Clad in a dust jacket startlingly reminiscent of The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, I expected The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz to contain a similarly harrowing account of concentration camps. Yet Denis Avey’s autobiographic account of WWII manages more: it is as uplifting in its humanity as it is shocking in its description of atrocity.
Enlisting at the age of 20, Avey’s story begins in the deserts of Egypt. His account could easily be confused with a modern day memoir about Iraq or Afghanistan. Every page, filled with battle, capture, and attempted escape increases admiration for Avey’s bravery, climaxing in his voluntary decision to enter Auschwitz. From a neighbouring POW camp, he swapped places with a “stripey” named Hans, to witness its horrors. The inhumanity described within the camp is appalling, yet equally disturbing is the indifference of the authorities, and the reluctance to listen to his story in war’s aftermath.
Some dispute the factual foundation of this book, but it should be remembered that all human experience is subjective. A pedantic focus on detail fails to take into account that this emerges after sixty years of Avey internalising the nightmare of war. It also ignores the transcendental endurance of the human spirit that this book encapsulates, in the face of immense suffering.