
Cold Crematorium
Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz
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Narrated by:
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Laurence Dobiesz
About this listen
New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2024
"Cold Crematorium is an indispensable work of literature, and a historical document of unsurpassed importance. It should be required reading." —Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything Is Illuminated
The first English language edition of a lost memoir by a Holocaust survivor, offering a shocking and deeply moving perspective on life within the camps—with a foreword by Jonathan Freedland.
József Debreczeni, a prolific Hungarian-language journalist and poet, arrived in Auschwitz in 1944; had he been selected to go “left,” his life expectancy would have been approximately forty-five minutes. One of the “lucky” ones, he was sent to the “right,” which led to twelve horrifying months of incarceration and slave labor in a series of camps, ending in the “Cold Crematorium”—the so-called hospital of the forced labor camp Dörnhau, where prisoners too weak to work awaited execution. But as Soviet and Allied troops closed in on the camps, local Nazi commanders—anxious about the possible consequences of outright murder—decided to leave the remaining prisoners to die in droves rather than sending them directly to the gas chambers.
Debreczeni recorded his experiences in Cold Crematorium, one of the harshest, most merciless indictments of Nazism ever written. This haunting memoir, rendered in the precise and unsentimental style of an accomplished journalist, is an eyewitness account of incomparable literary quality. The subject matter is intrinsically tragic, yet the author’s evocative prose, sometimes using irony, sarcasm, and even acerbic humor, compels the reader to imagine human beings in circumstances impossible to comprehend intellectually.
First published in Hungarian in 1950, it was never translated into a world language due to McCarthyism, Cold War hostilities and antisemitism. More than 70 years later, this masterpiece that was nearly lost to time will be available in 15 languages, finally taking its rightful place among the greatest works of Holocaust literature.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
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Critic reviews
"Superb...an unforgettable testimonial to the terror of the Holocaust and the will to endure."—Kirkus (starred)
"József Debreczeni was a journalist and a poet and he brings the skills of both to this remarkable work. Cold Crematorium will awe you with the acuity of its observations and the precision and beauty of its language. It should be read by everyone wishing to understand the cruelty and barbarism of the Shoah, but also the indomitable spirit of its survivors."—Ehud Barak, Former Prime Minister of Israel
"Cold Crematorium is an indispensable work of literature, and a historical document of unsurpassed importance. It should be required reading."—Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated
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- Narrated by: Jonathan Blitzer, André Santana
- Length: 18 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Everyone who makes the journey faces an impossible choice. Hundreds of thousands of people who arrive every year at the US-Mexico border travel far from their homes. For years, the majority came from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, but many more have begun their journey much farther away. Some flee persecution, others crime or hunger. They may have already been deported, but the United States remains their only hope for safety and prosperity. They will take their chances.
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How America Created its Own Border Problem
- By Amazon Customer on 04-19-24
By: Jonathan Blitzer
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Five Chimneys
- A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz
- By: Olga Lengyel
- Narrated by: Jennifer Wydra
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Olga Lengyel tells, frankly and without compromise, one of the most horrifying stories of all time. This true, documented chronicle is the intimate, day-to-day record of a beautiful woman who survived the nightmare of Auschwitz and Birchenau. This book is a necessary reminder of one of the ugliest chapters in the history of human civilization.
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Five Chimneys
- By Grannie Annie on 04-03-19
By: Olga Lengyel
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Reagan
- His Life and Legend
- By: Max Boot
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 32 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In this “monumental and impressive” biography, Max Boot, the distinguished political columnist, illuminates the untold story of Ronald Reagan, revealing the man behind the mythology. Drawing on interviews with over one hundred of the fortieth president’s aides, friends, and family members, as well as thousands of newly available documents, Boot provides “the best biography of Ronald Reagan to date” (Robert Mann).
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Has An Agenda
- By CC on 01-07-25
By: Max Boot
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The Last Jew of Treblinka
- A Survivor’s Memory, 1942-1943
- By: Chil Rajchman, Samuel Moyn - preface, Solon Beinfeld - translator, and others
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Quickly becoming a cornerstone of Holocaust historiography, this is a devastatingly stark memoir from one of the lone survivors of Treblinka. Why do some live while so many others perish? Tiny children, old men, beautiful girls - in the gas chambers of Treblinka, all are equal. The Nazis kept the fires of Treblinka burning night and day, a central cog in the wheel of the Final Solution.
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A Human Story of Selflessness and Resilience
- By David Haynes on 08-30-20
By: Chil Rajchman, and others
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The Secret Holocaust Diaries
- The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister
- By: Nonna Bannister, Denise George, Carolyn Tomlin
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gallagher
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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For half a century, a terrible secret lay hidden, locked in a trunk in an attic... photos, official documents, and scraps of a diary written by a young girl. "The time has come when I must share my life story... some facts from the past that could make a contribution, however small it may be, to the history of mankind." The Secret Holocaust Diaries is a haunting eyewitness account of Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister, a remarkable Russian-American woman who saw and survived unspeakable evils as a young girl.
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I respect Nonna
- By Susan on 12-26-11
By: Nonna Bannister, and others
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The Wide Wide Sea
- Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment? Hampton Sides’ bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration.
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Detailed story of third voyage
- By Sammi on 04-18-24
By: Hampton Sides
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Beyond the Last Path
- A Buchenwald Survivor's Story
- By: Eugene Weinstock
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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This is the story of No. 22483, who had been shipped from Belgium to Buchenwald. It records what he saw and felt during his calvary from Antwerp to the Malin distribution camp in France and from there to the extermination camp of Buchenwald. He was one of the few people who both entered a Nazi concentration camp and left again. This is his remarkable personal story that records his experiences of one of the most harrowing events in human history.
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Is it a testimony, or a work of fiction?
- By Noa on 01-01-20
By: Eugene Weinstock
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What Papa Told Me
- By: Felice Cohen
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 2 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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From this book, What Papa Told Me, you will learn about the story of Murray, a young Jewish boy from Poland whose courage and sheer will to live helped him survive eight different labor and concentration camps in the Holocaust, start a new life in America, and keep a family intact in the aftermath of his wife's suicide - one of the Nazis' last victims.
By: Felice Cohen
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Sabina
- In the Eye of the Storm
- By: Bella Kuligowska Zucker
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the memoir written by Bella Kuligowska Zucker, the only person in her family to survive the Holocaust. In September 1939, Bella was a carefree teenager living in Poland when the German army struck. She was rounded up with her friends and family and sent to a series of grim Jewish ghettos. After loved ones were separated and lost through the war years, Bella survived by changing her identity. After finding the birth certificate of a Catholic girl five years her senior, she became Sabina Mazurek. Then she went into the eye of the storm, Germany.
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Alone without family
- By Nancy F. on 04-17-25
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First One In, Last One Out
- Auschwitz Survivor 31321: A Memoir
- By: Marilyn Shimon
- Narrated by: Sarah Borges
- Length: 4 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The horrifying true story of one of the first eight men to enter Auschwitz. Growing up in New York, Marilyn Shimon often visited her uncle in California. She saw his scars, gaped at his 31321 tattoo and listened to his horrific stories of surviving the Holocaust. However, she could not relate to the suffering he endured or understand the significance of his accounts until now.
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Horrible narrator
- By Rachel Comegys on 09-06-24
By: Marilyn Shimon
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Nazis Knew My Name
- A Remarkable Story of Survival and Courage in Auschwitz
- By: Magda Hellinger, Maya Lee, David Brewster
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton, Zoe Carides
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In March 1942, 25-year-old kindergarten teacher Magda Hellinger and nearly a thousand other young women were deported as some of the first Jews to be sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The SS soon discovered that by putting prisoners in charge of the day-to-day accommodation blocks, they could deflect attention away from themselves. Magda was one such prisoner selected for leadership and put in charge of hundreds of women in the notorious Experimental Block 10. She found herself constantly walking a dangerously fine line: saving lives while avoiding suspicion by the SS.
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Extraordinary courage.
- By Alice@Wonderland on 10-01-24
By: Magda Hellinger, and others
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The Daughter of Auschwitz
- My Story of Resilience, Survival and Hope
- By: Tova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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A powerful memoir by one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz, Tova Friedman, following her childhood growing up during the Holocaust and surviving a string of near-death experiences in a Jewish ghetto, a Nazi labor camp, and Auschwitz.
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Very interesting and well told
- By Tracy F. on 03-31-23
By: Tova Friedman, and others
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Rescued from the Ashes
- The Diary of Leokadia Schmidt, Survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto
- By: Leokadia Schmidt, Oscar E. Swan - translator
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The diary of a young Jewish housewife who, together with her husband and five-month-old baby, fled the Warsaw ghetto at the last possible moment, and survived the Holocaust hidden on the "Aryan" side of town in the loft of a run-down tinsmith's shed. Rescued from the Ashes documents the incredible life story of Leokadia Schmidt and her small family and their daily struggle to survive the Warsaw Ghetto.
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Amazing details
- By Holly H on 12-11-24
By: Leokadia Schmidt, and others
What listeners say about Cold Crematorium
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- Andy
- 11-25-24
Fantastic recollection of the holocaust
Definitely a must read. NEVER FORGET WE MUST NEVEE FORGET! We need more accounts like this available for everyone to read.
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- Erick Porter
- 03-21-24
Stunning
This book tells the story of what life was really like within the Nazi concentration camps. A good friend once told me, in the development of life on earth, at one point there were a number of human wannabes running around but homo sapiens were the lone survivor. And homo sapiens were the successful, lone survivor because: We are the killers. "Cold Crematorium" is a testament to our continuing to live out that very nature. Tough to read, but necessary to read.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Viscera
- 12-29-24
Harsh Reality
An absolute masterpiece if one can consider the reality of what transpired in any way but in the harshest terms for the wretchedness of the era. This was painful to listen to but necessary for anyone interested in how man’s brutality toward man can evolve so quickly into such indescribable evil. The book is a tour de force in our witnessing this unbelievable saga through the eyes of the author.
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- Mainiac
- 01-06-25
Beautifully written, beautifully read
One man's experience of the dehumanizing horrors of daily existence in Nazi concentration camps. Too disturbing to objectively review.
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- Jenna Bell
- 02-13-25
Sad State of Humanity, and a Brave, Necessary Work
To hear this man’s personal experience as a prisoner was breathtaking and incredibly sad and awful. I am so grateful to have a better understanding of this horror of less than 100 years ago. Thank you to everyone who made this English translation possible. I hope the author found some peace in his remaining time.
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- Gerard Connelly
- 01-19-25
Masterpiece
Stirring, devastating, and deeply moving. Should be required reading. The poetic last minutes are a testament to human resilience.
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- Jerseygirl
- 02-03-24
Learned so much more about the Holocaust
While I never studied the Holocaust, I thought that I knew the basics. However, I recently watched “The Zone of Interest” and “Origin” and realized that I needed to understand more, understand better. This book is an in depth description of day-to-day life in the labor camps where so many millions were imprisoned, abused, terrorized and tortured. It’s an important book, not for the faint of heart. Be brave, listen and learn.
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- Ilka
- 08-04-24
Grave authentic description of a Nazi camp
I've studied the Holocaust. I'm born in Germany and now live in the USA for 40 years. My parents went through the war and met each other when all was lost on the retreat to the West. I'm born way after the war and still try to come terms how this happened. Be aware, this could happen again ☹️
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- Cynthia L Page
- 03-09-24
Never Again
Still the most horrifying events to hear about. This telling is brutal but matter of fact in the author’s words.
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- James L Mohn
- 05-21-24
This needs to be read!
An horrific tale. It’s critical that this story and so many others like it be read. Time has silenced the voices that reminded us of the horrors of fascism. The written accounts are all that remain. We are doomed to have those horrors repeated if we don’t remember.
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