Chapter 4, The Tragedy of the Family Camp Summary and Analysis

Within Auschwitz II-Birkenau is a special camp-within-a-camp area known colloquially as the Family Camp. This area contains about 5,000 Jews deported from Theresienstadt during September of 1943. These inmates receive special treatment—they are housed as family units, they are apparently immune to selection or most forced labor, they receive more and better food, and they are allowed many other minor conveniences. Rumors circulate about the rationale, but Muller concludes that the Nazis use the Family Camp as a sort of propaganda tool, filming the area and then showing the outside world this sanitized view of the death camp. After several months, however, the Nazis have no further use for the special inmates and determine that they should all be murdered at the same time. By happenstance, Muller sees orders...