The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz - Denis Avey

The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz - Denis Avey (2011)

I went to pick this one up at the local library, and ran into one of my friends who did suggest that this may not be the book to break into on the day, which is true.  I always do like a memoir and I had read about this in blogland.

We get to hear about Denis growing up before war intervened, and his service in North Africa.  As a prisoner of war he found himself working in a factory in Poland alongside concentration camp inmates from Auschwitz.  Wanting to see conditions for himself, on two separate occasions he swaps uniforms with a prisoner and is smuggled inside.  Witnessing the terrible conditions of the prisoners, when he returns to the UK, he never speaks of his ordeal with friends and family, and tries to forget the horrors that he has seen.

Now in his ninties, he realizes that he has the opportunity to speak up for all those that had died, and writes his memoirs which gained considerable publicity in the UK.  For me the book was very readable and another reminder of the craziness of war.  4/5