Description
Book SynopsisLooks at the concentration camp from the inside as a laboratory of cruelty and a system of absolute power built on extreme violence, starvation, "terror labor," and the business-like extermination of human beings. Based on historical documents and the reports of survivors, this book details how the resistance of prisoners was broken down.
Trade Review"[Sofsky] shows the structure of the concentration camp as a complex place of modern civilization. What he has achieved will take your breath away... He has written a book which will fundamentally enrich our knowledge of human nature, the organization of power, and the execution of terror."--Der Spiegel "A work of impeccable scholarship, a definitive history of what has come to epitomize the ultimate evil."--Booklist "[Sofsky] manages to characterize a piece of social reality that functioned according to special laws and that can only become apparent from an internal description... This book will shortly take its place among the indispensable standard works [in the field]."--Die Zeit "... Sofsky's vast and painstaking research [produces an] admirable and horrifying book."--Publishers Weekly "A thorough study of the harrowing dynamics of terror, violence, and absolute power in the Nazi concentration camps... impeccably researched ... A detailed, rigorous sociological analysis of the incomprehensible."--Kirkus Reviews "Sofsky patiently shows how virtually everything in the camps, from their physical layout to the use of time to the categorization of prisoners, was a way of exercising and consolidating absolute power over an increasingly dehumanized prisoner population. An important study."--Library Journal "This is a work of impeccable scholarship, a definitive history of what has come to epitomize the ultimate evil."--Booklist "[A] brilliant book... Sofsky... takes the sheer physical reality of the camps as a given and asks how they functioned. It is, he implies, insufficient just to document the existence of evil. We also have an obligation... to understand the small details and everyday structure of its dynamics."--Alan Wolfe, Commonweal "In his important study of the hierarchy of the concentration camp, Wolfgang Sofsky shows how power in the camps was based on seniority, politics, and race."--The New York Review of Books "A cool and systematic exposition of many important features of the camp experience... The great strengths of his book are its analytical rigour and elegant structure, and the skillful use of both original sources and survivor testimonies."--Michael Burleigh, The Times Literary Supplement "What Sofsky tells us about human behavior in extreme situations is profoundly disturbing, and his book should be read by anyone who wishes to gain a deeper understanding not only of Nazi terror, but also of the dark potential of modern society."--Omer Bartov, The New Republic "This is an extraordinary and brilliantly written book... Brilliant sociology that testifies to the endurance of the human spirit."--Sociology (UK) "What [Sofsky] has achieved will take your breath away... He has written a book that will fundamentally enrich our knowledge of human nature, the organization of power, and the execution of terror."--Der Spiegel
Table of ContentsList of Tables and FiguresAcknowledgmentsPt. IIntroduction11Entry32Absolute Power163On the History of the Concentration Camps28Pt. IISpace and Time454Zones and Camp Plans475Boundary and Gate556The Block657Camp Time738Prisoner's Time82Pt. IIISocial Structures959The SS Personnel9710Classes and Classifications11711Self-Management and the Gradation of Power13012The Aristocracy14513Mass, Exchange, Dissociation153Pt. IVWork16514Work and Slavery16715The Beneficiaries17316Work Situations185Pt. VViolence and Death19717The Muselmann19918Epidemics20619Terror Punishment21420Violent Excesses22321Selection24122The Death Factory259Epilogue276Selected Glossary and Abbreviations283Abbreviations Used in Notes and Bibliography289Notes291Bibliography343
