Wiernik was a Jew who was sent to the Treblinka death camp and managed to stay alive by being valuable as a carpenter. He provides great insight into the happenings and goings on inside the camp and talks about the horrific ways the Jews were treated.
He talks about how the Jews were killed immediately if they became sick, and the only Jews not killed were those who were put to work dragging corpses from the gas chamber to the trenches. After awhile, the bodies were getting to hard to dispose of. This led the Germans to engineer huge pyres and began digging up the bodies in the trenches so they could be cremated and thrown onto the fires. He describes in great detail the horror and stench associated with digging up the bodies and what it looks like to watch corpses burn. He even noted that women burn better than men and that pregnant women's belly would pop open and you could see the baby burning inside. Absolutely awful!!!
While working at the camp, Wiernik describes the relationship between the Hungarian guards and the Germans. The Hungarians are described as virtual retards who drank in excess. The Hungarians often stole anything they could and would be at odds with the Germans over it. The Jews were caught in the middle. If they didn't do what the Hungarians wanted, they were killed, however, if they were caught stealing for the Hungarians by the Germans, they would be killed too.
Eventually, Wiernik and the other surviving workers were able to plan an escape whereby he was able to make it 5 miles and into the woods.
Hey we have this class together also! Even though this story was really sad, I really liked his style of writing. I felt that even though he tried to write an accurate detailed history without showing his own emotion, a WHOLE lot of emotion carried through anyways. Good luck in all your classes! I also have 25 books this semester, so apparently it's possible! :-)
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