Many prisoners perished or were gunned down if they showed weakness on these marches over long distances under guard. According to Strauss, Hélène had more or less permanent leg and hip pains as she walked but, as an engineer who spoke five languages, she became the group’s unofficial leader. “Perhaps there were some Germans who truly did not know what was happening in the camps,” Strauss speculates. In this way the book is much more than simply an account of an escape, extraordinary though that is. The final chapters, taken up with what happened at the end of the war, make for sober reading.

Source: The Guardian July 10, 2021 06:22 UTC