This is a rare account of the horrors of the WWII death camps from someone who experienced them. Born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Prague, Hoffman lost his entire family in the Holocaust. The story of his own ordeals, and how he managed to survive Auschwitz, makes for chilling reading. No one could experience what Hoffman did and be unaffected, and a good part of the book recounts his struggles to establish a normal life after being relocated to post-war England. An important part of his recovery was discovering his talent for the game of bridge, and becoming a professional player.