Yikes!!! - The man who smuggled himself into Auschwitz

Biggins

Talk about either madness, a death wish or just sheer bravery - probably a mixture of the whole lot!

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.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8382457.stm

Pighead

Crazy crazy crazy man. Reminds Pighead of the lads who volunteer to mod After Hours..

brummytom

Wow.. just wow.

An amazingly dangerous, but brave thing to do.
God rest his soul. I'm rarely proud of our Army, but some of the actions during the World Wars are truely beyond comprehension, the sheer bravery of the men. There aren't many who'd do that now.

Wow

kowloon

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.

Truth Fail.

Biggins

kowloon wrote: »

Truth Fail.

:rolleyes:

He never spoke about it to the public!
I'm guessing he reported back to those above him or to others beyond the camp.

Nichololas

Biggins wrote: »

:rolleyes:

He never spoke about it to the public!
I'm guessing he reported back to those above him or to others beyond the camp.

He's 91 now and there's probably not many people around who can dispute his claim, anyway.

stovelid

Gas.

brummytom

brummytom wrote: »

Wow.. just wow.

An amazingly dangerous, but brave thing to do.
God rest his soul. I'm rarely proud of our Army, but some of the actions during the World Wars are truely beyond comprehension, the sheer bravery of the men. There aren't many who'd do that now.

Wow

There's only one recorded case of someone doing it in WWII.

Bravery bordering on foolhardy.

No disrespect to the man, but what a risk to take.

edit: AH answer if he'd been caught the headline would have been "Ginger's bought it!"

marcsignal

kowloon wrote: »

Truth Fail.

Biggins wrote: »

:rolleyes:

He never spoke about it to the public!
I'm guessing he reported back to those above him or to others beyond the camp.

as it happens, I have a documentary on this guy thats over 10 years old. I'm pretty sure it was called 'British Prisoners of Auschwitz'. As well as this man, there were other British, or half British prisoners there, most were Jews who were trapped in Germany at the outbreak of war.

.

Biggins

Enlil_Nick wrote: »

He's 91 now and there's probably not many people around who can dispute his claim, anyway.

From above:

...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.

I'm making an educated guess but I'd say he was able to name names of those that he met (and saw die), helped fill in for the records later of those that "vanished" under the NAZI's.
Others that somehow survived would have confirmed that he was with them as well.

marcsignal

Another article here

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1179271/Secret-list-British-prisoners-war-buried-Auschwitz-bunker.html

and here

http://www.mqmagazine.co.uk/issue-17/p-47.php

.

I thought his name was Yikes

Biggins

marcsignal wrote: »

Another article here

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1179271/Secret-list-British-prisoners-war-buried-Auschwitz-bunker.html

and here

http://www.mqmagazine.co.uk/issue-17/p-47.php

.

Cheers.

From the second article:
On his reports, his wife having seen the codes...

...redirected the mail to the War Office.

‘In my letters I sent information that I thought had military value and I also wrote about the conditions of work for the civilians and the inmates, as well as the British prisoners-ofwar. I wrote giving the particular dates on which I had witnessed thousands arriving and marched to the concentration camp.

Clearly he was trying to get word out then by one way or another.

mrgaa1

I haven't been to Auschwitz but I was at other such camps in Germany - you think we have problems. Go there, stand in such places and even the hardest of people are easily humbled.

marcsignal

Biggins wrote: »

Clearly he was trying to get word out then by one way or another.

It's a very controversial subject. As well as these messages, accounts were getting through from other sources like the Polish underground etc. The Allies were bombing the IG Farben complex at Auschwitz Monowitz, because the Germans were making synthetic fuel from coal there. Jewish Groups lobbied junior ministers and people in the War Office, to bomb the Auschwitz Birkenau camp, but all of these requests were ignored, despite the fact that the planes had to fly over Birkenau to get to Monowitz. On one occasion, a lobbiest was told in the strongest of language 'Not to make any further requests of this nature' by a War Office official.

Still considered a very embarrassing issue for Churchill today.

.

mrgaa1

mrgaa1 wrote: »

I haven't been to Auschwitz but I was at other such camps in Germany - you think we have problems. Go there, stand in such places and even the hardest of people are easily humbled.

I went toAuschwitz-Birkenau just after the Iron curtain came down, before it was really opened to the outside world. One thing that struck me was the fact that absolutely nothing had been changed in the 40 odd years since the end of the way, even the railway line was still connected to the rail network! (we went by train)

It was maintaind in the sense that the grass was cut and bits that fell off in storms were fixed but nothing else, It's in a part of Poland that used to be german. I think that makes the upkeep easier as there is no guilt felt by the Poles living there. edit: it was always part of Poland, the Germans only had it during WWII.

The sheer scale of the place really makes you think!

marcsignal

Some good aerial recon photos here

http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/camps/auschwitz/aerials.html

Better quality, and higher res versions here

http://www1.yadvashem.org/exhibitions/album_auschwitz/air_photographs.html

.

pljudge321

Deleted User wrote: »

I went toAuschwitz-Birkenau just after the Iron curtain came down, before it was really opened to the outside world. One thing that struck me was the fact that absolutely nothing had been changed in the 40 odd years since the end of the way, even the railway line was still connected to the rail network! (we went by train)

It was maintaind in the sense that the grass was cut and bits that fell off in storms were fixed but nothing else, It's in a part of Poland that used to be german. I think that makes the upkeep easier as there is no guilt felt by the Poles living there.

