"Auschwitz represents the apex of evil; as such, if we can never understand why it existed, we can at least know how. Most documents concerning Auschwitz and its annexes, Birkenau and Monowitz, were destroyed by the Nazis as the Allies advanced at the close of the war, yet much survived to be collected into the archives of the Official Auschwitz Museum, including: more than 3,500 eyewitness accounts by former prisoners; original camp documents that detail transport and admissions lists; written orders from the commandant; orders for laboratory experiments; hundreds of original secret messages - pleas for food and help in escape attempts - smuggled out by prisoners; financial records; building and maintenance files; and information brought out at postwar trials." "Auschwitz Chronicle, a collection of these documents, is a monumental reference that records - day by day, month by month - the events and developments of the concentration camp from its planning in the winter of 1939-40 to its liberation in January 1945: the construction, operation, and eventual destruction of gas chambers and crematoriums; the transports and selections; the infamous medical "experiments"; the visits and inspections by SS leaders, physicians, and the Red Cross; the secret resistance activities; and the all-too-infrequent revolts and escapes."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved