The Death's Head Chess Club, by John Donoghue
Exactly how if there is a site that enables you to look for referred publication The Death's Head Chess Club, By John Donoghue from all around the globe author? Immediately, the website will certainly be incredible finished. Numerous book collections can be found. All will be so simple without difficult point to move from website to site to get guide The Death's Head Chess Club, By John Donoghue wanted. This is the site that will certainly offer you those requirements. By following this site you can obtain lots numbers of book The Death's Head Chess Club, By John Donoghue compilations from versions sorts of author and also publisher prominent in this globe. The book such as The Death's Head Chess Club, By John Donoghue and others can be gained by clicking wonderful on link download.
The Death's Head Chess Club, by John Donoghue
Download Ebook PDF The Death's Head Chess Club, by John Donoghue
SS Obersturmführer Paul Meissner arrives in Auschwitz from the Russian front. After being badly wounded he is fit only for administrative duty, and his first and most pressing task is to improve flagging camp morale. He sets up a chess club which thrives, as the officers and enlisted men are allowed to gamble on the results of the games. However, when Meissner learns from a chance remark that chess is also played by the prisoners, he hears of a Jewish watchmaker who is "unbeatable". Meissner sets out to discover the truth behind this rumour, and what he finds will haunt him to his death....
The Death's Head Chess Club, by John Donoghue- Amazon Sales Rank: #202874 in Audible
- Published on: 2015-06-04
- Format: Unabridged
- Original language: English
- Running time: 715 minutes
Where to Download The Death's Head Chess Club, by John Donoghue
Most helpful customer reviews
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful. The Death's Head Chess Club By S Riaz This is a moving and poignant novel, set around events in Auschwitz during the war. SS Obersturmfuhrer Paul Meissner arrives in Auschwitz, having been injured in Russia. In charge of overseeing satellite industrial labour camps, he is ordered to improve morale and, bizarrely, is told that SS officers should take an interest in culture. Meissner’s answer is to start a chess club. Competition becomes fierce between the officers and the men, but then a suggestion occurs which causes the camp hierarchy to feel extremely unsettled. Rumours abound in the camp about a Jewish chess player who is unbeatable and this challenges Nazi ideology. Emil Clement has arrived at Auschwitz with his wife, mother and two young sons. Now he has no idea whether they are alive or dead, but his love of chess gives him a sense of hope. However, playing chess with the enemy is quite another prospect, when life and death hinges on the outcome of a game.The storyline in this novel alternates between events during the war and a 1962 chess tournament in Amsterdam, where Emil Clement is playing. When he is drawn against Wilhelm Schweninger, an ex member of the Nazi party, who worked in the Ministry of Propaganda during the war, those organising the tournament are concerned. Clement, now living in Israel, says there is no such thing as a good German, while Schweninger is unrepentant about his time as a National Socialist. Events are changed when a bishop approaches Clement and he realises that the man was once known to him, long ago, in Auschwitz. Together, the bishop, Clement and Schweninger, rediscover their past and come to terms with the long road which has left them stranded in a world they cannot come to terms with.This book explores the guilt of the perpetrator, as well as the guilt of the survivor and looks at a most unlikely friendship between men who look upon themselves as enemies. Mostly, though, it is just a very well imagined – and original – story about a chess game held in incredible circumstances; when a Jewish prisoner is forced to confront the SS and three men are forced to confront their pasts. An excellent read, wonderfully realised and with interesting characters, this would be an ideal book for reading groups, with lots of themes to discuss. This is an impressive debut and I look forward to reading more from this talented author.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A really good story By Suze Lavender It's 1962 and there's an important chess tournament in Amsterdam. In the first round Emil Clément has to play against Wilhelm Schweninger. Wilhelm Schweninger is a German who worked for the Ministry of Propaganda during the Second World War. Emil Clément is a survivor of Auschwitz. The Frenchman's life was saved because of playing chess. The two have a mutual history and are linked by Paul Meissner who is also in Amsterdam at the time of the tournament. He thinks they have unfinished business together and he tries to convince Emil to listen to him. Meissner is the person who has made sure Emil's life was spared and they have a story to tell. He's now a priest who tries to do good. The three men keep meeting each other and slowly their history is being revealed.Emil's