Children of the flames

About this book

In this remarkable, evocative narrative, the life of Auschwitz's Angel of Death is told in counterpoint to the lives of the surviving twins, who are themselves now inching into middle or old age. In stories that abound with ambiguity, anger, and redemptive hope, we encounter them first as children beginning their descent into Auschwitz by witnessing their entire families being led away to be killed. Later, we see the twins grateful for the soup and bread Mengele procured for them and reassured by his moments of seemingly genuine affection, yet terrified, always, by what he forced them to endure.

Subjects

  • atrocities
  • auschwitz (concentration camp)
  • biography
  • history
  • holocaust, jewish (1939-1945)
  • holocaust, jewish (1939-1945), personal narratives
  • human experimentation
  • human experimentation in medicine
  • human experimentation in medicine, history
  • mengele, josef, 1911-1979
  • personal narratives
  • physicians
  • physicians, biography
  • twins
  • war crimes
  • war criminals
  • world war, 1939-1945
  • world war, 1939-1945, atrocities
  • world war, 1939-1945, poland