Sybille Steinbacher teaches at The University of Bochum. She is currently Visiting Fellow at Harvard University.Shaun Whiteside is a previous winner of The Schlegel-Tieck Prize for German Translations, and translator of The Birth of Tragedy and Musil's The Confessions of Young Toerless for Penguin Classics. He lives in London.
A multitude of books have been written on the camp, yet this brief volume has much to offer both laypersons and scholars interested in its history. . . . A cogent, penetrating work. --Booklist A thoughtful overview of a place terrible to remember--and one that must always be remembered. --Kirkus Reviews In concise and sober fashion, German historian Steinbacher traces the history of Auschwitz from a medieval trading town to the major extermination camp of the Holocaust. . . . Steinbacher, a visiting fellow for European studies at Harvard, avoids extensive analysis or morality tales; the meaning of Auschwitz is in the details, which she provides with clinical precision. --Publishers Weekly