and how the Nazi establishment in Auschwitz killed three and & half million people, all in a historically unprecidented short period of time. Muller describes the "shower" facade, and the mechanics of destroying that many bodies.

David Irving, the notorious holocaust denier, contends that the Nazis could not have killed eleven million, simply because of the amount of coke/charcoal needed to burn that many bodies. How did that happen in Auschwitz? Muller describes how Master Sergeant Otto Moll (who was in charge of the gas chambers) had the prisoners build large pits to burn an anticipated influx of Hungarians. These pits included brick "channels," which funneled the melted body fat from the fire into large cauldrens. The melted fat was then dumped back on top of the bodies, to encourage the fire & save on coal, fuel oil, and fire wood.

There are dozens--if not hundreds--of books about Auschwitz. Many are better written than "Eyewitness." Just off the top of my head, Borowski's collection of short stories "This Way for the Gas, Ladies & Gentlemen," Wiesel's "Night," Levi's "Survival"--they have better writing. But none of those books grasp the enormity of the sonderkommando experience, because none of those three were in the sonderkommandos like Muller. Similarly, Steiner's "Treblinka" is a more complete picture of the origin and evolution of the gas chambers. But Muller writes what he saw--what he lived--in a way that is unbearably moving. If you want to get a picture of Auschwitz, read this book--and Sara Nomberg-Przuytyk's "Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land."

All that said--let me get down from my high horse. Simply because a book is a holocaust memoir does not automatically make the book worth reading. For example, I found Frister's "The Cap: The Price of a Life" to be completely unreadable. I enjoyed it, but many people will also not care for Glazar's "Trap with a Green Fence: Survival in Treblinka." In fact (taking a deep breath & cringing a little) aside from "Night," I am not wild about Wiesel. I think for historical analysis, Simon Wiesenthal is more informative, and from a moral philosophy perspective, nothing Wiesel wrote can touch Primo Levi's "The Drowned & the Saved."

This is a long way of my saying that while this book is not Shakespeare in its language, it is very readable--and very moving. This book is an important part of the history of the 20th century, and not one that can be replaced....even by a book as good as "Survival in Auschwitz."

While Muller's account is an emotional portrayal of the horrors of Auschwitz, his excessive use of adjectives and repetitive narration makes his account somewhat difficult to get through. He talks us through many of the horrid details of the selections and gassings, but his redundancy ends up slightly immuning you to the plight of the victims. I liken this immunity to that which much of the world has acquired toward violence. The one excellent aspect of this book is the inside look into the actions of the Sonderkammando squad and the events of the uprising that led to the burning of crematiorium 4.

A much better written memoir is Primo Levi's "Survival in Auschwitz," a truly chilling account of the Auschwitz experience. Every word carries a weight that drives home the inhumanity of the concentration/death camps without overdoing it.

First, print out the previous comment by the reviewer from Berlin and buy the book. When you receive the book, read the review and then read the first chapter, then read the review again and read the second chapter, etc. What a chilling contrast.

This book and the lies it inherits is just another example of those books which are actually a big help for holocaust deniers because it's so stacked with obvious lies and historic inaccuracies that only the historically illiterate can take this fairy tale serious and the revisionist historians again have another example of a wanna-be eyewitness who actually is a professional liar and supports their absurd thesis that there were no gas chambers at all.

Many books about Auschwitz are filled with dry narrations. It seems like people are afraid to talk about the subject, like they have the need to be politically correct or not to hurt anyone. I understand why but if you decide to write a book about subject do a good job regardless of the circumstances. This book relates the facts and everyday life in the camp the way it was. An author shares his feelings and thoughts. He describes behaviors (sometimes worse than barbaric) and survival instinct in the purest basic form. I liked this book. It is written well and it keeps reader at full attention. Chapters and story line flows smoothly. It's a book that describes harsh reality of the concentration camp that I wish no one every would have to go through again. If you liked this book there is also a similar one written by Dr. Perl called "I was a doctor in Auschwitz". Dr. Perl was a woman that went through the same thing as Muller but in the female part of the camp.