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Stoker: The Story of an Australian Soldier Who Survived Auschwitz-Birkenau

In 1987 the Australian Government finally agreed to compensate Australian personnel who had been interned and subjected to brutal treatment in Nazi concentration camps. AIF soldier Don Watt was one of those internees.

Like many in the camps, Watt turned his mind to escape.

After several short periods of freedom, he managed to stay on the run for three weeks, only to be recaptured within sight of his goal, the Swiss border.

Brutal torture by his captors failed to make Watt disclose details to his escape.

His punishment for silence was consignment to Auschwitz.

There he was given a shocking choice.

Only now, 50 years after the end of World War II, has Don Watt managed to come to terms with his war-time experiences — an ordeal that he mentioned to no-one, not even his immediate family — and reveal the full story.

Don Watt's narrative embodies the man himself:

modest, straightforward, understated, courageous and laconic.

In spite of the horrors he witnessed and those in which he was forced to participate, Watt remains a hero in the tradition of the true Australian Digger.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 173
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780731805853
  • Genres
  • biography
  • Release date
  • 1998