Louis Fynaut, a Belgian youth who moved to Nazi occupied France at the beginning of WW-II, was suspected by the Gestapo of taking part in the French resistance. So he was designated N.N. Nacht und Nebel, night and fog, a political prisoner to be secretly transported to a forced labor camp and, once he was no longer considered useful, banished without a trace.
First he was carried to the infamous Auschwitz death camp, where he survived transportation, mistreatment, overwork, undernourishment and illness. Obviously he was considered valuable for slave labor and some months later he was transferred to Buchenwald, another camp in proper Germany. Ironically his closest brush with death happened here, during an allied bombing raid, just a few days before liberation.
After the end of the war Louis returned to Belgium where he was put on a nourishment program to build up his strength and allow him to reintegrate into society. Louis' stomach was damaged beyound repair. To this respect his words were: "I just learned to live with my weak stomach acids and get on with my life as best I could"
Initially the editor, Paula Fynaut, Louis' daughter contemplated the edition of his memoirs; they are written the way he expressed himself in English, with embodiment of his Flemish language. And so they were typed by his wife, in an age before computers and automatic correction of grammar. Paula resisted this temptation and decided to stage the manuscript to the world the way the way it was initially conceived.
First he was carried to the infamous Auschwitz death camp, where he survived transportation, mistreatment, overwork, undernourishment and illness. Obviously he was considered valuable for slave labor and some months later he was transferred to Buchenwald, another camp in proper Germany. Ironically his closest brush with death happened here, during an allied bombing raid, just a few days before liberation.
After the end of the war Louis returned to Belgium where he was put on a nourishment program to build up his strength and allow him to reintegrate into society. Louis' stomach was damaged beyound repair. To this respect his words were: "I just learned to live with my weak stomach acids and get on with my life as best I could"
Initially the editor, Paula Fynaut, Louis' daughter contemplated the edition of his memoirs; they are written the way he expressed himself in English, with embodiment of his Flemish language. And so they were typed by his wife, in an age before computers and automatic correction of grammar. Paula resisted this temptation and decided to stage the manuscript to the world the way the way it was initially conceived.
