I recently stumbled across an article about Solahütte, the holiday camp for Auschwitz guards. I've read quite a lot of WW2 history so I was… not 100% shocked but still pretty taken aback by it.
I'd love to read more about the day-to-day life of concentration camp guards. I mean, I know some of the stuff that they did as part of their jobs (meeting trains, sorting prisoners, escorting them to the gas chambers, overseeing forced labour) but is there a book out there about stuff like where they slept, what they ate, what they did for fun, and this weird holiday camp?
One of my favourite history authors is Ben MacIntyre. I love the way he creates a narrative in his books that feels kind of like scenes in a novel – as opposed to a recitation of facts and statistics and abstract speculation about causes. I also love diaries and memoirs for the same reason – the feeling that you're getting in touch with real individuals.
To be honest, I have no idea if this kind of book is actually out there. I don't want to start googling in case I come across some weird Nazi apologist stuff. I just want to find out more about the people involved in this absolutely mind-blowing niche of history.
ETA: A few years ago I read The Work I Did: A Memoir of the Secretary to Goebbels by Brunhilde Pomsel. It was… on the one hand DEEPLY uncomfortable. On the other hand very mind-opening. I think that's the chasm I'm trying to bridge here.
by Napoleon2727
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For a giant overview: KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps by Nikolaus Wachsmann. It will answer most of those questions.
For more specific studies: Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience by Gitta Sereny. About Franz Stangl who was part of the T4 program (extermination of handicapped), and part of the administration at both Treblinka and Auschwitz for a time. This is more on the death camp side tho
*”The Good Old Days”: The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders* by Ernst Klee
A collection of statements, letters, diaries, photos by perpetrators and witnesses. It’s horrifying but so revealing.