The Auschwitz Kommandant: A Daughter's Search for the Father She Never Knew

by Barbara U. Cherish, Melissa Mïller (Foreword by)

Overview

The true story of a girl's upbringing as the daughter of the commandant of Auschwitz

Barbara Cherish's upbringing in Nazi-occupied Poland was one of relative wealth and comfort—but her father's senior position in the Nazi Party meant that she and her brothers and sisters lived on a knife edge. In 1943 he became commandant of perhaps the most infamous of all the concentration camps: Auschwitz. The author tells her father's story with clarity and without judgment, detailing his relationship with his family and his unceasing love for his mistress, as well as the very separate life he led as a senior officer of the SS. Captured by the U. S. Army at the end of the war, he was held at Dachau and Nuremberg before being extradited to Poland. He was tried in the "Auschwitz Trial" at Krakow, found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and executed in January 1948. A unique insider's view of the dark heart of the Third Reich, it is also a heartbreaking tale of a family torn apart that will open the eyes of even the most well-read historian.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780752457550
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	04/01/2011
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Barbara Cherish lives near San Diego, California.

Table of Contents

Foreword Melissa Müller 7

Preface 9

Prologue: The Photograph 10

Chapter 1 Party Member # 932766 & Family Man 19

Chapter 2 Oranienburg 32

Chapter 3 The Last Embrace 41

Chapter 4 Auschwitz 56

Chapter 5 Austria 93

Chapter 6 One Son Captured, Another Born 104

Chapter 7 Betrayed and Banished as Refugees 122

Chapter 8 Berchtesgaden 128

Chapter 9 Leaving 'The Other Child' Behind 145

Chapter 10 Journals of a Prisoner 166

Chapter 11 The Trial 192

Chapter 12 A New Family, A New Identity 216

Epilogue: The Journey Home 225

The Journey Continues 245

Source Note of Documentation 252

Bibliography 255

Acknowledgements 257

Index 260

Editorial Reviews

"Unbearably moving."  —Guardian

From the Publisher