Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and one of the New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2024

Cold Crematorium is a newly translated Holocaust memoir by journalist, poet, and Auschwitz survivor József Debreczeni. First published in Hungarian in 1950, the book was long overlooked due to Cold War tensions and antisemitism. Now, over 70 years later, it is finally being recognized as a lost classic of Holocaust literature.

Debreczeni narrowly escaped death upon arriving at Auschwitz in 1944 and endured a year of brutal forced labor, ending at Dörnhau—the “Cold Crematorium”—where prisoners too weak to work awaited death. His memoir offers a raw, unflinching account of life in the camps, written in the precise, unsentimental voice of a journalist, laced with irony and dark humor.

Acclaimed by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Times of London, Cold Crematorium is now being published in 15 languages and hailed as a vital, long-overdue addition to the canon of Holocaust literature.