Book review-"Life in the Death's Empire" by Oliver Lustig

"Not long ago, I was living my life monotonously, without thinking what my life has in store for me. Everything looked simple to me, because I had everything that I wanted without fighting for my possessions, for liberty or even for life. But I was frightened when, one day, I found out about the massacre that took place around 1940-1945.
In the extermination camps from Auschwitz hundred of thousands of innocent Jews were killed, only because of Nazi’s wish to create a “pure race” !
Since this subject seemed interesting to me, I went at the library and I borrowed a book about Holocaust, “Life in The Death’s Empire”, by the Romanian writer Oliver Lustig, born Haftering.
He wrote this book in the memory of his mother, Iolanda, killed at Auschwitz, of his father, Edmund, killed at Maulhousen, of his twin brothers, Cornel and Cornelia, killed in the gas chambers from Birkenau- Auschwitz, when they just reached the age of 14, and of his little brother, Valentin, aged only 8.
He also says that he dedicated this book “to all those at whose fight and death I was eye witness in Birkenau – Auschwitz, Kaufering no.4, Kaufering no. 9 and Landsberg camps “, also to “all the deported persons and antifascists fighters who were taken in the Nazi concentration - camps that studded Europe - , and who died convinced that the fascism will be defeated, that the life will win over death “
This way, I found out things at which I have never thought, things that my outlook refuses to perceive. What fault had those people that they were born Jews? Or… who gave the fascists the right to end the life of so many people? Did they really have no mercy? These are questions at which no one can answer.
After the Jews were taken from their homes, they were transported to camps in ware wagons, 60 people in each one, without water and food, so that not many Jews arrived alive at destination.
Once they arrived, the ones able to work were separated from the others and the old ones, the children, the invalids and the ones weakened because of the long travel, were taken directly to the gas chambers.
To avoid the panic that would have been made because of the separation of the families, the soldiers told the Jews that they were separated because they had to go much more and they didn’t have vehicles available for everybody, so that the ones still in power had to walk. These people went calm, not knowing that that was the last time when they saw their old parents.
Those who were chosen for work were undressed and they were given other used and signed clothes. In the camps they were taken, they didn’t have enough space not even to move, they slept in barracks, one next to the other, so that they couldn’t even stretch their legs. They were given food only in the evening, a slice of bread each.
They were working from the early morning till evening, and those who fainted or collapsed because of being tired, were shot. When they stopped working, they couldn’t even think of what was waiting for them. They lost trust, hope and they were willing to die faster in order to get rid of the torture.
Every time, at the evening control, the thinner ones were chosen and taken to the crematory.
So that’s how days, months, even years passed, while thousands of people died, until the fascism was defeated.
When the Nazi felt threatened, they started to wipe off their tracks, they burnt to the ground the crematories and fled.
Before that, they poisoned those who remained alive. Only a few survived from the hundreds of Jews and other populations.
Reading this book, I realized that even a second can be fatal, when you don’t do anything to prevent this kind of events. I learnt to cherish more every second of my life and everything I have got. In my opinion, it is important to know these things to avoid a replay of history and to build our future on moral values and on tolerance.
We are fortunate that some of those people who experienced Auschwitz are still alive, because in this way we can find out about it directly from the source, and together we can learn the most important lesson History has ever taught human kind: that the greatest evils are prejudice, discrimination and intolerance.
We should be more confident, we should not let ourselves influenced by doctrines and we have to choose our leaders carefully.
As long as we know about our past and we support each other, no one will be able to take control over our lives."



Alina Valentina Cazan, Class 9F2