Recommendations based on Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Accountby Miklós Nyiszli

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

    by Edith Hahn Beer
    An incredible true story of a Jewish woman's courage and determination to survive the Holocaust.

    Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman studying law in Vienna when the Gestapo forced Edith and her mother into a ghetto, issuing them papers branded with a "J." Soon, Edith was taken away to a ... (Goodreads)

  2. Survival in Auschwitz

    by Primo Levi
    True story of a man's struggle to survive in a Nazi concentration camp.

    The true and harrowing account of Primo Levi’s experience at the German concentration camp of Auschwitz and his miraculous survival; hailed by The Times Literary Supplement as a “true work of art, ... (Goodreads)

  3. Schindler's List

    by Thomas Keneally
    Story of a German businessman who saved hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust.

    This novel tells the story of Oskar Schindler , self-made entrepreneur and, bon viveur, who almost by default found himself saving Polish Jews from the Nazi death machine. Based on numerous ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs

    by Elissa Wall
    A memoir of a woman's experience growing up in a polygamous sect, being forced into marriage at 14, and ultimately escaping the cult.

    Stolen Innocence is the gripping New York Times bestselling memoir of Elissa Wall, the courageous former member of Utah’s infamous FLDS polygamist sect whose powerful courtroom testimony helped ... (Goodreads)

  5. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland

    by Christopher R. Browning
    A study of how ordinary men became willing participants in the Holocaust, shedding light on the nature of genocide and human behavior.

    Christopher R. Browning’s shocking account of how a unit of average middle-aged Germans became the cold-blooded murderers of tens of thousands of Jews—now with a new afterword and additional ... (Goodreads)

  6. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

    by William L. Shirer
    The definitive story of Nazi Germany, its rise and fall, and its lasting impacts.

    Hitler boasted that The Third Reich would last a thousand years. It lasted only 12. But those 12 years contained some of the most catastrophic events Western civilization has ever known. No other ... (Goodreads)

  7. I Have Lived a Thousand Years

    by Livia Bitton-Jackson
    The Holocaust memoir of a teenage girl who survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

    What is death all about? What is life all about? So wonders thirteen-year-old- Elli Friedmann, just one of the many innocent Holocaust victims, as she fights for her life in a concentration camp. It ... (Goodreads)

  8. Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors

    by Piers Paul Read
    Story of a group of Uruguayan rugby players who survive a plane crash in the Andes and must fight to stay alive.

    On October 12, 1972, a plane carrying a team of young rugby players crashed into the remote, snow-peaked Andes. Out of the forty-five original passengers and crew, only sixteen made it off the ... (Goodreads)

  9. Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz

    by Olga Lengyel
    A harrowing first-hand account of life and death in Auschwitz, detailing the horrors of the concentration camp and the resilience of the human spirit.

    Olga Lengyel tells, frankly and without compromise, one of the most horrifying stories of all time. This true, documented chronicle is the intimate, day-to-day record of a beautiful woman who ... (Goodreads)

  10. Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan

    by Sean Parnell
    An account of a US Army infantry platoon's extraordinary courage and camaraderie in the face of overwhelming danger during the war in Afghanistan.

    Acclaimed for its vivid, poignant, and honest recreation of sixteen brutal months of nearly continuous battle in the deadly Hindu Kesh, Outlaw Platoon is a Band of Brothers or We Were Soldiers Once ... (Barnes & Noble)

  11. Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service

    by Michael Bar-Zohar
    A thrilling account of the daring missions and covert operations carried out by the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency.

    "This book tells what should have been known and isn't—that Israel's hidden force is as formidable as its recognized physical strength." — Israeli President Shimon Peres For decades, Israel's ... (Barnes & Noble)

  12. Holidays on Ice

    by David Sedaris
    Collection of humorous essays, exploring the absurdities of the holiday season.

    David Sedaris's beloved holiday collection is new again with six more pieces, including a never before published story. Along with such favorites as the diaries of a Macy's elf and the annals of two ... (Goodreads)

  13. The Rape of Nanking

    by Iris Chang
    A harrowing account of the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers during the Nanking Massacre in 1937.

    In December 1937, the Japanese army invaded the ancient city of Nanking, systematically raping, torturing, and murdering more than 300,000 Chinese civilians. This book tells the story from three ... (Goodreads)

  14. The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride

    by Daniel James Brown
    A harrowing tale of survival, of a young woman's journey to the Sierra Nevada mountains.

    From the #1 bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat comes an unforgettable epic of family, tragedy, and survival on the American frontier “An ideal pairing of talent and material.… Engrossing.… A ... (Barnes & Noble)

  15. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

    by Stephen King
    A series of personal reflections on the art of writing, and the power of story-telling.

