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

Having just come back from Krakow and a vistit to Auschwitz this book was so so real. I could see the camps in my minds eye. Having wittnesed this and read the book I can honestly say it brings to light the horrors of the Solution. The way Dennis tells his story and relates, especially for me, the incident regarding the crying child, just makes you sick to the core. Although many soldiers dont like to talk about what they went through, I feel its so important that we keep the light burning about this period in our recent history. Especially for today's youth and tomorrows. After all, if not for Dennis and people like him....none of us may have ever existed. This book should be included as a must for historians of the period. A simple story but so well told. You will shed tears.

In the words of the man himself, a true account of real hero. It moved me laughter and sorrow. I found this story of one man's experience of the war to be enlightening and harrowing at the same time. Highly recommended.

Could not stop listening to it. An absolutely amazing life and truly epic story. An incredible man with an incredible life story that was gripping, educational and highly emotional. This book will educate you and shows the power of positive thinking as well as the terrible arbitrary lottery of life and death during war. It will certainly have you in tears more than once or you are not human. Would give 6 stars if I could. The narration and language is absolutely first class. Top of my list.

I visited Auschwitz several years ago and when I saw this book I felt compelled to read it and find out how someone survived the austerity within the camps. To think that people survived the treatment they endured is hard enough to grasp but to believe that someone put their own life in jeopardy to enable another to have a better chance of survival takes courage to a new dimension. Once I started listening I wanted to keep driving just so I could listen more. A compelling read and very informative.

I do have one criticism of this amazing story. Denis Avey gives us an overlong preamble to the main events which - from the title - most people will be interested in. Though nevertheless an extraordinary incident, he actually only spent 2 nights in Auschwitz altogether. Yet the title seems to promise even more.



However, that is to criticise only the publishers, who obviously wish to establish a 'hook' that will entice people to go out and buy the book. The events narrated are incredible enough and, narrated in a 'stiff upper lip, old-school', utterly British way, manage to hold rapt the listener's attention. The central portion deals with Avey's time in a camp whose inmates - fed and housed according to the Geneva Convention, a million times better than the inhabitants of the adjacent Auschwitz - nevertheless have to work alongside those other striped-pajama inmates. It's a gruelling account, all the more so as told by an eye-witness.



Yet the most incredible section is perhaps the final one, where Avey becomes the subject of a documentary, whose producers set out to track down one or two of the people Avey encountered. The story of this search is both heartwarming and yet also poignant, as Avey realises that his postwar life might have turned out very differently if only he had not been himself so traumatised by the events he had witnessed and been an unwitting accomplice in.

What an Inspirational story,
I have never been moved to write a review until now,
what a wonderful true story of courage such a moving and compelling account of life's struggles in war, tears welled in my eyes on more than one occasion
would 100% recommend this book with 5 *
Narrated beautifully

Beautifully written and wonderfully read; it will make you both laugh and cry. But most of all it will make you truly appreciate what a whole generation had to do to survive a period in our history that must not be forgotten

Amazing Amazing Amazing story the best story I have ever listened too ... so moving ... it makes us realise how lucky we are today

what a book!! entrapts you right from the start, makes you realise how lucky we are today because of men like this.

An amazing true story about a POW who broke into Auschwitz and his experiences there. Brilliantly informative.