Page 22 - Jewish News_March-2020

22A March 2020 JEWISH INTEREST

Aided by solid research, an author bears

compassionate witness to unspeakable horror

Book review by Philip K. Jason, Special to The Jewish News

999: The Extraordinary Young ple the country’s Jewish population. disease in Germany and Though the major-

Women of the First Official Their former rights quickly vanished. across the landscape over ity of the roughly 1,000

Jewish Transport to Auschwitz, Though pre-roundup escape plans which the Nazis had women from the first
by Heather Dune Macadam. Citadel. were dangled before some, most of taken control. But why Auschwitz transport even-
480 pages. Hardcover $28.00. these tempting arrangements were target young women? tually died at the Nazis’
hoaxes that did not pan out. Families Could it have been an hands, Macadam managed

n recent years, an astonishing num- were persuaded that the women would attempt to guarantee the to locate a significant num-
ber of new books have provided participate in a kind of government ser- end of the Jews’ future ber of survivors. In her stir-
Iinsights about the utter darkness of vice for the Reich. They would work by destroying a genera- ring book, she allows them

the Holocaust, as well as the suffering in factories and have an opportunity to tion of potential moth- to tell not only their own
and courage of its victims and survi- be true patriots! ers? stories, but also those of
vors. Heather Dune Macadam’s 999: Many of these female “draftees” Women who had their friends, relatives and
The Extraordinary Young Women of came from the towns of Humenné and managed to gain special co-inmates, whose ordeals

the First Official Prešov, both of which had sizable Jew- privileges in the concentration camp would’ve otherwise been lost along

Jewish Transport ish populations. And just in case they found ways to share their good fortune, with their lives.
to Auschwitz de- behaved irresponsibly while being temporary as it might have been, with This review fi rst appeared in the
serves a prominent shipped off, they would be policed by others. Macadam’s vivid descriptions Washington Independent Review of

place in this flow- the Fascist Hlinka Guard, who would of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex Books and is reprinted by permission.

ering of books that also beat up any interfering brothers place readers in the inmates’ midst as Philip K. Jason is Professor Emeritus
reshape our under- and fathers, if required. the women endure their imprisonment of English from the United States Na-
standing through The women’s lives at Auschwitz before the war’s end. val Academy. He reviews regularly for
revelations and do not turn out as expected. Conditions What’s most remarkable about Florida Weekly, Washington Indepen-
heartbreaking vi- are terrible, and exhaustion is normal this book, aside from the author’s me- dent Review of Books, Southern Lit-
Phil Jason gnettes. given that most of those interred are ticulous archival and other research (as erary Review, other publications and
The author’s narrative, set in Slo- slaves. Their clothing disintegrates; well as the photos and generous chap- the Jewish Book Council. Please visit
vakia and other crushed European with no means to replace garments, ter notes), is her compassionate dedi- Phil’s website at www.philjason.word
countries, focuses on a pro- bodies are left fully cation to her subjects. press.com.
gram designed to destroy exposed. There are
Jewish womanhood. The few medical profes-
action begins in late March sionals on hand.
1942, when a roundup of Indeed, as the
Jewish females, announced women soon discov-
in advance, gets underway. er, there is no plan
These women – mostly for their lives except
teenagers and young adults to exploit them, de-
– were summoned to report humanize them and
to authorities and board an eventually send them
overcrowded train in the as smoke up a gas-
town of Poprad. chamber chimney.
The screws had already Why did this fe-

begun tightening when the male-specific policy
Slovak government imple- Heather Dune Macadam come about? One can
mented the Jewish Codex, a series of speculate that gloating over the pain of
laws and regulations designed to crip- a scapegoat population had become a
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