Over 70 years after Elizaer de Wind wrote a novel at Auschwitz, the late doctor’s book will be translated into English and a dozen other languages.
Set to be released on January 20, “Last Stop Auschwitz: My Story of Survival From Within the Camp” was written in the days immediately after the camp's liberation by the Red Army.
Hiding in a pile of old clothes underneath a barracks, de Wind used a foraged notebook and pencils to craft his account.
Not knowing whether he would fall into Russian, German, or other hands, the Dutch-Jewish de Wind used the pen name Hans van Dam.
The book tells of the camp's brutalities, where de Wind was deported to, following his stay at the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands.
It also tells of his love for Friedel, his wife imprisoned in the notorious “Block 10,” where Nazi doctors ran inhuman experiments.
Both managed to survive the holocaust and were reunited, with Freidel surviving one of the terrible death marches that took place towards the war's end.
Although the book was first published in Dutch in 1946, it did not find a large audience outside of the community of survivors.
Since his death in 1987, de Wind's family has worked to get the book published on a larger scale and in many languages.