Around me, men kept on dying. I, too, felt my life grow more tenuous with each passing day. Food became scarcer. Living conditions deteriorated. Hope grew fainter.
Each morning as I lay in my bunk, so weak that a part of me wished to just stay there and let my life slip out of my body, it was Vilmos’s voice that nudged me to my feet.
L'Shana Haba'ah B'Yerushalayim, Adam.
Yes, Vilmos, I thought. Next year in Jerusalem.
Or, perhaps, Tel Aviv.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Dear reader,
Some books are born out of compulsion. When I first got the idea of writing an Adam Lapid mystery set in Auschwitz-Birkenau, I knew that I was setting myself up for a difficult task. It would have been much easier to write another novel set in 1950s Israel. Yet once the idea took root in my mind, it could not be dislodged or ignored. It demanded to be written.
Every Adam Lapid novel involves meticulous historical research. But never have I devoted more time, effort, and care than I did with The Auschwitz Detective. I watched many videos of survivors, read multiple books, consulted the websites of leading museums, and pored over historical accounts, all in order to paint an accurate picture of life in Auschwitz-Birkenau in the summer of 1944. Here is a list of recommended resources that I used if you wish to learn more on this topic.
I’m not a historian but a storyteller, so I’m sure that some small errors have infiltrated this book. For that I apologize, dear reader. It was not for lack of trying.
There are various challenges in conducting research on Auschwitz-Birkenau. First, no story of survival is identical to another. Much depends on when a person was imprisoned in Auschwitz, which kommando they worked in, who their Block-älteste and Kapo were, and myriad other circumstances, small and large.
For example, the experience of a prisoner who worked in the Kanada Kom-mando in 1943 was vastly different to that of a prisoner working in the same kom-mando in the spring and summer of 1944, when the extermination of Hungarian Jewry was taking place.
Second, some small details were difficult to uncover. For instance, it took me several weeks to learn what prisoners did with their bowls during the workday. And third, despite the abundance of academic research that has been done on Auschwitz, much remains unknown.
Still, despite these difficulties, I feel that I have succeeded in rooting this story in an accurate, realistic setting. I wanted to give you a glimpse into what life was like for a prisoner of Auschwitz—the tastes, smells, sounds, and various hardships that made up the fabric of one’s time in that horrific place. And, of course, I wanted to tell a gripping story as well.
I realize that certain parts of The Auschwitz Detective might have been difficult to read. All I can say is that I did not exaggerate anything negative. For instance, the Lagerälteste may seem like an over-the-top villain, but I read accounts of prisoner functionaries who were every bit as bad if not worse.
There are a few clarifications I wish to make regarding spelling and historical detaiclass="underline"
1. In certain books and texts, you may find the word Lagerälteste appear as Lagerältester. Both mean the same position in the camp. The same goes for Block-älteste and Blockältester.
2. In the second half of 1944, new Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz were marked with a yellow stripe above an inverted red triangle. Since The Auschwitz Detective takes place in early July 1944, Adam Lapid might have seen some prisoners marked that way. I chose to leave out this alternative marking so as not to impede the flow of the novel.
3. It is not uncommon to read references that state that prisoners’ uniforms included a jacket. I opted for the word shirt, because I believe the word jacket is misleading. For one thing, many uniform jackets were shaped like a regular work shirt, with no pockets. For another, the word jacket implies that prisoners wore a shirt underneath, which they did not.
4. Many survivors describe the horror of morning roll call, and you may be wondering why Adam and Vilmos did not have to stand in one. The reason is that morning roll call was abolished in early 1944, in an effort by the Germans to prolong the prisoners’ workday.
5. If you were wondering how it was possible for characters such as Jakob, Hendrik, Stefan, Aliz, Vilmos, and Adam to speak German, despite not having lived in Germany or Austria, you should know that the German language was quite common in many countries outside the boundaries of the Third Reich. Many Jews in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands, as well as other countries, were fluent in it. This gave them a great advantage in Auschwitz. Prisoners who did not speak German, such as most Greek Jews, suffered for it.
6. You may have encountered testimonies by survivors who describe SS personnel dumping pellets of Zyklon B through openings in the roofs of the gas chambers. This was done in the two gas chambers to the south of Kanada. In the two to the north, Zyklon B pellets were poured through small windows
In no other death camp did more people die than in Auschwitz. Current estimates state that at least 1.1 million people died there, ninety percent of them Jews. Much of the killing was done in just under two months, between May and July 1944.
In that period, over 400,000 Hungarian Jews arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The vast majority were gassed on arrival. Survivors say that the crematoriums worked around the clock to dispose of the bodies, and that fire pits were employed to deal with the overflow. The amount of loot in Kanada was far greater than the capacity of the warehouses.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was a factory of death, and during those two months in 1944, the machinery of murder worked at its most efficient level. It says a lot about the priorities of Nazi Germany that even as it was losing the war on two fronts, it dedicated considerable resources to murdering as many Jews as possible.
It was a terrible time. One which we must learn from. One which we must make sure is never repeated.
Dear reader, if you enjoyed reading The Auschwitz Detective, please take a moment to review it on whatever website you use to buy or review books. It doesn’t need to be long. A couple of sentences should suffice. Your review is very important. Not only will it help the book reach more readers, it will also motivate me to continue writing, since I’ll know my words have reached a wonderful person like you.
If The Auschwitz Detective is the first Adam Lapid novel you’ve read, I invite you the read the other novels starting with book 1, Ten Years Gone.
I have already begun working on the next Adam Lapid mystery, which will also be set in Israel. Please join my readers’ club to be informed when it is published. You’ll also receive a free short story and the occasional email regarding news, sales, and other information.
I also invite you to join my readers’ Facebook group at Facebook.com/JonathanDunskyBooks and connect with other readers of my books.
If you wish to contact me, please write to Jonathan@JonathanDunsky.com, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
For those of you who are members in a book club, I’ve compiled a list of questions that you can use for a discussion. You can find them on the next page.
Finally, I’d like to say a big thank you to Jeannie Blau, Otilia Rossetti, and David Lee for their kind and wonderful assistance in the editing process of this novel.
That’s it for me, dear reader. I hope to see you again in another book.
Yours,
Jonathan Dunsky
September 2020
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What feelings did The Auschwitz Detective evoke in you?
2. Did reading this novel give you a better sense of what life was like for Auschwitz prisoners? What new things did you learn about their daily lives?