THE POEMS ASSEMBLED IN THIS SECTION deal with themes generally having to do with the realities of concentration camp life, though this is, of course, a rather imprecise characterization. Indeed, it may not always be an entirely satisfactory way of systemizing a wealth of diverse and uniquely personal statements by individual authors. Nevertheless, the attempt undertaken in this anthology to arrange the material chronologically and thematically into four different sections makes it possible to look at various aspects of life in the concentration camp at Dachau. Each section presents one particular aspect of “concentration camp poetry,” presenting via the variety of individual writings a vivid overview of the complexity of the extreme universe of concentration camp experiences.

There is a vast amount of writing on the realities of concentration camp life, and certainly there is a great deal still to write. Yet who else would be better able to summarize the basic facts here than a survivor of multiple camps: