SlavomirRawicz was a young Polish cavalry officer. On 19 November 1939 he was arrested by the Russians and, after brutal interrogation and a farce of a trial, he was sentenced to 25 years' hard labour in the Gulags. After a three-month journey to Siberia in the depths of winter he escaped with six companions, realizing that to stay in the camp meant almost certain death. In June 1941 they cr…