A memoir written in 1948 by Simon Laks and René Coudy, two survivors of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp, which has been translated into English for the first time.

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Simon Laks was a member and later a conductor of the men’s orchestra in Birkenau. Born in Warsaw in 1901, he left Poland in 1926 and became a composer and a representative of the École de Paris (School of Paris).

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Included in this book is a postface by Simon's son André Laks, an investigation by the French historian Annette Becker of Laks’ deportation by the Vichy regime, his life in Birkenau, and publication of  his 1948 book, and an essay about the composer Simon Laks by the German music publisher and producer Frank Harders.