We Will Be Free ― Memoirs of an East Prussian Survivor

Karl Thomas was born in 1925, just before the Great Depression, in the German Baltic province of East Prussia. He was conscripted into Hitler’s army to fight on the Eastern Front in some of the bloodiest battles of World War 2. Captured by the Soviets, he was taken to Auschwitz/Birkenau, and then forced to work in the Russian gulags. After his release to Communist East Germany, he was involved in smuggling people across the border to freedom. Eventually, he escaped and immigrated to Canada. Karl’s gripping story will give you a unique glimpse at the political events leading up to, during, and after the war. You’ll hear what it was like living under an oppressive regime, and see that the line between the “good guys” and the “bad guys” isn’t nearly as neat and tidy as the history books would have us think.