The Muselmann: The Diary of a Jewish Slave Laborer

Born in Germany in 1914, Matzner, who died in 1991, left for Jerusalem in 1936. He returned, now a rabbi, to his native land in 1938, and before long the gestapo was at his door. Thus began the nightmare that would continue until 1945 in some 20 prisons and concentration camps in France, Poland and Germany. Matzner, fluent in German, Yiddish and French, used his talents as an amateur graphologist and astrologer to gain some privileges, but for most of these years he was a laborer, and on several occasions he came close to death. Hence the title, for in camp jargon a Muselmann was a prisoner considered on the verge of death. In his introduction, Matzner writes, ``I do not expect to break new ground here.'' He doesn't, but like all memoirs of camp inmates, his book, written with freelancer Margolis, serves to demonstrate the brutalities humans are capable of. (Feb.)