A unique and haunting first-person Holocaust account by Zalmen Gradowski, a Sonderkommando prisoner killed in Auschwitz, fills a significant gap in history. On October 7, 1944, a group of Jewish prisoners rebelled against their Nazi captors in a desperate uprising that ended by day’s end, resulting in the deaths of over four hundred prisoners. This work presents the first complete English translation and critical edition of Gradowski’s powerful account, originally written in Yiddish and buried near Crematorium III. As a member of the Sonderkommando, Gradowski faced the unimaginable task of guiding Jewish deportees into gas chambers, removing their bodies, and erasing all evidence of their murders. Despite the horror of their assignment, many Sonderkommandos resisted, engaging in both planning uprisings and documenting their experiences. Gradowski did both, contributing to the rebellion and chronicling his harrowing experiences. His 120 scrawled notebook pages vividly depict the Holocaust's brutality, the assassination of Czech Jews, the bonds among men forced into complicity, and the heartbreaking separation from families, including his own. Amidst daily atrocities, his writing emerges as unexpectedly literary and lyrical. Though the rebellion was crushed and Gradowski was killed, his testimony endures, offering a voice for millions silenced during this dark chapter of history.
