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NONFICTION : Jozef Debreczeni witnessed, and reported the best and worst of mankind. :

'' COLD CREMATORIUM, '' By Josef Debreczeni translated by Paul Olchvary.

Debreczeni, 39 when he was deported from his native Hungry to what he calls the '' the land of Auschwitz,'' would later memorialize the experience in a book that defies easy classification.

First published in 1950, '' Cold Crematorium '' is a masterpiece of clinical, mordant observation.

In a cattle car he watches a fellow deportee whose hand retains the gestures of a chain-smoker newly arrived at Auschwitz, he encounters the lazy barroom piano player he avoided back home.

This is more than gallows humor ; it's a stubborn fight to stay human and place the unimaginable in the context of the known.

Look elsewhere for platitudes - Debreczeni witnessed, and reported, the best and worst of mankind.

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times Book Staff.