Persistence, Truth, and the Anniversary of a Book the Industry Didn’t Want
How The Pharmacist of Auschwitz became a global success—after every U.S. publisher said no.
Nine years ago today, The Pharmacist of Auschwitz was published.
My wife, Trisha Posner, had written a searing, deeply researched biography of Victor Capesius — the chief pharmacist at Auschwitz, who used his position not to heal, but to profit from genocide. The book was gripping, historically grounded, and morally urgent.
No one in the U.S. publishing world wanted it.
No agents. No editors. Not because the manuscript wasn’t strong — but because it didn’t “fit the market.” Some were blunt enough to say that readers weren’t interested in “another Holocaust book” or that “the Holocaust isn’t trending.” Others worried that it was too focused on a lesser-known figure, or too uncompromising in its portrayal of Nazi collaborators who slipped through the cracks of postwar justice.
Trisha didn’t give up.
Through sheer persistence — and without any institutional support — she got the book released in the UK by a small independent publisher. And then something remarkable happened: readers found it.
Word of mouth…
