An Englishman at Auschwitz

"Leon Greenman was born in London at 50 Artillery Lane, Whitechapel, in 1910. His father Barnett Greenman and mother Clara Greenman-Morris were also born in London. His paternal grandparents were Dutch, and at an early age, after the death of his mother, his family moved to Holland, where Leon eventually settled with his wife, Esther, in Rotterdam. Leon was an antiquarian bookseller, and as such travelled to and from London on a regular basis. In 1938, during one such trip, he noticed people digging trenches in the streets and queuing up for gas masks. He hurried back to Holland the same evening, intending to collect his wife and return with her to England, because the whispers of war were getting louder and louder.". "However, the British Consulate assured the family that, in the likelihood of war, they would be notified to leave with the diplomatic staff should it become necessary. In May 1940, Holland was overrun by the Nazis. Leon had by then entrusted his passports and money to Dutch friends, but when he asked for their return, his friends told him that they had burnt them for fear of the Germans finding them in their home. The British Consulate was now abandoned, and effectively so were Leon and his family. They had no proof of their British nationality and had no money. From then on, Leon fought to obtain papers to prove they were British, but these arrived too late to save the family from deportation to Auschwitz II, Birkenau, where Esther and their small son, Barney, were gassed on arrival. Leon was chosen with 49 others for slave labour. An Englishman in Auschwitz tells the remarkable story of Leon's survival, of the horrors he saw and endured at Auschwitz, Monowitz and during the Death March to Gleiwitz and Buchenwald camp, where he was eventually liberated. Since that time, Leon has been talking about the Holocaust and continues to recount his experiences to this day, at the age of 90, as a warning to young and old alike."--BOOK JACKET.