Scheisshaus Luck: Surviving the Unspeakable in Auschwitz and Dora - Hardcover

Berg, Pierre

4.13

1,660 ratings by Goodreads

9780814412992: Scheisshaus Luck: Surviving the Unspeakable in Auschwitz and Dora

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814412998 ISBN 13: 9780814412992

Publisher: Amacom, 2008

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In 1943, eighteen year old Pierre Berg picked the wrong time to visit a friend's house -- at the same time as the Gestapo. He was thrown into the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. But through a mixture of savvy and chance, he managed to survive...and ultimately got out alive. "As far as I'm concerned," says Berg, "it was all shithouse luck, which is to say -- inelegantly -- that I kept landing on the right side of the randomness of life." Such begins the first memoir of a French gentile Holocaust survivor published in the U.S. Originally penned shortly after the war when memories were still fresh, Scheisshaus Luck recounts Berg's constant struggle in the camps, escaping death countless times while enduring inhumane conditions, exhaustive labor, and near starvation. The book takes readers through Berg's time in Auschwitz, his hair's breadth avoidance of Allied bombing raids, his harrowing "death march" out of Auschwitz to Dora, a slave labor camp (only to be placed in another forced labor camp manufacturing the Nazis' V1 & V2 rockets), and his eventual daring escape in the middle of a pitched battle between Nazi and Red Army forces. Utterly frank and tinged with irony, irreverence, and gallows humor, Scheisshaus Luck ranks in importance among the work of fellow survivors Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi. As we quickly approach the day when there will be no living eyewitnesses to the Nazi's "Final Solution," Berg's memoir stands as a searing reminder of how the Holocaust affected us all.

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Review:

"[A] harrowing story....A worthy supplement to the reports of Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel." "Kirkus Reviews" "His memoir is one of the few available in English by a gentile inmate of Auschwitz and an even rarer chronicle of experiences at the Dora plant. His insight into the workings of the Auschwitz black-market system and the relationship of the Kapos (camp trustees) to political and religious prisoners helps illuminate the corrupting effect of Nazi brutality on prisoners. Berg's personal journey--from the emotional upheaval of being caught in a German sweep in Nice to the gradual deadening of his emotions as he struggled to survive among the worst concentration camps--is compelling reading.... Highly recommended." "Library Journal" "this is a fascinating story of survival against the worst of odds." --"JT News" "this is a fascinating story of survival against the worst of odds." --JT News His memoir is one of the few available in English by a gentile inmate of Auschwitz and an even rarer chronicle of experiences at the Dora plant. His insight into the workings of the Auschwitz black-market system and the relationship of the Kapos (camp trustees) to political and religious prisoners helps illuminate the corrupting effect of Nazi brutality on prisoners. Berg's personal journey--from the emotional upheaval of being caught in a German sweep in Nice to the gradual deadening of his emotions as he struggled to survive among the worst concentration camps--is compelling reading.... Highly recommended." Library Journal "[A] harrowing story....A worthy supplement to the reports of Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel." Kirkus Reviews "[A] harrowing story....A worthy supplement to the reports of Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel." "Kirkus Reviews" "[A] harrowing story....A worthy supplement to the reports of Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel." "Kirkus Reviews"

About the Author:

Pierre Berg was held prisoner in four different concentration camps, from January 1944 until May 1945. He emigrated to the U.S. following World War II. Now retired after forty years as a machinist in the movie industry, he keeps himself busy ushering at L.A. playhouses.

Brian Brock is a freelance writer.

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