KRISS55, contributor to the 20 Minutes Books reading group, recommends “Les derniers de la liste” by Grégory Cingal, published on August 28, 2024 by Éditions Grasset.
His favorite quote:
« Some, however, managed to take to the bush every night. They drew from their nocturnal life a strength that they opposed to the madness of the day, bringing back enchanting images that shielded the cold, hunger, and blows. The camp in their eyes was nothing but a dark fairyland, a pitiful simulacrum that burned every night in the inalienable fire of their dreams. Their life expectancy was no more guaranteed than the others, but at least they allowed themselves the luxury of succumbing with a smile on their lips. »
Why this book?
- Because these are two true stories and, what’s more, unpublished. First, a mystification: “For an entire year, under the noses of their guards, a handful of Jewish and non-Jewish scientists, prisoners of a highly monitored concentration camp, risk their lives to supply the German army with fake vaccines.” And a spectacular rescue operation of three prisoner officers.
- Because Gregory Cingal respects history while playing on the codes of the novel. He did meticulous research to give credibility and respect to the story. He shows the unexpected complicities, the negotiations in what Primo Levi calls the “grey zone”, this antechamber of death.
- Because the alliance between historical facts and narration The novel produces a gripping story, full of chilling twists and turns, which grips us.
The essentials in 2 minutes
The plot. The last ones on the list are three officers who will develop, with the complicity of the camp’s clandestine resistance, an escape plan by taking the identities of patients who died during the development of a vaccine against typhus.
The characters. Commander Yeo-Thomas, Churchill’s special envoy to the resistance leaders. Captain Harry Peulevé, head of the Special Operations Executive network. Lieutenant Stéphane Hessel, agent of the Free French secret services. Alfred Balachowsky, entomologist, Franco-Russian resistance fighter.
The places. The Buchenwald concentration camp.
The era. August 1944.
The author. Gregory Cingal, born in 1971, is an archivist, translator, and librarian. He has published two autobiographical stories: My night between your eyelashes (2016) et The reverse of my dreams (2017).
This book was read with the oppression of the weight of the struggle for survival.
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