The Book of Alfred Kantor

I read a book last night. Everyone should read this book, but for reasons I cannot fathom it is rare and mostly forgotten now. The Book of Alfred Kantor is the book of a young man in a horrible situation. Devastatingly real and heartbreakingly non-fiction, this book is a pictorial memoir of Nazi Germany and Fredy Kantor's personal living hell.

Published in 1971 and, as far as I know, never reprinted, this book has the impact of video without lending us our usual ability to suspend disbelief. For every person who can deny the atrocities of Nazi Germany, this book is the remedy. Drawn from memory only days after being liberated, Mr. Kantor uses his prodigious recall (though the images were likely seared into his brain) to quite literally draw us a picture of something even Dante could not -would not- have imagined. His eyewitness testimony in drawings may be the best recollection of all - for all.

I wish I could posts photos from the book to illustrate their amazing - almost photographic - quality. What struck me most profoundly was not the story - I am familiar with work camps, Nazi crematoriums, death camps and ghettos. But striking to me was the profound and eloquent drawings of "Super Men," SS officers in uniform and guards, all of whom Kantor manages to draw in detail. He gives us clear understanding of the "badges" inmates were forced to wear- not just the Star of David, but the Pink Triangle for homosexuals, the black triangle pointing down for "fancy man" (which I understand to be butch women,) among others - including political prisoners and even hardened murderers. But what he doesn't do is show us details of the inmates. Instead, almost all of the prisoners are drawn to appear the same. This is the power of his message. He has in these illustrations depicted the amazing ability of the Nazi regime to dehumanize millions of people. And even the inmates themselves must, for the sake of their own sanity, wrap themselves in denial and false hope in order to somehow keep going in the face of death and fear of death every moment, for years.

I would like to say that this is a history of a time never ever to be repeated; but sadly, while the amazing machinations and systematic destruction of an entire race of people and other unwanted elements is unlikely to the degree the Nazis managed it - it still happens. And, as long as governments continue to place the value of some over the value of others- as long as religions continue to pronounce other religions anathema, and as long as parents tell children not to play with those who are not like their children - we will live under the threat - and reality - of the dehumanization required for these atrocities to continue.

We need only to look at the last few weeks for proof - even here in our First World country- children are literally bullied to their deaths. Gangs sodomize a boy with a plunger handle and torture others. The language of "other" permeates a Mormon Elder's language. Every Sunday in houses of worship across our country, millions are told certain people are not loved, certain people are going to hell, certain people should be shunned. And all in the name of a God who is supposed to be loving and forgiving and welcoming - to everyone.

I saw this book discussed somewhere not long ago and decided to buy it mostly because of the depiction of the "badges" prisoners were forced to wear. But what I found while reading it, was a contemporary criticism unbelievably valuable to our society at this very moment. Yes, it gives a terrible and heartbreaking history of a moment in history. But it brands our own moment in time with that same intensity.

Lest we forget.