The popular song "Don't Fence Me In" was playing a Barry Spanjaard arrived in New York in 1945 with his mother. It was an appropriate greeting to the young man, enjoying his first taste of freedom after spending time in three concentration camps, including the infamous Bergen-Belson. A short-time later, suddenly abandoned again to a Virginian military school, Spanjaard then 16 years old, felt compelled to confront his past, particularly the loss of his beloved father, who died a few days after being released from Bergen-Belsen.

This true story is unique because Barry Spanjaard is believed to be the only American citizen to be confined in Hitler's camps and dispels the idea that such a tragedy could only happen to people "over there - not here"

His American citizenship was his and his family's tool to survival. His family never went into hiding, and Barry was able to keep his mother and father out of the camps for several years because of his American citizenship. His American citizenship was also the key which finally opened the doors to freedom in a prisoner exchange.

Spanjaard recounts his meeting and the befriending of Anne Frank, his job as a personal messenger boy to Camp Commandant Josef Kramer and the destruction of his fellow Jews, with a cynical humor, without taking away from the seriousness of the situation.

It reveals a youngster suddenly propelled to adult responsibilities, who nevertheless remains a teenager finding friends and life's remaining joys where ever he can.