Childhood Behind Barbed Wire

Bartnikowski’s stories are one of the most moving evidence of tragic fate of children in Auschwitz. In the book, the camp is shown from their perspective. The author describes hunger, fear, loneliness and despair of children who were uprooted from the safe world of their childhood and left at the mercy of violence and death. Dry narration intensifies dramatic nature of depicted scenes. The camp experience is deeply engraved in Bartnikowski’s memory. He said in one of his interviews: “I wanted to throw it away, get rid of it. Forever! I started to write down my memories and memories of my friends. I hoped that once they had been written they would be gone. Unfortunately, it did not happen so…”. The Polish version of 'Childhood Behind Barbed Wire' was first published in 1969.