Shlomo Venezia (born 1923), a Jew from the Italian Jewish community of Thessaloniki, was transported in April 1944 at the age of 21 to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he joined the Sonderkommando, of which he is one of the few survivors.

These "special units" were tasked by the SS to empty the gas chambers and burn the bodies of the victims before they themselves were led to execution after several months of "service." By the end of the war, there were only a few dozen survivors, of which very few spoke, and indeed only sporadically, about this period.

Shlomo Venezia is the only person who was able to recount his entire story, his journey into the depths of an earthly hell. Shlomo Venezia's narration, direct and unbroken, confirms the words of Primo Levi: "The conception and execution of the idea of these so-called 'special units' was the most demonic and dark crime of National Socialism."

The terrifying testimony of Shlomo Venezia, which unfolds through his conversation with Beatrice Praskier, recounts with absolute honesty only what he himself witnessed, providing unbearable details that reveal the horror of the crime in all its extent. He does not omit the barbarity of the person responsible for the crematorium, the mass executions, and the continuous operation of the chambers and crematoria.

As Simone Weil aptly states, "I have read many accounts of inmates, each time making me return to the life of the camps. That of Shlomo Venezia stands out because it is the only complete testimony of a surviving member of the Sonderkommando... Through this concise narration, the emaciated faces, the exhausted, resigned, and terrified eyes of all the men, women, and children he will meet for the first and last time come to life again..."