Inside the Gas Chambers: Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz

Written by Shlomo Venezia

Narrated by Peter Noble

Slomo Venezia was born into a poor Jewish-Italian community living in Thessaloniki, Greece. At first, the occupying Italians protected his family; but when the Germans invaded, the Venezias were deported to Auschwitz. His mother and sisters disappeared on arrival, and he learned, at first with disbelief, that they had almost certainly been gassed. Given the chance to earn a little extra bread, he agreed to become a 'Sonderkommando', without realizing what this entailed. He soon found himself a member of the 'special unit' responsible for removing the corpses from the gas chambers and burning their bodies.



Dispassionately, he details the grim round of daily tasks, evokes the terror inspired by the man in charge of the crematoria, 'Angel of Death' Otto Moll, and recounts the attempts made by some of the prisoners to escape, including the revolt of October 1944.



It is usual to imagine that none of those who went into the gas chambers at Auschwitz ever emerged to tell their tale—but, as a member of a 'Sonderkommando', Shlomo Venezia was given this horrific privilege. He knew that, having witnessed the unspeakable, he in turn would probably be eliminated by the SS in case he ever told his tale. He survived: this is his story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Nov 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9798765023129

Reviews for Inside the Gas Chambers

[Ronna M Partin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sad recollections of a horrific event in history. This man has seen hell from the front gate.

[formerenglishteacher · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I taught high school English for 40 years, and during that time, I taught The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank many times. During that unit I brought many other works to the kids to complement Frank’s diary, including the important book Night by Elie Wiesel. None of those works were as moving as Inside the Gas Chambers by Shlomo Venenzia was. Venenzia’s book is a first hand account of his life in the concentration camp as a Sonderkommando carrying out unspeakable duties of the Nazis as they stood watch over him with a gun to his head. He had no choice. Although he never had to actually murder a fellow Jew, he did have to prepare many of them for death in the chambers and then dispose of their bodies once the job had been done. We should be grateful to Venenzia and all of the survivors of the Nazi holocaust for their willingness to preserve these stories and bring them to us for decade after decade. Like the two previous books, Inside the Gas Chambers is an important part of history and should be read by everyone who claims to want to know truly what happened during that awful period in history.

[tjerring · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a hideous account of atrocities in a KZ camp during WW2
I had to read it in small portions - not my normal reading method but this is not an easy book. Important though for future generations as wittneses and bystanders slowly die off