A Barbed Wire Refrain is the autobiography of a Polish teen, August Kowalczyk, who, while trying to reach France to join the Polish Army, was arrested in Slovakia and then taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. While in Birkenau, he survived with the help of local women who risked their lives to give prisoners bread, medicine, and water. One day while out doing slave labor, he and other prisoners planned an escape. He was one of the lucky ones. Again, although the danger was everywhere, he had the help of local men, women, and children to ensure his safety. This is his unforgettable story.

I bought this book after I took a tour of Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau. I read it while in Poland, and all the stories of the atrocities were still fresh in my mind. After an emotionally draining three weeks (I also visited Sachsenhausen in Germany), it was good to read a story of people who hated the Nazis and went out of their way to ensure some prisoners were fed (although not enough) and had medicine. And it was nice to read about the people on the outside helping someone who escaped, knowing they could have been put in the same place the escaped prisoner was. This book is not an easy read, but it is a must-read.

The one downside, but it doesn’t take away from the story, is that this book is translated from Polish and has some grammar mistakes or is missing letters from words (at least my copy did). I was able to understand even when this did happen.

If you are interested in history, if you like autobiographies, or want to know more so we, as a society, don’t go down this path again, this is a must-read.

Content warning: violence, war, Nazis, sexual abuse, racism