The Last Survivor

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What to expect

This is the awe-inspiring and gripping true story of the young man who survived not one, but three concentration camps, only - in the final days of the war - to be bombed while aboard a Nazi prison boat.
Stowed away on top of a train, twenty-year-old Wim Aloserij escapes the obligatory work camps in Nazi-ruled Germany in 1943. The young man then goes into hiding on a farm - sleeping for months in a wooden chest hidden underground. But it's not to last.


Captured during a night raid, Wim is transported to the infamous Gestapo prison in Amsterdam. There, his life changes forever as he is thrown into the nightmare of the Holocaust and transported to Camp Amersfoort - the first of three concentration camps he must endure.
Drawing on the lessons he learned as a child, as the victim of an alcoholic and abusive father, Wim is forced to adapt quickly to his hellish surroundings. However, it is with the end of the war in sight, that Wim must draw on every last strength he has when he finds himself caught in the very centre of Allied-Nazi crossfire.

At the age of 94, Wim finally felt ready to tell his incredible story, which he kept secret for most of his life. A true story of bravery, courage and resilience, The Last Survivor is a compelling and life-affirming narrative of one young man's determination to survive.

Critics Review

  • This is an extraordinary biography. A gripping narrative that opens as derring-do wartime escape drama rapidly turns into a horror story about man’s inhumanity to man. Vividly told in spare prose, The Last Survivor charts one young man’s unspeakable torment at the hands of the SS and his astonishing survival against all the odds. Important and unforgettable.

    Jonathan Dimbleby

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