The Liberation of the Camps: The End of the Holocaust and Its Aftermath by Dan Stone

The Liberation of the Camps: The End of the Holocaust and Its Aftermath by Dan Stone, was received from the publisher in exchange for this review. I tend to read a lot of Nazi/Jewish Death Camps books. It has gotten to where I approach each one with the question of “What makes this one different than the last one I read?” To answer that, this book is directed at things I had never really thought about such as the camps were “way stations” for many prisoners. A place to be while awaiting transport to where they were useful to the Nazis as forced labor. Further, many of the prisoners were political prisoners and common criminals, i.e Germans, Poles, Soviets, as well as the well known Jewish population. These prisoners, who were often transported via “death marches,” were the forced labor for the Nazi war machine and were worked to death. The book also focuses on after the war, where-in a liberated prisoner may have no family left and his/her house may have been squatted in or demolished, so they were stuck, possibly in the same renamed camp as a Displaced Person with no money, no job and no job possibilities, and most likely malnourished, trying to get their body back in shape. Written by a professor, I believe, at times the book was too academic for me and I found myself skimming, though I did learn a lot and the book broadened my thoughts on the topic. Recommended for those wanting to learn more about the topic, be it in school or just wanting to broaden their thoughts out of the liberal thought processes the higher education places are becoming.

4 Stars