John Noble, a young Detroiter was taken prisoner by the Russians in 1945, and was shuttled from prison to prison : Dresden, Mühlberg and Buchenwald – ending up finally I Vorkuta, 50 miles above the Arctic Circle, where it is too cold for bacteria to survive. While the Russians kept his name out of their files and refused to acknowledge his U.S. citizenship, he was kept working in the mines pushing 2-to coal cars even after his weight had dropped from 155 to 95 lbs. He tells the whole astounding story of his life in Vorkuta, including the famous slave uprising in 1953. -- From the book jacket.