I am looking to read some books based on this subject. Either a books showing one persons personal account being in one of the camps or a book just giving the overview as to what happened at the camps. Just basically something that is educational and engaging.

Any recommendations?

Maus

First thing I thought of was Schindler's List. Not sure if that is exactly what you are looking for but the book is alot more detailed than the movie.

Books like that just make me so sad. I've only seen movies and they are insane! I had to read Night in college.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Yeah I wasnt looking for any laughs or anything. I would just like to get more educated on the topic.

I've read tons of books....the most graphic was titles Treblinka

Night by Elie Wiesel.

Read this one in high school and it still haunts me. Also its only 175 odd pages so its a quick but powerful read.

Cannot agree more

I would also second Night. It's pretty chilling...here's what Amazon says:

Amazon.com
In Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, a scholarly, pious teenager is wracked with guilt at having survived the horror of the Holocaust and the genocidal campaign that consumed his family. His memories of the nightmare world of the death camps present him with an intolerable question: how can the God he once so fervently believed in have allowed these monstrous events to occur? There are no easy answers in this harrowing book, which probes life's essential riddles with the lucid anguish only great literature achieves. It marks the crucial first step in Wiesel's lifelong project to bear witness for those who died.

The New York Times
"A slim volume of terrifying power"

It doesn't sound like it's about concentration camps, but it does sound like a painful read.

Night. Yes. If any single book. Maus is good, but it is not Night.

Ringside, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you? If you are college level I'm surprised Night hasn't already been mandatory reading for you.

Night was a gripping tale of one persons (or family) experience but if you actually want to learn about the details behind the running of the camps you wont learn much.

Listen to Mr. Wiesel speak and you might think otherwise. He came to speak at my public high school when I was a senior (and I'm in my late thirties) and I think he's still touring American schools giving talks.

Apples and oranges...I'm sure Elie knows his stuff but the book (which was what we were discussing) does not go into any technical details about the camps - construction, delivery schedules, camp origina, etc.

Black Cross by Greg Iles is a fictional account of an attempted liberation (sort of) of a concentration camp. Highly reccomended.

I would also add Schindler's List. I own Night, I've heard it's really good, I just haven't read it yet.

Escape from Sobibor would be another.