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

The mind is a powerful thing. It can take you through walls.

They say 'stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage'. It was a quotation I knew as a boy. I had made it my own back then. I knew they couldn't capture my mind. Whilst I could still think, I was free.

Ernie got it,' I said afterwards. 'His experience taught him that you've got to fight for what's right. It gets you into a lot of trouble but he came to the same conclusion as me.' People think it could never happen here. Don't you believe it; it doesn't take much.

He was the only man I killed with my bare hands, but it affected me all right, that one. You never forget it, never. A memory is lodged in the mind but a feeling inhabits the whole body. And I have carried the feeling of that night with me for the last seven decades.

For evil to succeed all that was needed was for the righteous to do nothing.

Si aggiravano come ombre vaghe e indistinte, parevano destinate a dissolversi nel nulla da un momento all'altro.

A memory is lodged in the mind but a feeling inhabits the whole body

The screaming, shouting and aggression was designed to make you do it without thinking. This was different – silent, done in the shadows, and I had felt his body weight on me in the darkness. It was him or me. That is how it is in bloody war. You make excuses to yourself all the time.