to July 1944, six months before the liquidation of the gas chambers and the liberation of KL Auschwitz.
The misrepresented image of Auschwitz created by Matthews is complemented by inauthentic, exaggerated fantasies of the camp's macabre and unrealistic prisoner behaviour, such as the walks of female Puff prisoners throughout the camp, including a tour of the crematoria. The story of the existence of the camp brothel and its rules contains so much untrue information and has been reproduced by the author in a way that has so little to do with the historical reality that in virtually no aspect can it be considered to carry any degree of truth. In Mathews' book, the tragedy of women sent to work in the camp brothel was treated instrumentally, merely as sensationalism and a pretext for naturalistic, even pornographic descriptions in some cases. Some of the author's portrayal of characters, ludicrous scenes and infantile dialogue causes embarrassment to the reader.
Virtually every thread the book addresses contain major or severe factual errors. The above indicated are just some of the long list of reasons why it is not worth reaching for this novel. While assuring the reader of his deep knowledge of this subject, Matthews is yet another author who creates a novel purporting to contain elements of realism and probability but is, in reality, a work of fantasy devoid of factual value from beginning to end. The extent to which such publications can significantly harm the memory of the dramatic history of Auschwitz and its victims can be demonstrated by fragments of reviews posted on internet blogs, proving that not everyone distinguishes between this type of pseudo-camp fiction and authentic memoir literature. We read in them, for example: "The author [...] does not mince words and shows in a rather brutal way what happened in the camps" , "he conveys in an interesting but shocking way the reality of the war period" ; the book "combines difficult literary fiction with an even more difficult and dramatic wartime reality" . In her review of Secret Room in Auschwitz, Zofia Czyńska states that it is "a poignant story, the recollections of Anna Burczyk" . Given that the author of these words is a philologist, a journalist and a book editor who has worked with numerous literary editors , there is reason to fear that many readers will conclude that this is a novel based on truth and that many, deceived by the ads on the cover, will believe that they are dealing with non-fiction.
Therefore, it must once again be emphasised in the strongest possible terms that S. Matthews' novel is entirely the product of the author's imagination and in no way describes the history or reality of Auschwitz. In terms of facts, it does not present any value and cannot be regarded as a source of reliable knowledge about the camp. And in terms of its portrayal of the history of the Second World War, especially the history of Auschwitz, it is probably the worst book to have appeared in recent years. Unfortunately, it is not an exception, but just another example of the pseudo-historical popular literature so popular in recent years that distorts history and insults the memory of the victims of the genocide perpetrated by Nazi Germany.