Has anyone read The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom? The book is about Slawomir Rawicz, a Polish soldier who is captured and sent to a Gulag at the start of the war. He and a group of other prisoners escape the Gulag and walk to India where he later returns to Poland, joins the army, etc. SÅ‚awomir Rawicz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The truthfulness of the book is of course under dispute, I was looking over the Amazon listing for a book called "As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me" which is a book about a German soldier who escapes a Gulag and walks back to Germany. Naturally The Long Walk was listed under the "Consumers Also Bought" list. The things that raise a flag in my mind about The Long Walk are, Why would he return to join the Polish Army? Apparently the Germans captured him and the Russians made him work in a camp! If you escaped a Gulag and pulled of such a feat, would you give out your name and story publicly like this? Cornelius Rost who wrote As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me published his story under a fake name (Clemens Forell) and lived his life in fear (he died in 1983) because he feared the KGB would find him and punish him for his escape. Rost lived in Germany, Rawicz lived in Poland during the war before moving to England at the end of the war. That doesn't necessarily mean his book is false though, just something that I personally found interesting. Thoughts? A ton of "disputed" stories have come out after the war, I'm almost tempted to create a site that will help debunk them!
If I am not mistaken believes he claims to have met up with a Yeti on his "long walk." Kind of raised a red flag for me.
This is an old post I see but I have just come across it with the search feature. I have read the long walk and found it an exciting tale. I never really gave much thought to whether or not this might be a false account, despite the unusual tale of a yeti sighting in The Himalayas. The journey taken by the protagonist and his chums is a hell of an undertaking and although not hugely detailed would have taken some falsifying. It's got age on its side to a degree too, being first published in 1956 I believe. For anyone who hasn't read the book yet I would highly recommend it, especially at under a fiver on Amazon. You won't regret it, nor will you have to wait long to watch the film adaptation which is released in the UK around Christmas this year. Immediately after finishing the book I thought it odd that it hadn't already been made into a film as the story was a gripping & classic tale of struggle, death, the supernatural and almost miraculous survival. It's not the best piece of work in terms of the writing structure, but the amazing plot shines through regardless. 8/10
