I approached reading Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of animals and the Holocaust with some trepidation. There was something confusing to me about the idea of connecting the cruelty and horror of the Holocaust, to the treatment of animals in our society. The word offensive crossed my mind briefly. How could one remotely compare the unspeakable torture the Holocaust victims endured with the suffering of barnyard animals and wild creatures?
Once I began reading the book however, I was introduced to the spiritual connection Jews have always had with animals. Isaac Bashevis Singer is a strong presence in this volume and through his quoted writings and ideas, the parallels become abundantly clear.
Reading Eternal Treblinka was a very disturbing experience. I found the book enormously informative and thought provoking and it stirred up realizations about myself I prefer not to face. I am a reasonably sensitive and compassionate person and I would certainly never wish to harm any living being intentionally. Yet, I now realize that my stated values and my day-to-day behaviour often contradict each other.
I am an animal lover from way back. Among the cards I carry in my wallet is a membership to the Fur Bearers, a well-known animal advocacy association located in Canada. My partner and I adopted the very first dog through Montreal Greyhound Rescue the day this organization opened its doors. We treat the pets in our home with kindness, love and respect. I cringe at news stories about animal abuse of any kind. I sit down to dinner and enjoy a juicy, thick, luscious rare sirloin steak; catch the contradiction?
An old expression goes, “what you don’t see can’t hurt you.” I don’t see the suffering the cow goes through in order to make my meal possible. I don’t hear the frightened mooing while she is being pulled down the conveyer belt. I don’t witness the cold-hearted cruelty while the cow is being handled on the way to the butcher’s knife. To me, this piece of steak came from the meat shelf in my local supermarket, all neatly wrapped in transparent plastic in the right size, ready for my consumption and enjoyment. This cow has no face. I can eat this cow because there is no personal connection between us; at least no conscious connection.
We treat animals as if we were superior beings entitled to control and exploit them. Even those of us who profess to love and respect animals unconsciously debase them. We will say such things as “He eats like a pig”, “She’s as fat as a cow”, “That guy is a dirty dog” and other such examples when making insulting comments about other humans. To demean human beings we compare them to animals.
This brings us to one of the main points of Eternal Treblinka. To convince it’s citizens that it was necessary to rid the world of Jews, Hitler and his Nazis referred to Jews as lowly animals not worthy of human consideration or treatment. If Hitler could manipulate his followers into thinking of Jews, and the other poor souls on his extermination list, as being in the same class as common barnyard animals; then slaughtering them is no longer a matter of conscience. Only those beings we think of as in our total control and domination could be marked for death without a second thought.
There are portions in this book that are hard to read and imagine. Once or twice, I was tempted to close it altogether rather than think about the images described. I am not ashamed to admit that tears flowed down my face more than once while reading certain passages. The bottom line is the pain I felt in reading this book is nothing compared to the pain we as human beings are capable of inflicting on ourselves and other animals when we forget the connection all living beings share.
Eternal Treblinka is an eye opening, thought provoking book that I highly recommend as way of gaining additional insight into the psychology of the Holocaust.

Charles Patterson is a social historian, Holocaust educator, editor, therapist, and author. His first book--Anti-Semitism: The Road to the Holocaust and Beyond--was called "important" by Publisher’s Weekly. "It can't be stressed enough how good a writer Charles Patterson is and what an excellent book he has produced," wrote Judaica Book News. "It deserves a place in every home, school and public library... excellent background reading in Jewish history and the history of western civilization."
The National Council for the Social Studies in Washington, D.C. presented Patterson with its Carter G. Woodson Book Award for his biography of Marian Anderson at a special luncheon at its annual convention in St. Louis, Missouri in 1989. Patterson's most recent books are The Oxford 50th Anniversary Book of the United Nations, The Civil Rights Movement, The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages (contributed 140 entries), and From Buchenwald to Carnegie Hall (co-authored with Marian Filar).
Patterson is a graduate of Amherst College, Columbia University (Ph.D.), and the Yad Vashem Institute for Holocaust Education in Jerusalem. For 17 years he has reviewed books and films for Martyrdom and Resistance, published by the International Society of Yad Vashem. He reviewed major histories of the Holocaust by Yehuda Bauer and Martin Gilbert and films such as "The Partisans of Vilna" and "The Wannsee Conference." Patterson’s review essay--"Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka"--was included in A Legacy Recorded: An Anthology of Martyrdom and Resistance (Harvey Rosenfeld and Eli Zborowski, editors), which was dedicated to "the survivors of the Holocaust, whose Spirit and Soul are embodied in this book."
Dr. Patterson, who grew up in New Britain, Connecticut, now lives in New York City. He is a member of PEN, The Authors Guild, and the National Writers Union.