All the Horrors of War is available at: Johns Hopkins University Press, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. (It can also be ordered through your favorite independent bookstore.)

The Audible Audiobook All the Horrors of War is available here.

For discussion questions pertaining to the book, click here.

The protagonists—a Jewish girl and a British doctor—at the point of their convergence:

April 15, 1945. Three weeks before the end of World War II, a unit of the British Second Army entered Bergen-Belsen. Hardened military men sickened at the sight—nothing they had seen in battle came close to the depravity at the then-largest Nazi concentration camp. Among the 60,000 desperate and emaciated inmates were 25,000 who would die if they did not receive immediate medical care.

Brigadier Glyn Hughes, the army’s Deputy Director of Medical Services, committed himself to the complex and harrowing task of trying to save lives. Fifteen-year-old Rachel Genuth, who had lost her parents and four siblings in Auschwitz, was among those at death’s door.

Praise

“Lerner seamlessly weaves two powerful personal stories into a unique and evocative page-turner… Many of you have read extensively about the Holocaust. You will still find this a completely fresh account, the mix of the journeys by a liberator and by a survivor, told from the intimate perch of the survivor’s daughter. All the Horrors of War is a book of considerable scholarship and talented storytelling.”— Trisha Posner, author of The Pharmacist of Auschwitz

“Truly well done, moving, poignant, heartbreaking, provocative, edifying, and so much more.” — Grand Rabbi Y.A. Korff, Chaplain of the City of Boston

“A treatise of astounding depth…” — Gloria Goldreich, Hadassah Magazine

“A towering achievement, Lerner's book is at once an extraordinary honoring of two human beings, one who is as close to her as we ever get to another, and one she never met. Her narrative brings us into hell, along with Rachel and Hughes, and then lifts us out on the strength of their respective forms of courage and generosity. This true, meticulously researched story is as inspiring as it is horrifying and dispiriting—Lerner has created something to nourish the soul.” — Dr. Robert Kegan, Harvard University, author of The Evolving Self: Problems and Process in Human Development

“Dr. Lerner masterfully combines the fruits of her scholarly research with gripping and engaging storytelling” — Robin Lindley, History News Network

“Focusing on the traumatization of the liberator as well as the survivor, Lerner tells two fascinating stories that are original in both form and content. Her writing is clear, straightforward, and compelling. A powerful and engaging book." — Dr. Michael A. Grodin, MD, Boston University School of Public Health, coauthor of The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in Human Experimentation

"Bernice Lerner's All the Horrors of War is a powerful and poignant tale that traces both the arc of the war and the history of the Holocaust. In this meticulously researched and detailed account, Lerner never lets the reader forget the humanity of the victims or their liberators." — Dr. Michael Berenbaum, Director, Sigi Ziering Holocaust Institute, American Jewish University

“By describing the fate of one Jewish girl destined to die under the most gruesome manner and the horror experienced by a British doctor and officer upon stepping into a Nazi concentration camp, Lerner humanizes an event that is often described only from one perspective: either that of the liberators, for whom the survivors were often dehumanized 'living skeletons' because of their deplorable living conditions, or that of the survivors, for whom the liberators were angels of mercy descended from heaven after months and years of utter dehumanization by their tormentors. A valuable and highly readable book." — Dr. Omer Bartov, Brown University, author of Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz

“Bernice Lerner has given us a haunting account of her mother’s trials as an adolescent in one of the most brutal concentration camps, Bergen-Belsen, interspersed with the story of the decorated British physician who was charged with setting up the medical facilities there when the war was finally over. The war was not over for Lerner’s sick mother or for Dr. Glyn Hughes, who both had to find ways out of the haunting shadows of WWII. . . We follow each story until we learn how the one who saved and the one who was saved shared a narrative that impacted each for the rest of their lives. Lerner has brought honor to both her mother and this remarkable physician. Her book is well researched and informed by both heart and mind. I could not put it down until I finished it.” — Dr. Erica Brown, author of Happier Endings: A Meditation on Life and Death and Leadership in the Wilderness: Authority and Anarchy in the Book of Numbers

