Kish Mahoney Holocaust Literature
The World Must Know is a powerful true account of the Holocaust, through the writings of Michael Berenbaum, on behalf of the
National Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. This book is packed full of first hand stories by Holocaust survivors with vivid
photographic accounts of Holocaust history. The majority of the information presented within the book was new to me and
disturbing to the soul. There was plenty of senseless and violent inhumanity that was presented within this book, and I found
the lack of the United States aide to the prisoners early on to be appalling.
The United States knew of the plan to annihilate the Jews in Europe for more than 17 months before we did anything to aid the
millions of concentration camp prisoners despite detailed information that was issued to the government regarding their
extermination. According to Berenbaum, “the State Department withheld information from the American Jewish Congress, and
eventually shut down the communication channel, stating that the United States was uninterested in information concerning
the Jews “ (164). It was not until Roosevelt was backed into a corner and his political re-election threatened that he finally sent
military aide. I realize now that winning the war was viewed as more important in saving the Jews than the humanitarian
relief in the eyes of our government. I am disappointed that we did not send military assistance sooner in hopes that many lives
may have been spared.
For this reason I have re-focused this review to the inhumane way that prisoners were taken, dehumanized, and killed at
Auschwitz. It is hard to believe that the Jews were transported by cattle cars, selected on arrival as to who would die and who
would be able to live for slave labor, stripped naked of all their belongings, heads shaved, and thousands at a time were crammed
into the gas chambers and murdered. According to Berenbaum, warehouses stored the belongings of all the lost lives such as gold and silver teeth that were extracted from the dead bodies, clothes of all sizes, tooth and hair brushes, razors, eye glasses, shoes, hair, and much more (145-152).
Why would anyone want to keep the belongings of those they murdered? I don't believe that any amount of money is worth
selling your soul.
After reading this book I realized how little I knew of the details of the Holocaust other than it was a horrific episode in history. It
is unfathomable to even attempt to understand what it would have been like to walk a mile in any one of the prisoners shoes and
it is appalling that there are people in this world that are so evil. Of all the things I have read during my college years, this book
has by far touched and educated me the most in history. I hope that we have all (Including our government) learned
something from this horrible time in history.
References:
Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know. 2nd edition. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press, 2006. 163-166,
and 128-152. Print.
National Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. This book is packed full of first hand stories by Holocaust survivors with vivid
photographic accounts of Holocaust history. The majority of the information presented within the book was new to me and
disturbing to the soul. There was plenty of senseless and violent inhumanity that was presented within this book, and I found
the lack of the United States aide to the prisoners early on to be appalling.
The United States knew of the plan to annihilate the Jews in Europe for more than 17 months before we did anything to aid the
millions of concentration camp prisoners despite detailed information that was issued to the government regarding their
extermination. According to Berenbaum, “the State Department withheld information from the American Jewish Congress, and
eventually shut down the communication channel, stating that the United States was uninterested in information concerning
the Jews “ (164). It was not until Roosevelt was backed into a corner and his political re-election threatened that he finally sent
military aide. I realize now that winning the war was viewed as more important in saving the Jews than the humanitarian
relief in the eyes of our government. I am disappointed that we did not send military assistance sooner in hopes that many lives
may have been spared.
For this reason I have re-focused this review to the inhumane way that prisoners were taken, dehumanized, and killed at
Auschwitz. It is hard to believe that the Jews were transported by cattle cars, selected on arrival as to who would die and who
would be able to live for slave labor, stripped naked of all their belongings, heads shaved, and thousands at a time were crammed
into the gas chambers and murdered. According to Berenbaum, warehouses stored the belongings of all the lost lives such as gold and silver teeth that were extracted from the dead bodies, clothes of all sizes, tooth and hair brushes, razors, eye glasses, shoes, hair, and much more (145-152).
Why would anyone want to keep the belongings of those they murdered? I don't believe that any amount of money is worth
selling your soul.
After reading this book I realized how little I knew of the details of the Holocaust other than it was a horrific episode in history. It
is unfathomable to even attempt to understand what it would have been like to walk a mile in any one of the prisoners shoes and
it is appalling that there are people in this world that are so evil. Of all the things I have read during my college years, this book
has by far touched and educated me the most in history. I hope that we have all (Including our government) learned
something from this horrible time in history.
References:
Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know. 2nd edition. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press, 2006. 163-166,
and 128-152. Print.
