Saturday, December 5, 2009

British Soldier sneaks into Holocaust Concentration Camp

World War II is full of amazing stories, and this one is no exception.

While imprisoned in a nearby concentration camp, this British soldier Denis Avey snuck into Auschwitz, the infamous Holocaust Concentration camp.

He tried to communicate with the Jewish prisoners there, and even managed to help one of them out.

He was determined to help, especially when he met Jewish prisoner Ernst Lobethall.
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.

Read the full story:
Neatorama: Sneaking Into Auschwitz
BBC: The man who smuggled himself into Auschwitz

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