Henry: A Polish Swimmer’s True Story of Friendship from Auschwitz to America

Author(s): Katrina Shawver

Location(s): Krakow

Genre(s): Nonfiction

Era(s): 1930s-1950s, WWII,

Poland, 1942. Henry Zguda was at home in the water. But one night in May, the German SS arrested the celebrated competitive swimmer in Kraków for the sole crime of being Polish. Two weeks later, he was far from the life he’d known, interred as political prisoner #39551 at Auschwitz.

On the verge of dying from starvation, the terrified man was rescued when a former teammate helped move him from hard labor to a safer kitchen job until his transfer to Buchenwald in 1943. And as he clung to the friendships with his fellow inmates, he continued to hope even when forced on a death march to Dachau…

Told through a series of heartfelt conversations with the author, Henry recounts his gut-wrenching story of miraculous survival and of refusing to succumb, even amidst the most brutal of horrors. If you like honest accounts, emotional storytelling, and extraordinary human perseverance, then you’ll be moved by Katrina Shawver’s eloquent narrative of connections and fate.

Meticulous research and original photos and documents add a depth of history that goes beyond one man’s story.

Learn more at: https://katrinashawver.com/

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