The Liberation of the Camps

“[An] engrossing and illuminating book—the first full and comparative study of the subject.”—Richard J. Evans, New York Review of Books

“[Stone] has produced a body of thoughtful, occasionally provocative work that has genuinely enhanced our understanding of these subjects. He writes with clarity, straightforwardness and a willingness to allow his personal commitment to show. . . . [A] typically engaging and rewarding read.”—Ben Barkow, Jewish Chronicle

“The real power of Stone’s history lies in a sense in of indomitable vigour and self-belief. . . . Stone does a good job of showing how even as nations declared peace, individuals and families still had to fight on desperately.”—Sinclair McKay, Daily Telegraph

“The real power of Stone’s history lies in a sense in of indomitable vigour and self-belief. . . . Stone does a good job of showing how even as nations declared peace, individuals and families still had to fight on desperately.”—Sinclair McKay, Daily Telegraph

“[A] thoughtful, sensitive and well-researched treatment of an important and rarely covered subject.”—Roger Moorhouse, BBC History Magazine

“Is freedom really a thing that can be brought by one person to another, for example by a soldier to an inmate of a concentration camp? It is appealing to think so, and thus to imagine a precise and satisfying ending to the war. Stone’s pioneering study of the process of liberation demands, instead, that we consider seriously the meaning of freedom.”—Timothy Snyder, Association for Jewish Studies

“In recent years, Dan Stone’s name has been a guarantee of quality. . . . A clear step in the right direction, it focuses on the centre-piece of western Holocaust memory—the moment when the American and British armies, in April 1945, made the shocking discovery of the concentration camps in Germany.”—Jan Lanicek, History

“Dan Stone’s history of the liberation of the camps is remarkable for the vast array of its sources, its extremely detailed inquiry and, nonetheless, for its highly readable narrative. It will remain a reference for years to come.”—Saul Friedländer, author of Nazi Germany and the Jews

“The liberation of the camps in 1944–45 can be seen as a merciful release by Allied armies dedicated to eliminating the cruelties of Hitler’s Reich. Dan Stone in this searingly honest account of the liberation and its aftermath shows how many paradoxes and ambiguities there were in the whole process. This is the story of an awful human tragedy told with sympathy and understanding. There are lessons here for our own age.”—Richard Overy, author of Why the Allies Won

“The Liberation of the Camps should become the most important and widely read book on its subject.”—Geoff Eley, author of Nazism as Fascism: Violence, Ideology, and the Ground of Consent in Germany, 1930–1945

“Thoroughly researched, carefully conceived, wisely guided, and beautifully executed, The Liberation of the Camps should become the most important and widely read book on its subject.”—Geoff Eley, author of Nazism as Fascism: Violence, Ideology, and the Ground of Consent in Germany 1930–1945

“This is the best book on the liberation of Jews from the Nazi camps—important and insightful. Drawing on many deeply moving testimonies, Dan Stone expertly charts the long and painful path from prisoner to survivor.”—Nikolaus Wachsmann, author of KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps