Inside the Vicious Heart

Robert H. Abzug is Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas, Austin, and the author of Passionate Liberator: Theodore Dwight Weld and the Dilemma of Reform.

"This book helps to keep live that which must not be forgotten."--David B. Chesebrough, Illinois State University"This sensitive book chronicles the liberators' psychological and emotional reactions to the concentration camps...An important contribution."--Religious Studies Review"Abzug tells a true and terrifying story of what the American troops found when they entered Germany in 1945. Included are the accounts of Generals Eisenhower, Patton and Bradley, Editor Joseph Pulitzer, novelist Meyer Levin, Photographer Margaret Bourke-White, and American GIs, who desperately tried to save the few remaining survivors."--The Jewish Voice"Abzug's stunning book takes us back to the moment at which the West lost its innocence and confronted the murder of millions of Jews and other human beings by Germany."--Jacob Neusner, Brown University"A fine book, a signal contribution to the literature of the Holocaust."--Chicago Sun-Times"Abzug has done an excellent job sifting both the testimony itself and the reactions of Americans back home...Not a book to dwell on...but not one that should be overlooked, either."--The New York Times"[This] compelling book examines a hitherto neglected element of the Holocaust--the liberation of concentration camps in France, Germany, and Austria by American soldiers in 1945 and its impact on American moral opinion."--History of European Ideas"A riveting study of soldiers who liberated the major concentration camps in Germany."--American Historical Review"A slender, well-illustrated volume...forceful and riveting."--Newsday"A scholarly and poetic attempt to assess the impact of the concentration camps upon the liberators, the writers and the general public...Language, image, and experience are woven together with great skill."--David R. Blumenthal, Emory University"Inside the Vicious Heart makes a profound impression and deserves to be widely read."--Military History"An important and significant work."--George M. Kren, Kansas State University"A great volume. Should have good shock value."--Matthew H. Gore, Western Kentucky University

• 1. A Double Vision (Natzwiller)2. Ohrdruf and Nordhausen3. Buchenwald4. A Landscape of Terror5. Dachau6. Mauthausen7. Telling the Story8. Displaced PersonsEpilogueAcknowledgmentsSourcesNotesIndex