The scene is Treblinka; the character is Franz Stangl. The theme is the mass extermination of men, women and children. As commandant of Treblinka, Stangl was imprisoned for life. Gitta Sereny covered the trial on behalf of a London newspaper. Fascinated by the prisoner, she decided to make an effort to get to know him better, to delineate him more deeply... For seventy hours he answered questions. A conscientious journalist, Sereny checked his answers and statements by extending the scope of her enquiry: she interrogated dozens of men and women from all over who had had the slightest contact with the man who had been monarch of the kingdom of the dead. She interviewed his wife, his children, his friends, his judges, his accomplices, his victims - that is, the rare victims who had survived. The result is a report - a portrait? - that from the first pages opens out onto an abyss in which one cannot breath, or move. It is not the murder in Stangl that terrifies us - it is the human being. For that matter 'terrify' many not be the right word. Most often one is sick to one's soul. Yes, that is the word needed, a word from Sartre - one os gripped by a profound existential nausea" - Elie Wiesel

Stalin's reign of terror in the Soviet Union has been called 'the other Holocaust'. During the Stalin years, it is thought that more innocent men, women and children perished than in Hitler's destruction of the European Jews. Many millions died in Stalin's Gulag of torture prisons and forced-labour camps, yet others survived and were freed after his death in 1953. This book is the story of the survivors. Long kept secret by Soviet repression and censorship, it is now told by renowned author and historian Stephen F. Cohen, who came to know many former Gulag inmates during his frequent trips to Moscow over a period of thirty years. Based on first-hand interviews with the victims themselves and on newly available materials, Cohen provides a powerful narrative of the survivors' post-Gulag saga, from their liberation and return to Soviet society, to their long struggle to salvage what remained of their shattered lives and to obtain justice. Spanning more than fifty years, "The Victims Return" combines individual stories with the fierce political conflicts that raged, both in society and in the Kremlin, over the victims of the terror and the people who had victimized them. This compelling book will be essential reading for anyone interested in Russian history.--Publisher's description

Presents reproductions of art works (mainly paintings but also in other media) related to the Holocaust, accompanied by explanatory texts about the Holocaust in general and the artists in particular. Pt. I (pp. 1-26), "Art in the Holocaust", presents artists who experienced the Holocaust directly; those who perished include Bertolan Gondor, who produced cartoon depictions of a Hungarian labor camp in 1944; an anonymous artist who depicted Bergen-Belsen; and Liesel Felsenthal, who kept an illustrated diary in the Gurs internment camp in 1941. Pt. II (pp. 27-45), "Historical Perspective", discusses Nazi oppression of Jewish artists and the role of art in Nazi ideology. Pt. III (pp. 47-102), "Artists' Retrospectives: Responses", presents 27 (mostly American) artists - survivors, children of survivors, and others - who express the influence of the Holocaust in various styles. Pt. IV (pp. 103-113), "Living Memorials and Educational Institutions", deals with memorializing the Holocaust in museums in the USA.