“In All the Horrors of War, Bernice Lerner compellingly links her mother's story of survival during World War II with the story of Brigadier Hugh Llewelyn Glyn Hughes, the first allied medical officer to enter Bergen-Belsen and the man responsible for ensuring that food and medical supplies be made available to thousands of desperate camp inmates. Lerner's moving and engaging account underscores the ways luck, courage, and a wide range of factors outside her mother's control, including the weeks in Bergen-Belsen under Hughes's leadership, allowed her mother to overcome the dangers she faced. In so doing, Lerner uses the story of two people who never met to document the ways World War II made allies of strangers and transformed forever the lives of those who were caught up in the maelstrom.” — Dr. Maud S. Mandel, President, Professor of History, Williams College, author of Muslims and Jews in France: History of a Conflict

"Dr. Bernice Lerner's new book deserves high praise and wide readership. Although the mind recoils at the immoral enormity of what she describes, the story of these two courageous individuals stands in sharp contrast to the darkness of the most evil period in human history." — Dr. Michael D. Aeschliman, Boston University, author of The Restoration of Man: C. S. Lewis and the Continuing Case Against Scientism

“All the Horrors of War is a compact, matter-of-fact account that skillfully interlaces disparate yet related threads into a seamless story, and the juxtaposition of its protagonists provides readers with a novel and holistic perspective on historical events. In honoring her indomitable mother, Lerner likewise pays homage to a righteous gentile and an ethical exemplar who has hitherto lacked the popular awareness that is his due; in so doing, the authoress helps ensure that Hughes’ sterling service and compassion remain timeless lessons to us all.” — Brandon Marlin, TheJ.Ca

“Given the rise in Jew hatred and Holocaust denial, Bernice Lerner's book needs to be read in high schools, colleges, and newsrooms throughout this country… It's thoughtfully written, carefully researched, and leaves the reader with a clear picture of the hell that Jews went through during the Shoah. And through it all, the inextinguishable human spirit runs through the work, leaving one hopeful for the future.” — Steven Shalowitz, Jewish National Fund-USA’s Reading Series host

“… a unique approach and a story well written… As a topic of study, camp liberation is frequently told from either the liberator’s perspective or that of the survivor. All the Horrors of War corrects this imbalance: when the Allied soldiers gaze at the survivors, the survivors gaze back.” — Mark Celinscak, author of Distance from the Belsen Heap

“Absorbing and well-written, All the Horrors of War deserves a place in the library of any and all students of the Holocaust.” — Dr. Diane Cypkin, Pace University

“… what makes Lerner’s work unique is that she describes in All The Horrors of War (2020) not only the victims of the Nazi genocide but the toll the fighting took on the British soldiers as they moved toward the eventual liberation of Bergen-Belsen, on April 15, 1945. The author focuses on one British Officer in particular, Brigadier H.L. Glyn Hughes, a physician and hero of both World War I and World War II… The fighting across Europe was intense. That was the horror of war even for those who were not targeted for extinction. The author, with great skill, succeeds in describing the battles across the continent. But the worst experience for these soldiers was the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. They were shocked by the extreme overcrowding, mounds of corpses and starving inmates who were barely alive. The British doctor quickly brought in other physicians and nurses to treat many inmates who were dying, trying to save them.” — Rabbi Eli Kavon

“[Lerner’s] descriptive chapters on the thoughts and activities of fifteen-year-old Jewish victim Rachel Genuth—deported with her family from Sighet, Transylvania, to Auschwitz in May 1944, and later transferred to Bergen-Belsen in March 1945—and Brigadier Hugh Llewellyn Glyn Hughes, among others, portray courage, dedication, and determination to live and survive the horrors. The end effect of multiple readings and interpretations is a revalorization of Jewish rootlessness, identity, and practice on the wings of existentialist ethics and universal humanism. In sum, the lessons of humanity that permeate the story of two strangers transformed into allies—ignited by the horrors of World War II and Shoah—have become a contemporary Jewish thought process that harbors no restriction in visions of the self and the stranger.” — Dr. Zev Garber