The man who smuggled himself into Auschwitz

[Rovi]

Just came across this on the BBC News site, and I thought you guys might be interested:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8382457.stm

The man who smuggled himself into Auschwitz

By Rob Broomby
BBC News

When millions would have done anything to get out, one remarkable British soldier smuggled himself into Auschwitz to witness the horror so he could tell others the truth.

Denis Avey is a remarkable man by any measure. A courageous and determined soldier in World War II, he was captured by the Germans and imprisoned in a camp connected to the Germans' largest concentration camp, Auschwitz.

But his actions while in the camp - which he has never spoken about until now - are truly extraordinary. When millions would have done anything to get out, Mr Avey repeatedly smuggled himself into the camp.

Now 91 and living in Derbyshire, he says he wanted to witness what was going on inside and find out the truth about the gas chambers, so he could tell others. He knows he took "a hell of a chance".

"When you think about it in today's environment it is ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous," he says.

"You wouldn't think anyone would think or do that, but that is how I was. I had red hair and a temperament to match. Nothing would stop me."

He arranged to swap for one night at a time with a Jewish inmate he had come to trust. He exchanged his uniform for the filthy, stripy garments the man had to wear. For the Auschwitz inmate it meant valuable food and rest in the British camp, while for Denis it was a chance to gather facts on the inside.

Evil

He describes Auschwitz as "hell on earth" and says he would lie awake at night listening to the ramblings and screams of prisoners.

"It was pretty ghastly at night, you got this terrible stench," he says.

He talked to Jewish prisoners but says they rarely spoke of their previous life, instead they were focused on the hell they were living and the work they were forced to do in factories outside the camp.

"There were nearly three million human beings worked to death in different factories," says Mr Avey. "They knew at that rate they'd last about five months.

"They very seldom talk about their civil life. They only talked about the situation, the punishments they were getting, the work they were made to do."

He says he would ask where people he'd met previously had gone and he would be told they'd "gone up the chimney".

"It was so impersonal. Auschwitz was evil, everything about it was wrong."

He also witnessed the brutality meted out to the prisoners, saying people were shot daily. He was determined to help, especially when he met Jewish prisoner Ernst Lobethall.

'Bloody marvellous'

Mr Lobethall told him he had a sister Susana who had escaped to England as a child, on the eve of war. Back in his own camp, Mr Avey contacted her via a coded letter to his mother.

He arranged for cigarettes, chocolate and a letter from Susana to be sent to him and smuggled them to his friend. Cigarettes were more valuable than gold in the camp and he hoped he would be able to trade them for favours to ease his plight - and he was right.

Mr Lobethall traded two packs of Players cigarettes in return for getting his shoes resoled. It helped save his life when thousands perished or were murdered on the notorious death marches out of the camps in winter in 1945.

Mr Avey briefly met Susana Lobethall in 1945, when he came home from the war. He was fresh from the camp and was traumatised by what he'd witnessed and endured.

At the time both of them thought Ernst was dead. He'd actually survived, thanks - in part - to the smuggled cigarettes. But she lost touch with Mr Avey and was never able to tell him the good news.

The BBC has now reunited the pair after tracing Susana, who is now Susana Timms and lives in the Midlands. Mr Avey was told his friend moved to America after the war, where he had children and lived a long and happy life. The old soldier says the news is "bloody marvellous".

'Ginger'

Sadly, the emotional reunion came too late for Ernst - later Ernie - who died never even knowing the real name of the soldier who he says helped him survive Auschwitz.

But before he died Mr Lobethall recorded his survival story on video for the Shoah Foundation, which video the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses. In it he spoke of his friendship with a British soldier in Auschwitz who he simply called "Ginger". It was Denis.

He also recalled how the cigarettes, chocolate and a letter from his sister in England were smuggled to him in the midst of war.

"It was like being given the Rockefeller Centre," he says in the video.

Mr Avey traded places twice and slept overnight in Auschwitz. He tried a third time but he was almost caught and the plan was aborted.

He suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when he came back from the war and has only recently been able to speak about what he did and what he saw.

He admits some may find it hard to believe and acknowledges it was "foolhardy".

"But that is how I was," he simply says.

There are a couple of interesting video clips in the above link, and if you follow the 'Or listen to it  here later' link there, the interview with Mr. Avey begins at around the 18 minute mark.

[Monkeyleg]

That's incredible. "Foolhardy" or not, the guy had guts.

[gunsmith]

wow, I just read "Night" by Elie Wiesel a few weeks ago, incredible- what people can do and what they can survive.

[PTK]

wow, I just read "Night" by Elie Wiesel a few weeks ago, incredible- what people can do and what they can survive.

Not to get too far OT, but I was frustrated while talking to that man in person a few years ago. His insistence that no one should own guns and you can simply "take one from a soldier" if needed was stunning. 

[RevDisk]

Mr Avey traded places twice and slept overnight in Auschwitz. He tried a third time but he was almost caught and the plan was aborted.

He suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when he came back from the war and has only recently been able to speak about what he did and what he saw.

Well, no ****, Sherlock, no one witnesses genocide first hand without severe mental scarring.

Not to get too far OT, but I was frustrated while talking to that man in person a few years ago. His insistence that no one should own guns and you can simply "take one from a soldier" if needed was stunning.

I'm always amazed when I hear someone speak of talking a gun from another person so trivially.  "Guns are useless for home defense, the criminals will take it from you."  Yea, because most common bloody criminals have Spetznaz training.  "You don't need a gun, you can take one from a soldier."  Do *I* bloody look like Spetznaz?  Sure, I have no problems shooting a hostile soldier in the back of the head while he's taking a leak and stealing his stuff.  But with my bare hands or a kitchen knife?  Yea, possible.  But pretty friggin unlikely.

[French G.]

Not to get too far OT, but I was frustrated while talking to that man in person a few years ago. His insistence that no one should own guns and you can simply "take one from a soldier" if needed was stunning. 

Huh? Weisel said that after his accounts of getting rounded up, people randomly pulled off trains and shot? His book is one of the reasons I own guns. Read Night cover to cover standing in the bookstore one evening, read Barack Obama's the next day, both pretty easy reads. One filled with a message, one not. Same result, went out and bought more ammo.

Too bad he still thinks there is a path of peace.

[KD5NRH]

Well, no ****, Sherlock, no one witnesses genocide first hand without severe mental scarring.

Oh come now: plenty of sociopaths have committed genocide without so much as a poor night's sleep afterward.

Sure, I have no problems shooting a hostile soldier in the back of the head while he's taking a leak and stealing his stuff.  But with my bare hands or a kitchen knife?

Bare hands?  Not unless you know exactly where to hit.  Wide bladed kitchen knife?  In the neck, blade flat, and put your weight into the stab.  As long as you expect it to be a lot harder to drive through than the movies make it look, you'll do fine.  A hatchet, small sledgehammer or baseball bat would be much easier to train someone to use quickly, though.

[AJ Dual]

Well the Holocaust certainly is one of many examples in human history that often times the rarest commodity is the volition to act (violently), and really understanding when you have nothing to lose.

Although its really tough to do.

Most people, they realize they ought to be killing the other guys, when their wife is being raped, or their half-starved already, and they seee the barbed-wire fences for the first time. It either takes an extreme effort of mental will power from the logical side to start comitting mayhem in your own neighborhood, or you have to access your "criminal side", if you have one.

Unless you're a child, or severely disabled, as long as you act while you still have the latitude to do so, and you give it a bit of thought, you should be able to get at least one, even if all you have is a rope or a table-leg, before you go down yourself.

And it's horrible, but reprisals against family, or the entire community are never done unless you're all considered disposable already anyway.

[roo_ster]

"I had red hair and a temperament to match. Nothing would stop me."

Yep, we need a few more of these types to firm up the West.