These provide handholds of a sort for the reader who inevitably becomes immersed in the overwhelming pain and suffering reflected by the survivors statements. Some readers may question Aroneanu s decision to represent his survivor-interviewees by mere numbers in the text, when they had all too recently been reduced to numbers by the Nazis. Perhaps he thought it would be too cumbersome or distracting to give the name after the comments, some of which are only one sentence in length. Some readers may also be disconcerted by the lack of distinction among female and male voices, since it is now generally believed that there were differences in the concentration camp experience based on gender. In many passages the gender is obvious, but occasionally I found myself referring back to the initial list of witnesses names.
Various topics emerge from the accounts.
Constant throughout the testimonies is an acute awareness of nationality. The survivors predicate almost every reference with a national marker. Since most of the interviewees were French, many observations include references to French victims, but this is merely a primary identification. In addition to a basic national identification with other French internees, the witnesses occasionally single out the behavior of French inmates as unique or admirable. The few French women who were offered such prizes refused them categorically.