English professor John Guzlowski has put his parents’ experiences as forced slave laborers taken from Poland to Germany during World War II into a poetry presentation.

He will read selections from his published book, “Language of the Mules,” at 7 p.m. today in the Kansas Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. The reading will be free and open to the public.

Guzlowski’s father was taken to Germany in 1940 and worked in concentration camps for five years.

He said his mother was taken in 1942 and worked in concentration camps for three years.

“My mother saw her mother, sister and sister’s baby get killed when she came home from school one day. She ran away but was still caught by the Nazis,” Guzlowski said. “They lived brutal lives with no freedom and were forced to work under inhumane conditions.”

Guzlowski said after the war, his parents could not live in Poland. They lived in Germany instead until the United States opened up its border to displaced persons.

“My father, until the day he died, spoke of the horrible memories of the concentration camps,” he said. “My mother is still alive. She is 78 years old and still remembers it all.”

Guzlowski received his doctor of philosophy degree in English at Purdue University in 1980 and began teaching at Eastern in 1981.

Copies of “Language of Mules” may be purchased at the event for $4.