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    The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II
    The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II
    The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II

    Written by Denis Avey and Rob Broomby

    Narrated by James Langton

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz is the extraordinary true story of a British soldier who marched willingly into the notorious concentration camp, Buna-Monowitz, known as Auschwitz III.

    In the summer of 1944, Denis Avey was being held in a British POW labor camp, E715, near the site of 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 firsthand the cruelty of a place where slave workers had been sentenced to death through labor.

    Astonishingly, he survived to witness the aftermath of the Death March in which thousands of prisoners were murdered by the Nazis as the Soviet Army advanced. After his own long trek 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 unique insight into the mind of an ordinary man whose moral and physical courage are almost beyond belief.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJul 11, 2011
    ISBN9781452672489
    The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II

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    Reviews for The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz

    4/5

    21 ratings13 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Aangrijpend verhaal over het leven van Denis Avey tijdens de tweede wereld oorlog en daarna.

      Deze soldaat, te werk gesteld in een concentratie kamp bij IG Farben overkomt diverse rampen. Hij wordt krijgsgevangen gemaakt in Afrika, het schip waarin hij vervoert wordt wordt getroffen door een torpedo. Denkend dat het schip zinkt, springt hij over boord en weet uiteindelijk in Griekenland te komen, waar hij uiteindelijk opnieuw gepakt wordt. Via diverse kampen in Italië komt hij uiteindelijk terecht in een concentratiekamp vlak bij Auschwitz III.

      Daar ontmoet hij stiekem een Nederlandse Jood, waarmee hij tijdelijk van kleren wisselt om zodoende te kunnen ervaren wat er plaats vindt in dit kamp. Na een nacht in dit kamp weet hij weer terug te keren in het Krijgsgevangenenkamp. Na een paar maanden herhaalt hij dit nog eens. Een 3e poging mislukt op het laatste moment.
      Uitgekozen om met een groep andere krijgsgevangenen spullen op te halen, ziet hij hoe een Duitse SS-er een baby doodslaat.

      Na zijn ontvluchting en in Engeland twig gekeerd probeert hij het gewone leven weer op te pakken.
    • 4/5
      A harrowing tale of a British soldier's military career during WWII, this autobiography will take hold of its readers and transport them into a life unimaginable. When he joined the military Denis Avery made a decision and when he was captured and held as a prisoner of war in a camp next to Auschwitz he maintained his role as a soldier by witnessing first-hand all the horrors he possibly could. He was determined to experience the position that the Jewish prisoners were in and bartered with a Jewish prisoner for a night in his wooden shoes. Together, Denis and Hans would switch places a couple times. For Hans these nights meant more food, better sleeping arrangements, protection from fear of death or selection. For Denis these were nights of horror - full of the moans of slowly dying, tales of torture, witnessing the dead, the beatings and experiencing what it was to be a prisoner whose daily life was filled with a question of when you would die. These nights forever changed both these men and their relationship in the camp would endure outside of the camp and the war.

      This is a tale of survival in its barest sense and a tale of strength. Men like Denis gave hope to many others and his tale is one that gives a face to the atrocities of WWII while also portraying the difference every person makes in their daily lives. Avery's tale is a story of how much one person can effect the world by helping just one person.
    • 3/5
      This turned out to be a different story from what I expected. I thought it was going to be quite tense and exciting as he hid himself away in Auschwitz, and how he escaped again (and lived to tell the tale). I struggled in the beginning as I found the descriptions of the battles a little tedious, as I was anxious for the story to "get going". However, as the story progressed, I warmed to Avey's way of telling his story and began to realise that here was a man who was deeply affected [ by his swap with Ernie in Auschwitz, although at the time, he did not fully realise how much. The most important part of it was the communication with Ernie's sister, which had far-reaching effects, that even Avey did not realise until much much later. I thought the ending where Avey saw the video of Ernie was very poignant and it would have been lovely if they had been able to meet up. Both Avey and Ernie were incredibly resourceful, which is how they survived, although luck also played a large part in what happened to them.
    • 4/5
      Interesting story for sure. Kind of a different outlook all together.
    • 3/5
      As other have pointed out a lot of this books takes place outside of Auschwitz. This book is the memoirs of the authors whole war experience including fighting in Africa for many months, being captured as a POW in Greece and finally being sent to Auschwitz to join other POWs there. The POWs where in a different part of the camp than the Jews were. The author switched places with one of the Jews to bear witness to what was happening to them. His friendship and intervention led to at least on more person surviving Auschwitz. It took a long time after the war before he felt he could talk about what happened and that people would listen.

