WELTREISE NACH DACHAU Ein Tatsachenroman nach den Erlebnissen und Berichten des Weltreisenden und ehemaligen politischen Häftlings - A world journey to Dachau a factual novel based on the experiences and reports of the world traveler and former political prisoner Max Wittmann. By ERICH KUNTER, published by G. M. B. H. BAD WILDBAD. Stuttgart, 1947 - copy dedicated by the author. German.
A factual report based on the experiences and reports of world traveler and former political prisoner Max Wittmann. Written by Erich Kunter and first published in 1946. The first part of the book deals with Wittmann's description of his travels around the world in the 20s and 30s. Wittmann visited many countries and cultures, and writes about his experiences with charm and humor. In the late 30s, Wittmann returned to Europe to be with his fiancée in Tahiti. But soon he was caught up in the events of World War II. Because of his liberal political views, Wittmann was arrested by the Nazis and sent to Dachau concentration camp. The second part of the book describes his experiences in Dachau concentration camp. He describes the inconceivable shift from a free wanderer around the world to a prisoner fighting for his life under Nazi cruelty, in countless harsh interrogations, daily forced labor, while he witnesses acts of murder taking place before his eyes every day. And how he enlists his imagination from his experiences in the free world in order to survive the inferno.
On Stuttgart radio on May 28, 1946 after the book was published, it was said about it: "The book is an exceptional work told in an exciting and lively way, before us emerge the life of a man, who held the love of many Germans, a wanderlust, left his homeland and saw a significant part of the world in years of travel and adventure, only to fall into the clutches of the Gestapo and go through harsh and bitter experiences in various concentration camps". The incomprehensible dissonance between the first part of the book describing a free spirit without boundaries yearning for new landscapes and new cultures, to its second part how the spirit is caught and trapped in a cruel world of evil and distress is what distinguishes the book as a Holocaust work unlike any other - a motif that appears in the cover illustration - in its upper part a landscape of the sun the beacons and freedom and in its lower part a wire fence creating the word "Dachau". Over the years, the book has been praised for its realism and for its insights into the psychology of both Holocaust victims and Holocaust perpetrators. It was translated into several languages and even adapted into a film.
262 [2] p. Cover with the original illustrated dust jacket. All complete. Minor tears to the jacket. Good condition.
