The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz by Denis Avey, Rob Broomby

The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz (Extraordinary Lives, Extraordinary Stories of World War Two)

by Denis Avey and Rob Broomby

THE MAN WHO BROKE INTO AUSCHWITZ is the extraordinary true story of a British soldier who marched willingly into Buna-Monowitz, the concentration camp known as Auschwitz III.

In the summer of 1944, Denis Avey was being held in a POW labour camp, E715, near Auschwitz III. He had heard of the brutality meted out to the prisoners there and he was determined to witness what he could.

He hatched a plan to swap places with a Jewish inmate and smuggled himself into his sector of the camp. He spent the night there on two occasions and experienced at first-hand the cruelty of a place where slave workers, had been sentenced to death through labour.

Astonishingly, he survived to witness the aftermath of the Death March where thousands of prisoners were murdered by the Nazis as the Soviet Army advanced. After his own long trek right across central Europe he was repatriated to Britain.

For decades he couldn't bring himself to revisit the past that haunted his dreams, but now Denis Avey feels able to tell the full story - a tale as gripping as it is moving - which offers us a unique insight into the mind of an ordinary man whose moral and physical courage are almost beyond belief.

Reviewed by Michael @ Knowledge Lost on

3 of 5 stars

Share
A fascinating, emotionally charged tale of the horrors, sorrows and anguish experienced by Denis Avey’s and his time in World War II, being captured by the Germans and the difference between the POW’s and the Jews in Auschwitz. The story starts before the war and goes through all the experiences from training for the war, fight, being a prisoner and life afterwards. He talks not only about the problems, but the friendships he made. One in particular was a friendship he made with one of the Jewish prisoner; he also told how not once but twice they swapped places and he was able to experience how the Germans treated the Jews while his friend got a chance to sleep and eat a little better for a change.

This book really gives you an insight into War, Prisoner of War Camps as well as the Concentration/Extermination Camps and what is known as a ‘Death March’. Not only is at an interesting story about the horrors of the war, but the emotional and psychological traumas experienced afterwards. An interesting and compelling memoir to read, I would highly recommend it.

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 22 October, 2011: Finished reading
  • 22 October, 2011: Reviewed