      He also discusses having PTSD after the war and how there wasn't really any help for people struggling with what he was going thru. The expectation for their generation was that they would put their chin up, keep it there, and not talk about the horrible things they went thru. Even his family never asked him about it. His father (A WWI combat vet) lied about his age and enlisted and was a POW as well. They never discussed the horrible things they saw or experienced though they had many opportunities.
    • 4/5
      It is impossible not to be moved by the story of Denis Avey, the man who broke into Auschwitz. A British POW in the second world war, it has taken him 70 years to tell his story. He recognised that it was important for his story to be told and I agree with him.The title, 'The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz', is somewhat misleading but it does not make Avey's story any less incredible. While a POW, Avey worked alongside the Jewish who were prisoners in Auschwitz III Monowitz. This is not 'the' Auschwitz where the mass murders through gassing occurred, although it wasn't far from there, this is where they housed those fit enough to labour for the German war effort - until of course they were worked to death. On two occasions, Avey swapped places with a Jewish man named Hans, putting his own life at risk so that Hans could have a decent feed and a sleep where he wasn't in fear of at any moment suddenly being put to death. I think it amazing that Hans would swap back the next day, knowing what it was he had to go back to. The British POWs weren't treated well, but it was better than the Jewish men were treated.As well as being the story of Avey's swap with Hans, this also the story of Avey's chance meeting with another Jewish man named Ernst, who had a sister relocated through the Kindertransport to England. What followed had me in tears on the train.I worry that stories like Denis Avey's, like Hans' and Ernst's, will fade as time goes on and we progress further and further from the days of World War II. I think it is so important that we do not forget what happened during the time, lest it happen again.
    • 4/5
      David Avey enlists at an early age and is sent off to fight in Egypt and Tobruk. He is captured and is being transported on a ship which is shot down in the Mediterranean Sea. he escapes but is recaptured. Eventually he is transported to various concentra, Ernst, and arranges to swap situations for one night, he follows this up again some time latter. He never forgets those nights spent in the crowded huts with people moansing all around him. He also never forgets the punching of a crying baby by a German guard silencing the baby forever. He arranges for Susan, Ernst's sister, living in Englans to send him cigarettes. It is not until over 50 years later that he learns that Ernst survived the camps and the death march because of those cigarettes and that he lived in the US for many years up to his death just several years before
    • 5/5
      I had a difficult time with this book. Not because it was bad, but because it paints a very realistic look at the life of a Prisoner of War in World War II. Add to this the descriptions of the sheer brutality of the German SS troops and the atrocities in the Concentration Camps, you have a book that in the end should be a lesson for everyone that this should never be allowed to happen again. Mr Avey is a hero, plain and simple. And this is a powerful book following the courage it took for him to fight troops in Africa, weather the war as a POW, and to break into Auschwitz just to provide witness to some of histories most heinous crimes.
    • 3/5
      Denis provides a detailed account of his life as a soldier, prisoner of war, and post-war life. His tale brings to light the good and bad of mankind. I recommend the book based on its historical content and its glimpse into what life can be like. Perhaps it helps us understand what hardship is really like.
    • 5/5
      An amazing story of one man's mental, and physical strength, and sheer will to survive . I could not put it down.
    • 3/5
      I'm in two minds about this book. On one hand it's a very sad, bleak but honest description of the horrors of war and the horrible suffering of the victims of the Nazi regime. On the other it's the biography of a man who really doesn't seem very likeable.

      The Holocaust and other atrocities committed by the Axis powers (as well as some Allied actions) are some of the darkest blights in mankind's history. For those who went through it their experiences are unimaginable. The horror, the misery, the brutality of it all. And for the author to have gone through it all and survived I respect him greatly.

      But respecting someone is not the same as liking them. Throughout the book the author takes pains to show how insulated he made himself from his fellow men, from the very first day. He also took the route he thought would benefit himself and only himself. Every time he escaped he did so by himself. He said it was because he didn't want to feel responsible for what happened to anyone else but to me there's almost a touch of cowardice in that sort of sentiment. I can't claim to even begin to understand what he was going through but it still doesn't seem right to not help others when you can.

      The same thing happened when he was in the Auschwitz camp. Again he highly insulated himself. not even letting people know his real first name which surely couldn't have caused any harm. The best thing he did there was helping Ernst and that's the most humane thing he did during the entire book. I find it very hard to comprehend why he did the swap. I get that it was an honourable gesture but I also think it was misguided and could have caused far more harm then good. Was it cruel to Hans to give him this small taste of better treatment before sending him back? Could it have caused some resentment to him from other prisoners? Could all the bribes and hard work to organise the swaps been more beneficial if used to provide something better for the Jews rather than the swap?

      We'll never know. Maybe like Ernst's cigarettes those couple nights in the other camp helped Hans survive as well. I don't think everything in the book happened exactly as told but memory is a tricky thing, especially after so long so any discrepancies I don't hold against the author. The editors seem to have gone to a lot of trouble to verify as much as they can and supply details around all the events.

      A horrible time and something that should never be forgotten. Lest we forget.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.