According to The New Republic review, which uses information from Sack's endnotes, most of the people working in these camps were not Jewish, a fact Sack does his best to conceal, according to the review. Sack, claiming the criticism was demonstrably untrue, attempted to publish his response in a letter to the editor of The New Republic, which the magazine refused to run. He then asked to purchase an ad. The New Republic agreed to publish one, but later reversed its position.
In 1993, the CBS News program 60 Minutes ran a story on the book, focusing on one of its main characters, Solomon Morel, the commandant of Świętochłowice prison camp. Following the book's publication, Morel was indicted by Polish authorities for crimes against humanity.
Following the publication of this book, its author, himself a Jew, was accused of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial by some critics.