A book about the medical conditions in Auschwitz. No more. No less. About the same content about the conditions as in Elie Wiesel’s Night, but with a clinical touch and without the personal experience. I found this book very hard to grade, hence the three stars.

"Late at night we crossed the Brenner, which we had passed in our exile twenty months before; our less tired companions celebrated with a cheerful uproar; Leonardo and I remained lost in a silence crowded with memories... how much had we lost in those twenty months? What should we find at home? How much of ourselves had been eroded, extinguished? Were we returning richer or poorer, stronger or emptier?" This is a quote in the intro which is actually from another of Primo Levi's books, The Truce.

This is a sad book but important for several reasons. First, it is a report of two people who lived in Auschwitz and lived to tell it. Most did not. Second, it is a report (co-authored by Leonardo de Benedetti) by educated men who saw the reality and were able to detail it, describe in a fairly objective way. In other words, we did not read much about their actual suffering, physically, mentally and emotionally. Third, the report is written after their rescue and after they had some time to think about what they had experienced. Both Levi, a scientist, and De Benedetti, a physician were Italian Jews and probably had the same mind-set, the same ideas about the Nazi encampment and about being prisoners. Both helped in the clinic areas, although there was little medicine and there was little they could do about the prevalent diseases and conditions. After the war they were both in the same camp, managed by the Russians. And the Russians wanted reports so they asked Levi and de Benedetti, among others, to write a report on the conditions at Auschwitz. They both returned to Turin and there wrote this report. The report was largely unread but was translated into English and published on 2006.

A stark account of the reports on Auschwitz right after its liberation by the Red Army.

** Books 223 - 2016 **

3,8 of 5 stars!

This is an comprised report that written by Dr. Leonardo de Benedetti, compiled for the Soviet Army, on medical especially hygienic and sanitary conditions in the Monowitz (Auschwitz III) concentration camp. It is horrible and make me gasp when i read every single sentences. they doesn't deserve that kind of attitude! T___T

Advices to read the authors reflections and recollections by my guide at Aushwitz, I found this savagely clinical without emotion. It must be appreciated this is a ‘report’ though, commissioned by the soviet army to understand, medically, what occurred .

The back story of the two authors was essential to appreciate this. Though I hope it would not be offensive to describe the report as ‘dry’, it is what it is, a report of poor medical conditions amongst a horrific plan.

Detailed and eye-opening!

It was a report whuch made it even more cold and chilling as it never ceases to amaze the cruelties man inflicts on his fellow human beings

This was literally a report, not a novel, but it was interesting to get a different and more objective perspective since I've become very used to reading memoirs on the same content.

Hoe één leven in het teken kan staan van een ervaring die 11 maanden (inclusief de reis terug naar huis 20 maanden) duurde is als je 'Auschwitz Report' leest goed voor te stellen.
Levi heeft indrukwekkende boeken en essays geschreven over zijn periode als gevangene in Auschwitz III. Dit rapport heeft nooit als doel gehad om een boek te worden. Het was een ooggetuigenverslag geschreven voor de Sovjets. Een soort van samenvatting van de ellende die Levi en zijn vriend hadden gezien en ervaren in Auschwitz. Het is later door de mannen gepubliceerd in een Italiaans magazine.

fuck dude

This book is the English translation of the italian original Rapporto sull'organizzazione igienico-sanitaria del campo di concentramento per ebrei di Monowitz (Auschwitz-Alta Silesia), and was written by the famous italian writer and a fellow inmate of Auschwitz for the Soviet authorities soon after the camp liberations. As the Italian title indicates, it is a report on the hygienic-sanitary conditions in the camp.