The sheer scale of the place really makes you think!

There were too many tourists there when I went, kind of dilutes the impact of the place.

That being said when you walk into one of the rooms and there is an enormous display filled with hair shaved off the women it really hits you just how sick humanity can be.

bigeasyeah

There was a second world war?!

Thornography

My parents said that the shoes of hundreds of jews that were killed are still kept in one of the chambers ? Thats disturbing.

How did this guy escape doh?

Thornography

Thornography wrote: »

My parents said that the shoes of hundreds of jews that were killed are still kept in one of the chambers ? Thats disturbing.

How did this guy escape doh?

Yes the room is about the size a Tennis court and 3-4 metres deep!

He swapped clothes with the Jew and then swapped back, probably released by the Russians.

kowloon

Biggins wrote: »

:rolleyes:

He never spoke about it to the public!
I'm guessing he reported back to those above him or to others beyond the camp.

I was just kidding, I'm sure he was very vocal about the camp itself while keeping the personal experience to himself, a common enough way of dealing with these things. It seems people are able to deal with politics, statistics and the likes but only because they can detach themselves from the individual experience.

El Siglo

Makes me proud to be a ginger!:D

FarmerGreen

Its difficult to know if what people say is true or not.
http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/The_Baron_of_Castleshort

Biggins

FarmerGreen wrote: »

Its difficult to know if what people say is true or not.
http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/The_Baron_of_Castleshort

True!

Tony Blair
George Bush
Ex-pres' Clinton
etc... :rolleyes:

In this case, there is enough evidence to show that this man did what he did.
So your assumption if its directed at Denis Avey, does not apply me thinks.

FarmerGreen

Not directed at anyone. Just an observation.

consultech

So let me get this straight: He snook in, trading places with a prisoner who presumably snook out... and said prisoner voluntarily went back in when he was done with his report?

Anyone else get that waft?

Pride Fighter

Biggins wrote: »

:rolleyes:

He never spoke about it to the public!
I'm guessing he reported back to those above him or to others beyond the camp.

Did he? Thats worthy of the victoria cross.

consultech

consultech wrote: »

So let me get this straight: He snook in, trading places with a prisoner who presumably snook out... and said prisoner voluntarily went back in when he was done with his report?

Anyone else get that waft?

If yer man had ratted, he would have been a billet full of British POW's go figure.

They all would have had know that was going on to cover for ginger going to the other side.

FarmerGreen

OK.
Lets put it another way. What is the difference between stupidity and courage.

Thornography

FarmerGreen wrote: »

http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/The_Baron_of_Castleshort

what an epic read!

FarmerGreen

FarmerGreen wrote: »

OK.
Lets put it another way. What is the difference between stupidity and courage.

Well in this case I'd say foolhardy at best!

marcsignal

Radio interview with the prisoner here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p0053hk3

Biggins

FarmerGreen wrote: »

OK.
Lets put it another way. What is the difference between stupidity and courage.

Self-sacrifice before self-interest?

Biggins

Pride Fighter wrote: »

Did he? Thats worthy of the victoria cross.

True. Sadly some in the British government didn't want to know - shameful!

I think he might have been recognised for his efforts later by the state of Israel.
He used his position to get word out and get whatever little food he could into the more evil side of the camp.
It would be hard enough for anyone to do that from outside but to do it while your even inside behind the wire, where he could have been even shot at a moments notice for doing it (even from the British side) is seriously brave and self-sacrificing.
Kudos to the man. His offspring should be proud.

InReality

Thats a brave man.

marcsignal

consultech wrote: »

So let me get this straight: He snook in, trading places with a prisoner who presumably snook out... and said prisoner voluntarily went back in when he was done with his report?

Anyone else get that waft?

good point

OutlawPete

Like this thread Biggins but did you have Scooby Doo on in the background while devising the thread title?

Orlaithc9

I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau two years ago and the images will stay with me forever. It was pure cruelty what we saw and were told. A room full of human hair, little girls pony tails still tied in a ribbon. Suitcases with childrens names and dates of birth written on them ready to return "home"..millions of shoes, glasses, potties, false limbs and crutches. Pregnant women sent straight to gas chambers because they were not fit for work, new born babies thrown onto bombfires. children used as lab rats and experiemented on. Horrid horrid things.
How that man decided to sneek in there willingly is either brave or foolish.

Morlar

Orlaithc9 wrote: »

I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau two years ago and the images will stay with me forever. It was pure cruelty what we saw and were told. A room full of human hair, little girls pony tails still tied in a ribbon. Suitcases with childrens names and dates of birth written on them ready to return "home"..millions of shoes, glasses, potties, false limbs and crutches. Pregnant women sent straight to gas chambers because they were not fit for work, new born babies thrown onto bombfires. children used as lab rats and experiemented on. Horrid horrid things.
How that man decided to sneek in there willingly is either brave or foolish.

Did he actually say that he saw gas chambers or any of the above ?

Orlaithc9

Morlar wrote: »

Did he actually say that he saw gas chambers or any of the above ?

Im not sure Molar Im just saying what I saw and drawing from my own experience. I would never want to be within a hundred miles of the place never mind willingly going in there at that time.

Morlar

Morlar wrote: »

Did he actually say that he saw gas chambers or any of the above ?

I suspect that most only ever saw them once! except for the poor sods who had to clear them out.