Auschwitz
Saved from certain death at Auschwitz – by playing the cello
Exploring the relationship between the cello and its player, Kate Kennedy describes how Anita Lasker-Wallfisch’s musical gift enabled her to survive not just one but two Nazi death camps
The Anne Frank story continues
Hannah Pick-Goslar, a survivor of the Holocaust and Anne’s friend in Amsterdam, movingly describes their snatched conversations in Belsen before Anne disappeared forever
Nazi on the run: The Disappearance of Josef Mengele, by Olivier Guez, reviewed
Who would have thought that someone would write a novel about Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz doctor and infamous experimenter on…
The unimaginable horrors confronting the Allies in 1945
No one had prepared the Allied soldiers, as they began their invasion of the Reich early in 1945, for what…
The concept of Evil is an evasion
A week of remembrance marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz last month had me thinking hard about…
Did Britain commit a war crime in Dresden? A conversation
A conversation between Sinclair McKay and A.N. Wilson
How did the infamous Josef Mengele escape punishment?
The atrocities of the concentration camp at Auschwitz–Birkenau are now universally known, but it is still almost beyond belief that…
The power of Sue MacGregor’s The Reunion
The return of Sue MacGregor’s long-running Radio 4 series The Reunion (produced by Eve Streeter) is a welcome reminder of…
Should the Final Solution ever be made into entertainment?
Amid the abundant cinema of Nazi atrocity, Son of Saul is exemplary. Ian Thomson explains why
The house that Alfred built
This is a book about boundaries — and relationships. At its heart is the eponymous house by the lake, which…
How anarchy was responsible for Auschwitz
In September 1939 Britain went to war against Germany, ostensibly in defence of Poland. One big secret that the British…
Frank Auerbach: frightened of heights, dogs, driving, swimming — but finding courage through painting
With a career of more than 60 years so far, Frank Auerbach is undoubtedly one of the big beasts of…
What happened to the children who survived the Holocaust?
‘I call Zelma Cacik who may be living in London,’ says the announcer, in the clipped RP accent of the…
Process of elimination: the horrors of Ravensbrück revealed
Concentration camps in Nazi Germany were originally set up in 1933 to terrorise Hitler’s political enemies; as war drew near,…
Némirovsky's love letter to the France that spurned her and killed her
By 1940 Irène Némirovsky, who had arrived in France at the age of 16 as a refugee from Kiev, had…
The Zone of Interest is grubby, creepy – and Martin Amis's best for 25 years
‘Everybody could see that this man was not a “monster”, but it was difficult indeed not to suspect that he…
When a survivor of Auschwitz asks for your story, what do you say?
What do you feel when a survivor of Auschwitz tells you their story?
Hanns and Rudolf, by Thomas Harding - review
Confronted by this lavishly endorsed book — ‘compelling’ (David Lodge), ‘gripping’(John le Carré),‘thrilling’ (Jonathan Freedland) — I felt depressed. Two…
