Conversations with an Executioner: 255 Days Imprisoned with the Nazi Who Destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto by Kazimierz Moczarski describe the supposed prison cell conversations between a World War II Polish resistance fighter – Moczarski – and two German SS officers – Jürgen Stroop and Gustav Schielke – where Moczarski, a journalist, gradually extracts confessions and honesty about Stroop’s activities during the war. Stroop was responsible for killing over 56,000 Jews during the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and executing US prisoners of war without trial, for which both he was convicted and sentenced to death. Over eight months, Moczarski interviewed Stroop about his wartime acts, challenged and rebutted his omissions, interpretations, and explanations, ultimately showing Stroop to be an unforgiving Nazi whom still believes all that Hitler, Himmler and others stood for.
The book reads as a play script with the three prisoners living day-to-day in a prison cell with the monotony broken up by discussions about what happened during the war and each prisoner’s different interpretation. Stroop is the primary character, as Moczarski gradually gets Stroop to open up and honestly reflect on what he has done, though Stroop maintains most of his SS general arrogance, at least as best he can. Schielke hovers around the edges, disgusted, not just by Stroop’s activities but also by the extravagance enjoyed by Stroop and the Nazi elite while everyone else suffered during the war.
I initially called the book the supposed prison cell conversations because I difficult to believe that Moczarski’s remembered, in detail, those months of conversations without any means of writing any of it down; in fact, Moczarski did not have an opportunity to write anything until released from prison more than six years later. Once free, Moczarski immediately wrote everything down and double-checked everything with various war archives. Moczarski claimed his journalistic memory improved while imprisoned, that he was constantly editing the manuscript mentally until he could put pen to paper.
Granted, the brain is an amazing organ that allow certain people to execute amazing tricks of mental gymnastics, but I still find it dubious that Moczarski was able to regurgitate such detailed information and conversations after his release. No doubt the overall information presented is accurate, however the level of detail and conversation seems more contrived than remembered. The book was not published until after the fall of communism, long after Stroop was executed and Moczarski died, leaving no one to answer these questions.
I initially found the book interesting but my interest waned as I started questioning the source material. Much of the details contained within are now well-known which again is why Moczarski probably could double-check his information and ensure consistency. The conversations themselves? Hmmm, not so much.
