Review by Choice Review
There is no dearth of concentration and death camp memoirs. However, each one tells a story that is unique, adding to the kaleidoscope of survivors' experience and horrors. Benjamin Jacobs (formerly Berek Jakubowicz) traces his tortuous road from his arrest as a Polish Jew in 1941 and subsequent imprisonment at various camps (including Auschwitz and Buchenwald) to a death march in the spring 1945, which ended near L"ubeck and incarceration on Cap Arcona, a German ocean liner. When liberation seemed so near, the bombing of several prison ships by the Royal Air Force caused the tragic drowning of most of the imprisoned. Jacobs was among the fewer than 1,500 people who were saved. What enabled him to survive in the camps earlier was his skill in dentistry, which he had learned as a student before the war. He treated the teeth of his fellow inmates as well as those of several SS officers. His narrative holds the reader's attention; it is written almost like a novel. Based exclusively on retrospective memory, the account is authentic, although some readers might wonder about several of the remarkable coincidences Jacob reports. Suitable for college and public libraries. G. P. Blum; University of the Pacific
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Benjamin Jacobs was a Jewish dental student who in 1941 was deported from the Polish village of Dobra--along with 166 other Jewish men, including his father--to a Nazi labor camp. Jacobs was 22, and what followed was four years of horror in two labor camps and in Auschwitz, where his father died and his brother survived. (His mother and sister were murdered in Chelmno.) The author survived because of his elementary dental skills; he worked on the teeth of inmates and later on those of 55 officers. In simple, straightforward prose, Jacobs reveals the relentless and senseless brutality of concentration camp existence and--finally--the miracle of survival. Jacobs' book is another solid addition to the ever-growing body of Holocaust literature. ~--George Cohen
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Jacobs, a Polish Jew, was a first-year dental student before he spent five years in Nazi extermination camps, including Auschwitz. Here, he vividly recalls that time, during which his elementary professional skills enabled him to practice primitive dentistry on inmates and SS officers alike, as well as to obey orders to extract gold teeth from corpses after gassing. Jacobs's understated tone conveys all the more forcefully the daily horror of camp life: bitter cold, near starvation, the smell of burning human flesh. Worst of all, notes the author, born Berek Jakubowicz, Auschwitz became a perverted ``way of life'' as he tried to survive it. Jacobs, who now practices dentistry in Boston, is a compelling witness. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
