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  • The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz

  • A True Story of World War II
  • By: Denis Avey, Rob Broomby
  • Narrated by: Sean Barrett
  • Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (415 ratings)
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The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz cover art

The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz

By: Denis Avey, Rob Broomby
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
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Summary

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 in which 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.

©2011 Denis Avey with Rob Broomby (P)2011 Hodder & Stoughton

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What listeners say about The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz

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Amazing Story

Amazing Story From Beginning To End...
Really Get An Insight Into The Concentration
Camps...
What Circumstances Were Like..
How He Survived...
Narrator Excellent

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Survivor's story like none you have heard before

Amazingly powerful and inspirational story of courage and survival. A testimony like nothing else imagined.

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  • Overall
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Lest we forget

what an amazing man and incredible life. inspiring to say the least.
WE MUST NEVER FORGET THE HORRORS OF WAR.
This read will stay with me. Everyone should read this book...

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Man's inhumanity to man.

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.

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26 people found this helpful

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An amazing and thought-provoking tale

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

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Amazing gripping and also very sad

Good narrator and powerful story , gutted it’s over could have listened and listened , highly recommend

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Emotional... Inspiring

Exceptional story told with emotion,
Men like Denis Avey are 1 in a million,
He defiantly had a guardian angel watching over him,
Men like Dennis fought for our freedom, his courage is unbelievable. He put the great in Great Britain and we should never forget.
I cried and laughed listening to this... Amazing life, honoured to be able hear his story. Thank you mr Avey

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A story everyone should listen to/read - deeply moving and so important

From the start, I found this absolutely captivating while also at times, heart breaking, devastating and upsetting.

This is one of those books that everyone should read/listen to. Everyone should understand the horror of the holocaust to prevent it happening again, but it also teaches us the importance of talking about hidden traumas. It is so very sad that Avey spent 60 years without speaking to anyone about what he’d been through, and that in post-war Britain, people were so unwilling to listen.

This is also a story of human resilience, bravery and friendship, even in the darkest times, which is in itself deeply moving.

There were so many points at which I almost cried in the middle of my commuter train, whilst listening to this story. I will never forget the people involved or the memories shared and despite how upset it made me at times, I’m so glad I’ve heard it.

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An amazing man.

I was gripped from the very first words , absolutely amazing man with such courage.

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Brilliant

Excellent a must listen or read book incredible.. Very emotional best book I heard in a long long time and the narrator voice to perfect for the tale

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