Amazing story of an English WW2 Prisoner of War who swapped places with a Jew in Auschwitz - almost purely so he could understand what was really happening.

Much of the book is outside of Auschwitz, dealing with his early war career in Africa (he actually had a free pass to get home early in the war due to saving an Officers life but wanted to return to the front line), his life as a POW and finally his PTSD when he returned to England post-war - I can't imagine what must have been going through his head, especially with no form of councilling or support network to help.

Much of this book is deeply harrowing, almost everyday in Auschwitz seems to reveal new horrors but Avery's will to survive and amazingly generous spirit makes this an ultimately uplifting read. A great man, I'm glad he got the chance to tell his story. ( )

This book was very interesting. Highly recommend it. ( )

Denis Avey is a smart, young and curious Englishman who learns and understands things quickly. In 1939, he enlists in the army and becomes part of the Rifle Brigade. Many of his skills are useful fighting Italians and Germans in battle and living in appalling conditions.

Unfortunately, he is captured and becomes a POW. But having been stationed, and having fought in the desert he learned how to do without, make do with little, and optimize his environment. Comes in useful now in a camp neighboring the Auschwitz death camps. He and fellow POW's are forced to work at IG Farben factory making items for German war effort. They come up with ways to sabotage and slow down production of equipment parts.

Working with Jewish prisoners he sees the deplorable conditions the Jews are in, realizes the Nazis' plan is to kill Jews with overwork, beatings, and starvation. Denis attempts to communicate with a few Jewish prisoners, specifically young Ernst and Hans, and when he can helps them with cigarettes and a bit of food.

Amazingly, Denis is curious enough wants to see the Jewish camp for himself as a witness. He takes time to consider and plan a swap with Hans which they implement at least twice. What he witnesses is beyond evil, heinous, and virtually impossible to fathom.

He sees a nazi punch a crying infant, and another beat a boy’s head until blood is pouring out, others shoot prisoners who are moving too slowly and those who have fallen out of weakness. He sees men who have become walking shadows. He smells death, sees piles of dead to be taken to crematory. He manages to get a letter to Ernst’s sister to get cigarettes to him. Those cigarettes are a desired commodity in the camps, and prove to be life-changing.

As Allies approach, he is one of many forced on death march in winter. He sees bodies of Jewish prisoners on the roads and in the fields, frozen where they fell. Eventually he escapes and heads home believing Hans and Ernst could not possibly live through death march.

He is happy to reach home but cannot believe how old his mother looks. She has been sick with worry about him and his father who unnecessarily volunteered to fight as well.

Shockingly, soldiers and POW’s are advised not to speak of their experiences; supposedly they need to move forward not remain stuck in past. Denis tried telling some people what happened at Auschwitz and he was met with glazed eyes! People were not ready to understand the shocking truth. Denis stops talking about it and although he has been a strong positive, resourceful man keeping himself and others alive, he and thousands of other soldiers, and concentration camp survivors were not given an opportunity to get it off their chests and minds. No psychological treatment offered because it wasn’t even thought necessary.

Many moved on with their lives but nightmares, fear, negative reactions toud sounds, etc. followed them, causing so much angst. Denis suffered for years not so much from his battles as a soldier but because of the horrors he’d witnessed at Auschwitz! He divorces his first wife who can not deal with it, and meets Audrey who becomes his 2nd wife and life partner.

Many years later he is contacted and asked questions about his war-time experiences. Finally he is able to describe what he witnessed, speak out, get interviewed, honored, and learn what happened to Ernst!

Beautiful story of an exceptionally, commendable man!

Now, I didn't get to finish this book. I was staying at the strangest youth hostel in rural Guatemala that could only be reminiscent of a low budget B-horror flick in a very isolated part of a notorious swamp with rustic decor and the oddest staff. I have yet to go to another lodging that was quite like it.

Making my brief stay even more memorable, someone left this book in the reading section and I simply devoured it until I dropped on my bed exhausted late at night. Not even the dengue transmitting mosquitos could avert my attention from this fascinating book about a US vet that traded places on two occasions with an Auschwitz inmate that physically looked a lot like him and while he didn't do anything particularly extraordinary because he only spent two nights trying to sleep in their uncomfortable bunker hoping he wouldn't get caught and two, he'd locate his doppleganger the following morning (he did BTW albeit he mentions he never knew what happened to the man), the book was still a nonstop thrill to read.

I'd really love to find a way to finish reading this book because it was so good. ( )

Review: The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz by Denis Avey/Rob Broomby.

Some will say, “Oh, just one of those stories again”. Every one of these stories needs to be read. There are no two stories alike and just having one person read a book from a survivor of the Holocaust gives merit to that person. This story is about Denis Avey a British soldier in WWII in the Western Desert of North Africa, who was captured, escaped and maneuvered his way through Greece and much of Italy, was captured once again, escaped again and finally wound up as a POW of the Germans right next to the concentration camp in Poland known as Auschwitz III, also known as Buna-Monowitz. Denis was not in the Jewish camp but worked right beside them everyday and seen how the people were treated which led to Denis’s mental state after the war.

The soldier’s and himself was not to communicate with the Jewish men while they worked side by side. He watched those men be tortured or shot on the spot for good or bad behavior; to a German it didn’t matter. Most of the Germans didn’t blink an eye when ever they killed one of the undernourished, disfigured, or tortured bodies in striped pajama type clothing that they were made to wear to mark them as a Jew. Denis seen less Jews every day because some of them never lived through the night and the one’s that were to weak were sent off to the crematorium. Denis tried to block his thoughts when he seen so many women and children marching towards the gas chamber building or the crematorium building. One time a child was crying and he looked up as a German soldier took the butt of his rife and smashed the child’s skull while the mother was holding the child in her arms….the mother held the dead child and kept walking in line. The cruelty done to these people were tremendous.

Denis was able to befriend but not trust one of the Jewish prisoners to swap one night to get into Auschwitz III to get first hand information of what went on in the camp. He thought he had it bad were he was placed but couldn’t believe the way the Germans made these people live. Taking another chance, Denis swapped once again before the war was over to get more information to pass on if he got out, as proof of what went on in these prison camps. The story was emotional but Denis Avey tried to downplay a lot of the events that went on but as an avid reader I could read between the lines and there is nothing I can say that would help people understand because there are no answers of relief for anyone who was there……Denis Avey wrote this book when he was ninety. It took him that long to be able to tell his story…..
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