THE PASSWORD IS COURAGE

A prisoner-of-war story assumes the aura of its unconquerable hero, Charles Coward, whose experiences in German camps offer another view of valor- and horror. Addicted to escape attempts, Coward's first sally landed him in a German hospital where he was awarded the Iron Cross before discovery. In Lamsdorf, he led minor sabotage jobs, and finally was sent to the Auschwitz British work camp where his real work began. As head NCO, he knew that he could not try to escape- and instead- with tempered daring- acted as contact for the Polish Underground Army and smuggled in dynamite and guns. He bought corpses grom greedy guards as replacements for escapees; and most unforgettable of these experiences was the night spent in the hell of the concentration camp attempting to reach a British Naval officer, a Jew, who had been condemned to the gas chamber. Transferred to another camp, Coward escaped for the final time- into the arms of the Allied Forces.... Our cocky Cockney saw sights that should never have humanly existed, and the reader has a grim close-up too of the ominous chimneys, the walking corpses of a camp that boasted of a production figure which eliminated 24,000 people in 24 hours. An amazing accounting.