Miracle: The Boys Who Escaped the Gas Chamber in Auschwitz

In October 1944, the gas chamber doors at Auschwitz were closing on 800 Hungarian Jewish boys when, in a startling turn, the execution was paused and 50 were selected to unload potatoes, with a 51st boy sneaking into the lineup. Schiff, a leading collator of Holocaust testimony, spent nearly two decades researching the story, which is narrated in this harrowing account by journalist Calvin. The event, the authors note, is the only recorded instance of a last-minute gas chamber reprieve, an idea that has long held currency in popular mythologizing about the Holocaust. In 2024, the authors interviewed the only still-living survivor, Hershel Herskovic, who recalled that, ordered out of the chamber, he dressed so quickly “that he selected two right-footed shoes.” His memories, combined with the testimony from other survivors discovered in archival filmed interviews, flesh out “a golden thread of authenticity.” The most vivid recollections describe chilling encounters with Josef Mengele in the infamous sorting line; the Angel of Death moved his fingers “in a contemptuous flicking motion,” an act that was “hypnotic, theatrical, dehumanizing,” as he signified who would be sent to the gas. While the narrative can get weighed down in detail and an afterword connecting the boys’ plight to October 7 feels heavy-handed, the research is solid. It’s a significant contribution to Holocaust studies. (June)