name in Auschwitz is The Watchmaker. Because of his repair work he earns himself a couple of privileges which he always shares with a friend. When Meissner introduces chess to improve the morals of the officers in the camp he doesn't know yet that among the Jewish prisoners there's an unbeatable player. To prove that Jews are inferior some of the Germans want him to play chess against their German champions. The stakes are getting higher and higher and Emil is just a pawn in the game, someone who doesn't have a say and who has to play to save his own life and the lives of others.The Death's Head Chess Club is a story about a Jewish man who was deported to Auschwitz and went through something too terrible for words. Even though Emile manages to keep his life he loses everything else. He loses his family and everything he holds dear. In 1962 he's still a very broken man. I found it unbelievably hard to read about the horrors in the camp, so it took me some time to finish this book as I could only manage a couple of chapters at a time. Of course this isn't the first WWII book I've read, but every time I read about Auschwitz it shocks me to the core. There's a lot of information about the camp itself and about the nauseating things that were being done to the prisoners, especially the Jews. I think there's a good explanation of the hierarchy of the camp which made the story more understandable and which also made it come to life.I doubted if I would review this book for a very long time. I think John Donoghue has written a very good story and he's definitely a great writer. I had issues with the character of Meissner, who worked in Auschwitz at the end of the war. He's supposed to feel terrible because of the things that happened there and he tries to atone for what he was a part of. I kept feeling conflicted about his character, especially because Emile seems to see him as a friend towards the end of the story. For me that was too quick and also maybe a bridge too far. Because I felt so conflicted and because I didn't like certain aspects, for me this book is also a success. It made me think and it keeps making me think. I try to form an unbiased opinion, but what is the correct way to look at things in this situation? The moral questions that are arising and inner discussions I keep having with myself are turning a really good story into something great. This novel made me contemplate cruelty, the horrors of war, forgiveness, being the better person and plenty of other things. If you're prepared to feel conflicted and to read a good story that will tear you apart inside, then you should pick up this book.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful. "In Auschwitz, the good are punished, the evil flourish...." By E. Bukowsky In "The Death's Head Chess Club," by John Donoghue, the Nazis send Frenchman Emil Clément to Auschwitz, where he toils as a slave laborer. Before the war, Emil had a loving wife and two young sons. In 1944, when the book opens, he is a starving and exhausted concentration camp inmate, whose only comfort is chess. Emil's mystical ability to come up with consistently winning chess strategies makes him a formidable opponent. When his sadistic Nazi captors get wind of his prowess, they decide that Clément, a Jew, must be put in his place.In Auschwitz, those who manage to stay alive barely subsist on a minuscule number of calories per day. They are emaciated, freezing, and fully aware that they are living on borrowed time. The characters include SS-Obersturmführer Paul Meissner, who is assigned to keep the factories in Auschwitz running efficiently; chess champion Wilhelm Schweninger, an employee of the Ministry of Propaganda; the villainous Oberscharführer Klaus Hustek, a scheming member of the Gestapo; and Meissner's aide, Ernst Eidenmüller, who is a clever opportunist. All of these and others will have a hand in determining whether Emil will survive or perish.This ambitious and complex work of fiction moves back and forth between the 1930s, 1940s, and 1960s. These shifts are unsettling, the narrative is drawn-out and talky, and the story oversimplifies several serious questions: Should a German who regrets his participation in the oppression and extermination of Jews during the Holocaust seek forgiveness from those he has wronged? In turn, should the victims feel obligated to grant absolution to those who helped torture and murder their compatriots? Several scenes are powerful and poignant and the descriptive writing is generally vivid and evocative. However, "The Death's Head Chess Club," although readable and suspenseful, is short on substance, and therefore earns only a marginal recommendation.
See all 22 customer reviews... The Death's Head Chess Club, by John DonoghueThe Death's Head Chess Club, by John Donoghue PDF
The Death's Head Chess Club, by John Donoghue iBooks
The Death's Head Chess Club, by John Donoghue ePub
The Death's Head Chess Club, by John Donoghue rtf
The Death's Head Chess Club, by John Donoghue AZW
The Death's Head Chess Club, by John Donoghue Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar