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

by Cherish, Barbara U.; Müller, Melissa

• ISBN13: 9780752457550
• ISBN10: 0752457551
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-01
• Publisher: The History Press

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Barbara U. Cherish arrived in America in December 1956. She now lives in Nevada. Melissa Müller is the author of Anne Frank: The Biography, which was the basis for Anne Frank: The Whole Story, a 2001 movie aired on ABC.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 7
Preface	p. 9
Prologue: The Photograph	p. 10
Party Member # 932766 & Family Man	p. 19
Oranienburg	p. 32
The Last Embrace	p. 41
Auschwitz	p. 56
Austria	p. 93
One Son Captured, Another Born	p. 104
Betrayed and Banished as Refugees	p. 122
Berchtesgaden	p. 128
Leaving 'The Other Child' Behind	p. 145
Journals of a Prisoner	p. 166
The Trial	p. 192
A New Family, A New Identity	p. 216
Epilogue: The Journey Home	p. 225
The Journey Continues	p. 245
Source Note of Documentation	p. 252
Bibliography	p. 255
Acknowledgements	p. 257
Index	p. 260
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