We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,545,997.01 | Books Available: 800,408 | Members Online: 75

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Soldiers and Slaves : American POWs Trapped by the Nazis' Final Gamble

Soldiers and Slaves American POWs Trapped by the Nazis' Final Gamble
Author: Roger Cohen

In February 1945, 350 American POWs captured earlier at the Battle of the Bulge or elsewhere in Europe were singled out by the Nazis because they were Jews or were thought to resemble Jews. They were transported in cattle cars to Berga, a concentration camp in eastern Germany, and put to work as slave laborers, mining tunnels for a planned under... more »ground synthetic-fuel factory. This was the only incident of its kind during World War II.

Starved and brutalized, the GIs were denied their rights as prisoners of war, their ordeal culminating in a death march that was halted by liberation near the Czech border. Twenty percent of these soldiers–more than seventy of them–perished. After t_he war, Berga was virtually forgotten, partly because it fell under Soviet domination and partly because America’s Cold War priorities quickly changed, and the experiences of these Americans were buried.

Now, for the first time, their story is told in all its blistering detail. This is the story of hell in a small place over a period of nine weeks, at a time when Hitler’s Reich was crumbling but its killing machine still churned. It is a tale of madness and heroism, and of the failure to deliver justice for what the Nazis did to these Americans.

Among those involved: William Shapiro, a young medic from the Bronx, hardened in Normandy battles but, as a prisoner, unable to help the Nazis’ wasted slaves, whose bodies became as insubstantial as ghosts; Hans Kasten, a defiant German-American who enraged his Nazi captors by demanding, in vain, that his fellow U.S. prisoners be treated with humanity, thus committing the unpardonable sin of betraying his German roots; Morton Goldstein, a garrulous GI from New Jersey, shot dead by the Nazi in charge of the American prisoners in an incident that would spark intense debate at a postwar trial; and Mordecai Hauer, the orphaned Hungarian Jew who, after surviving Auschwitz, stumbled on the GIs in the midst of the Holocaust at Berga and despaired at the sight of liberators become slaves.

Roger Cohen uncovers exactly why the U.S. government did not aggressively prosecute the commandants of Berga, why there was no particular recognition for the POWs and their harsh treatment in the postwar years, and why it took decades for them to receive proper compensation.

Soldiers and Slaves is an intimate, intensely dramatic story of war and of a largely forgotten chapter of the Holocaust.

From the Hardcover edition.

Audio Books swap for two (2) credits.

ISBN-13: 9780739306796
ISBN-10: 0739306790
Publication Date: 4/26/2005
Edition: Abridged
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Random House Audio
Book Type: Audio CD
Other Versions: Paperback, Hardcover, Audio Cassette
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Read All 2 Book Reviews of "Soldiers and Slaves American POWs Trapped by the Nazis Final Gamble"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

Brad B. reviewed Soldiers and Slaves : American POWs Trapped by the Nazis' Final Gamble on 8/10/2009 + 2 more book reviews

The book title is a misnomer. The book is very little about American POW's (5%). It is mostly about Hungarian Jews sent to a concentration camp (95%). The deception seems intentional. That being said, it is a well written story of the Hungarian holocaust.

Share/Like this Review?

Laurie F. (laurief) reviewed Soldiers and Slaves : American POWs Trapped by the Nazis' Final Gamble on 1/18/2011 + 19 more book reviews

This is a very good book. After reading this book, I put more effort into everthing I do, the ability of men to persevere is amazing.

Share/Like this Review?

Read All Book Reviews of "Soldiers and Slaves American POWs Trapped by the Nazis Final Gamble"

Genres:

History >> Military >> World War II >> General

Back to the Top ↑

Search - Soldiers and Slaves : American POWs Trapped by the Nazis' Final Gamble

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

Loading...