1943: Polish underground Fighter John Wiernicki is captured and beaten by the Gestapo, then shipped to Auschwitz.
He is an architect and lives in Bethesda, Maryland..
He was later imprisoned in Nazi Death and labor camps.
About author(s): John Wiernicki fought with Polish partisans against German aggressors during World War II.
Its vivid portrait of prewar and wartime Poland, and of German concentration camps, provides a significant addition to the growing body of testimony by gentile survivors and a heartfelt contribution to fostering comprehension and understanding.
War in the Shadow of Auschwitz is an important historical and personal document.
And he relives fearful unexpected encounters with two notorious "Angels of Death" Josef Mengele and Heinz Thilo.
He notes the difference in treatment between Jews and non-Jews.
He bears witness to the harrowing selection and extermination of Jews doomed by birth to the gas chambers, to savage camp policies, brutal SS doctors, and rampant corruption with the system.
As a young non-Jew, Wiernicki was acutely sensitive to the depravity and injustice that engulfed him at Auschwitz.
The ensuing dark days of occupation would fire the adolescent Wiernicki with a burning desire to serve Poland, a cause that led him to valiant action and eventual arrest.
The author begins by remembering his aristocratic youth, an idyllic time shattered by German invasion.
In this chilling memoir, Wiernicki, a Gentile, details "life" in the infamous Death camp, and his battle to survive, physically and morally, in the face of utter evil. 1943: Polish underground Fighter John Wiernicki is captured and beaten by the Gestapo, then shipped to Auschwitz