    "Long live the King" hailed Entertainment Weekly upon the publication of Stephen King's On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is ... (Goodreads)

  16. The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom

    by Corrie ten Boom
    A remarkable testament to faith and courage in the face of unfathomable odds and unspeakable horrors.

    The book begins with the ten Boom family celebrating the 100th anniversary of the family business; they sell and repair watches under the family's elderly father, Casper ten Boom . The business takes ... (Wikipedia)

  17. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

    by Mary Roach
    An exploration of the strange and often unknown history of cadavers, and their uses in science and medicine.

    Okay, you're thinking: ,"This must be some kind of a joke. A humorous book about cadavers?", Yup — and it works. Mary Roach takes the age-old question, "What happens to us after we die?" quite ... (Goodreads)

  18. The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy: The Shocking Inside Story

    by Ann Rule
    Uncovering the hidden identity of serial killer Ted Bundy and the events leading up to his arrest.

    The first few chapters following the brief introduction about Bundy's birth and family describe Rule's friendship with Bundy, her first impressions of him, and her reluctance to consider the evidence ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

    by Carl Sagan
    Reflection on humanity's place in the universe, and its responsibility to protect life on Earth.

    Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carl Sagan traces our exploration of space and suggests that our very survival may depend on the wise use of other worlds. This stirring book reveals how scientific ... (Goodreads)

  20. Shadow Divers

    by Robert Kurson
    Risk-taking divers uncover a sunken WWII German U-boat off the coast of New Jersey.

    In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm comes a true tale of riveting adventure in which two weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a great ... (Goodreads)

  21. Naked

    by David Sedaris
    Collection of humorous essays exploring the absurdities of everyday life.

    Welcome to the hilarious, strange, elegiac, outrageous world of David Sedaris. In Naked , Sedaris turns the mania for memoir on its proverbial ear, mining the exceedingly rich terrain of his life, ... (Goodreads)

  22. Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot

    by Bill O'Reilly
    A detailed account of the events leading up to the assassination of President Kennedy.

    Tthe anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts in gripping detail the brutal murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy—and how a sequence of gunshots on a Dallas afternoon not only killed a beloved president ... (Goodreads)

  23. Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife

    by Eben Alexander
    A neurosurgeon's account of his near-death experience and his spiritual journey towards understanding the afterlife.

    Thousands of people have had near-death experiences, but scientists have argued that they are impossible. Dr. Eben Alexander was one of those scientists. A highly trained neurosurgeon, Alexander knew ... (Goodreads)

  24. In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

    by Irene Gut Opdyke
    A young Polish woman's harrowing experiences during WWII, including hiding Jews and working for the German army, and her journey to America.

    "You must understand that I did not become a resistance fighter, a smuggler of Jews, a defier of the SS and the Nazis all at once. One's first steps are always small: I had begun by hiding food under ... (Goodreads)

  25. Alicia

    by Alicia Appleman-Jurman
    A memoir of a young Jewish girl's survival during the Holocaust, and her journey to rebuild her life after the war.

    After losing her entire family to the Nazis at age 13, Alicia Appleman-Jurman went on to save the lives of thousands of Jews, offering them her own courage and hope in a time of upheaval and tragedy. ... (Goodreads)

  26. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman

    by Robert K. Massie
    A biography of Catherine the Great, the powerful and controversial Empress of Russia, who transformed her country and left a lasting legacy.

    “[A] tale of power, perseverance and passion . . . a great story in the hands of a master storyteller.”—,The Wall Street Journal, The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and ... (Barnes & Noble)

  27. Hiroshima

    by John Hersey
    Tragic account of the devastating atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

    On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atom bomb ever dropped on a city. This book, John Hersey's journalistic masterpiece, tells what happened on that day. Told through the memories ... (Goodreads)

  28. Joy of Cooking

    by Irma S. Rombauer
    A comprehensive guide to cooking techniques, recipes and culinary wisdom.

    In the nearly ninety years since Irma S. Rombauer self-published the first three thousand copies of, Joy of Cooking, in 1931, it has become the kitchen bible, with more than 20 million copies in ... (Goodreads)

  29. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

    by Harriet Ann Jacobs
    A harrowing account of a young woman's experiences as a slave in the American South.

    The true story of an individual's struggle for self-identity, self-preservation, and freedom, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains among the few extant slave narratives written by a woman. ... (Goodreads)

  30. Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

    by Svetlana Alexievich
    An oral history of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, as told by the survivors.

    Written by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occurred in Chernobyl and contaminated as much as three quarters of Europe. ... (Goodreads)