"The Spark of Life" by Erich Maria Remarque, summary

The novel "Spark of Life" was written in 1952. This book is a brutal account of human survival in the fictional Nazi concentration camp of Möllern, based on Buchenwald. The author dedicated the work to the memory of his younger sister, Elfriede Scholz, who was guillotined by the Nazis in 1943 for her anti-war statements.

Conditions of the Small Camp and the veterans’ group

In the spring of 1945, prisoner No. 509, former newspaper editor Friedrich Koller, who had been imprisoned for ten years, was held in the "Small Camp" at the German concentration camp of Möllern. This lenient-security section was where exhausted prisoners, unfit for physical labor and doomed to die quickly from exhaustion and disease, were thrown into. The inmates of the Small Camp were known in camp slang as "Muslims" for their complete indifference to their own fate.

Standing out among the dying is a small group of long-lived residents of Barrack 22, ironically calling themselves "veterans." They include the doctor Ephraim Berger, the cunning merchant Leo Lebenthal, the twenty-five-year-old Social Democrat Josef Bucher, the seventy-two-year-old Jew Ahasuerus, the eleven-year-old Czech orphan Karel, and a prisoner driven mad by torture nicknamed "Shepherd." They band together, sharing their meager scraps of food and bolstering each other’s waning strength.

The first massive Allied air raid on the valley town brings the prisoners to the realization that Nazi Germany is nearing defeat. The sight of burning city blocks and the collapsed tower of St. Catherine’s Church awakens in No. 509 a long-buried desire to survive.

Camp leadership and the system of torture

The camp is commanded by SS-Obersturmbannführer Bruno Neubauer. The commandant is preoccupied with personal enrichment, buying up city land, and tending his own garden, which uses crematorium ashes as fertilizer. The actual execution of prisoners is overseen by Lagerführer Weber, a man with a deep scar on his face, and the brutal SS men Steinbrenner, Breuer, and Niemann.

Dying from dysentery, prisoner Loman uses a nail to remove his gold crown to prevent it from falling into the hands of the executioners. Lebental, through his connections, trades a tooth with the kapo of the transport detachment for dog meat and bread, strengthening the veterans.

Medical Captain Wiese arrives at the camp, selecting candidates for secret human experiments. Neubauer demands written statements of voluntary consent from the prisoners. No. 509 and Josef Bucher openly refuse to sign the documents, despite Weber’s torture. After two days in a punishment bunker, they survive thanks to an administrative disagreement between Neubauer and Weber. Their return to the barracks is perceived by the prisoners as a victory.

Organisation of the underground and the change of names

The resilience of No. 509 attracts the attention of the leaders of the underground committee of the Big Workers’ Camp, Stanislav Levinsky and Willi Werner. The underground provides the veterans with medicine, news of the breakthrough on the Rhine, and food. The veterans agree to hide persecuted political prisoners in their barracks. No. 509 receives a loaded revolver from the underground and hides it under the floorboards.

Block elder Handke, a brutal criminal with a green badge, begins blackmailing No. 509. To buy himself time, Koller concocts a story about a bank account in Switzerland. During another Allied raid, members of the underground assassinate Handke. Berger arranges for documents to be swapped at the crematorium: No. 509 is officially listed as dead, assuming the name of the deceased prisoner, Flormann.

Tragedies of the stages and the collapse of the commandant

A convoy of five hundred emaciated Jewish prisoners from the disbanded camp in Lom arrives in Möllern. Realizing they are being transported to the gas chambers, the doomed men refuse to leave the parade ground of the Small Camp. The SS use truncheons and then roll up a field kitchen to bribe the starving prisoners with the smell of food and herd them onto the transport.

Allied air raids destroy Neubauer’s city property, his store, and his newspaper office. The commandant’s wife, Selma, takes her valuables and flees with her daughter, Freya, to Bavaria. Neubauer attempts to justify his actions, collecting documents about the supposedly "humane" treatment of prisoners and meeting the former owner of his store, a Jew named Josef Blank.

The death of Weber and the arrival of the liberators

Bombing damages the camp’s arsenal. Underground members steal weapons and form self-defense units. The cannonade of the approaching front is heard from the west. The night before the SS units retreat, a drunken Lagerführer Weber and a group of guards commit a pogrom: they douse wooden Barrack 22 with gasoline and shoot the people running out.

No. 509 pulls out a hidden revolver and fatally wounds Weber with two shots to the back. A burning wooden beam falls on the wounded executioner. No. 509 watches over the dying Weber until his last breath, after which he dies of pulmonary hemorrhage.

The underground committee takes control of the camp, disarms the remaining guards, and establishes an outer cordon. A cross made of white sheets on the parade ground attracts American aircraft. The next day, American tanks approach Möllern. Former commandant Neubauer, who tried to hide in a shed in his garden, is betrayed by his driver, Alfred. The Americans force Neubauer and the captured SS men to manually excavate the ashes of Barrack 22 and recover the remains of the victims.

The path to a new life

Former prisoners receive clean clothes, medical care, and food. Friedrich Koller (No. 509) is buried with honors in a coffin on the site of the burned-out Block 22. Ephraim Berger returns to his medical practice and operates on the wounded in the infirmary. Leo Lebenthal leaves for the city, planning to trade in American goods.

Josef Bucher and his lover, Ruth Holland, leave the women’s barracks. They head for the white house on the hill that Bucher had watched for years through barbed wire. The rear of the building is destroyed by a bomb, but the facade and the small kitchen remain intact. After stacking the mattresses they found and finding some surviving kitchen utensils, Josef and Ruth light the stove, ready to begin a new life in freedom.