Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz

The book "Children of the Flames" arrived promptly and in very good condition. Thank you!

This is a non-fiction book about the medical experiments done on twins in Auschwitz during WWII. This book was very well written. I cried!! I just couldn't believe something like this actually happened! A real eye opener for us youngsters!

I read this book in one sitting. It was intense to say the least. I felt every bit of emotion as the very descript passages were read. This was an a book which I could not put down. To say the least it was a very good account of what transpired. It was very easy to read and follow unlike many of the other books on this subject. I highly recommend this book. My 10 year old son read this book as well. I suggested it after he began asking questions about this period of history and the horrible things that happen during this time. He has a much greater understanding of what actually transpired from a source that made it easy for all to comprehend.

Extremely informative and a great read.

Excellent book. A little boring in the beginning when describing Mengele's childhood, but it more than makes up for it later on. Great book overall, just a little short.

This book takes us from the youths of of Josef Mengele and his victims (briefly) to Auschwitz to the Nazi-hunting of the post-war period to the late 1980s. It tells these stories in alternating voices, stressing how necessary it is to do so: these stories are inextricably linked.

The title is a bit misleading; this is perhaps weighed more on the side of a brief biography of Mengele, with emphasis on postwar activities. The stories of a group of twins break into the narrative in italicized bursts, fracturing it-- and thus reminding us all of how the horrific events of World War II fractured individuals, families, communities, nations.

The book is an oral history of Auschwitz, told by those who survived it. Certainly, it is well researched (especially when it comes to the information about Nazi hunting and war tribunals), but the information in the "spotlight," so to speak, are the unsilenced voices of the twins. Do not expect pages of historical detail about what types of experiments were performed, reviews of medical cases, lengthy discussions of what occured in labs; that information is not there. This is a book about a handful of people and their stories, and while the book tells Mengele's for him, the twins tell their own. Particularly on the part of the twins, it is more a psychological study than a historical one (we could go into how psychology and history are intertwined, but it would be best for the reader to reach his or her own conclusions after reading the book).

The text is deeply moving, often shattering. The voices that shatter the narrative of Mengele's life, denying the murderer any seamless biography, are vivid and alive. The authors picked a unique and, ultimately, extremely effective way to deliver biographies of oppresser and oppressed.