The prisoners of Breendonk : personal histories from a World War II concentration camp
This absorbing and captivating nonfiction account (with never-before-published photographs) offers readers an in-depth anthropological and historical look into the lives of those who suffered and survived Breendonk concentration camp during the Holocaust of World War II".
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- ISBN: 9780544096646
- Physical Description xi, 340 pages : illustrations (some colour), colour maps
- Publisher Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2015]
- Copyright ©2015
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Immediate Source of Acquisition Note: | LSC 24.99 |
Additional Information
The Prisoners of Breendonk : Personal Histories from a World War II Concentration Camp
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Summary
The Prisoners of Breendonk : Personal Histories from a World War II Concentration Camp
Fort Breendonk was built in the early 1900s to protect Antwerp, Belgium, from possible German invasion. Damaged at the start of World War I, it fell into disrepair . . . until the Nazis took it over after their invasion of Belgium in 1940. Never designated an official concentration camp by the SS and instead labeled a "reception" camp where prisoners were held until they were either released or transported, Breendonk was no less brutal. About 3,600 prisoners were held there--just over half of them survived. As one prisoner put it, "I would prefer to spend nineteen months at Buchenwald than nineteen days at Breendonk." With access to the camp and its archives and with rare photos and artwork, James M. Deem pieces together the story of the camp by telling the stories of its victims--Jews, communists, resistance fighters, and common criminals--for the first time in an English-language publication. Leon Nolis's haunting photography of the camp today accompanies the wide range of archival images. The story of Breendonk is one you will never forget.