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A Doctor’s Memoir of the Romanian Holocaust
Survival in Lager Vapniarka and the Ghettos of Transnistria
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Edited by:
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Translated by:
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2024
About this book
Based on notes kept while incarcerated in the concentration camps and ghettos of Transnistria, Dr. Kessler's gripping Holocaust memoir tells a story of calculated murder, resistance, and survival.
In the aftermath of the Romanian Holocaust, Transnistria, a little-known region north of Odessa, between the Dniester and Bug rivers, came to be known as "the forgotten cemetery." Between 1941 and 1944, an estimated 300,000 Jews were killed or died there from starvation and disease. This memoir by Dr. Arthur Kessler, based on daily notes he kept as a physician during his two-year imprisonment in Transnistria's Vapniarka concentration camp and Olgopol ghetto, provides a unique perspective of a Jewish medical doctor who witnessed murderous death as well as brave acts of resistance and survival.
Introduced and annotated by historian Leo Spitzer and translated from German by the late Margaret Robinson, Dr. Kessler's memoir provides an engrossing account of his infamous discovery that Vapniarka's Romanian authorities routinely, and it seems knowingly, fed camp inmates a daily soup containing toxic chickling peas (Lathyrus sativus) that induced paralysis, kidney failure, and oftentimes death. It reveals the daring by which he, together with fellow inmate medical associates, saved hundreds of lives by organizing a hunger strike that resulted in the camp's dissolution and the prisoners' relocation to ghettos throughout Transnistria. Kessler's narrative continues with an account of privileges attainable by deportees with useful skills and provides illuminating details about informal systems and practices that enabled many to survive and to provide care to fellow victims of genocidal persecution.
The memoir is illustrated with moving drawings produced by prisoners in the Vapniarka concentration camp and presented to Dr. Kessler in recognition of his brave work of healing.
In the aftermath of the Romanian Holocaust, Transnistria, a little-known region north of Odessa, between the Dniester and Bug rivers, came to be known as "the forgotten cemetery." Between 1941 and 1944, an estimated 300,000 Jews were killed or died there from starvation and disease. This memoir by Dr. Arthur Kessler, based on daily notes he kept as a physician during his two-year imprisonment in Transnistria's Vapniarka concentration camp and Olgopol ghetto, provides a unique perspective of a Jewish medical doctor who witnessed murderous death as well as brave acts of resistance and survival.
Introduced and annotated by historian Leo Spitzer and translated from German by the late Margaret Robinson, Dr. Kessler's memoir provides an engrossing account of his infamous discovery that Vapniarka's Romanian authorities routinely, and it seems knowingly, fed camp inmates a daily soup containing toxic chickling peas (Lathyrus sativus) that induced paralysis, kidney failure, and oftentimes death. It reveals the daring by which he, together with fellow inmate medical associates, saved hundreds of lives by organizing a hunger strike that resulted in the camp's dissolution and the prisoners' relocation to ghettos throughout Transnistria. Kessler's narrative continues with an account of privileges attainable by deportees with useful skills and provides illuminating details about informal systems and practices that enabled many to survive and to provide care to fellow victims of genocidal persecution.
The memoir is illustrated with moving drawings produced by prisoners in the Vapniarka concentration camp and presented to Dr. Kessler in recognition of his brave work of healing.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Arthur Kessler
ARTHUR KESSLER (1903-2000) was both a prisoner and doctor at the Vapniarka concentration camp in Transnistria (in Romanian-controlled Ukraine) during World War II.
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Contributor: Leo Spitzer
LEO SPITZER is the Kathe Tappe Vernon Professor of History, Emeritus, and Research Professor at Dartmouth College, NH.
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Contributor: Margaret Robinson
MARGARET ROBINSON (1935-2021) was Senior Administrator, Department of German Studies, Dartmouth College, and a free-lance translator who won the Bundesverdienstkreutz, or Federal Cross of Merit, Germany's top national award for civilians.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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List of Illustrations
viii -
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Acknowledgments and Editor’s Note
ix -
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Introduction
1 -
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Prologue
29 - PART I: In Lager Vapniarka, Transnistria
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1. The Transport
33 -
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2. Life in the Lager
53 -
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3. The Lethal Disease
76 - PART II: A Doctor in the Ghettos of Transnistria
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4. Olgopol
99 -
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5. Ghetto Doctor
109 -
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6. “How come you speak German?”
113 -
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7. Epidemic Meningitis and Other Maladies
116 -
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8. A Visit to Obodovka
122 -
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9. Paul M. and the Repatriation of the Children
124 -
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10. In the Hands of the Partisans
131 -
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11. In the Bershad Ghetto
134 -
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12. The Front Comes Closer
154 - PART III: The Way Back
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13. Flight
157 -
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Selected Readings
173 -
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Index
177
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
September 5, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781805433569
Original publisher:
University of Rochester Press
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781805433569
Keywords for this book
Ein Arzt im Lager; deportation; genocide; Ukraine; occupation; diagnostician; Soviet; communism; fascism; partisans; labor; illness; infirmary; outbreak; solidarity; discipline; treatment; epidemic; medication
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
