Denis avey biography

Denis Avey

Denis Avey (11 January 1919 – 16 July 2015) was a British veteran of the Second World War who was held as a prisoner of war at E715, a subcamp of Auschwitz. While there he saved the life of a Jewish prisoner, Ernst Lobethal, by smuggling cigarettes to him.[1] For that he was made a British Hero of the Holocaust in 2010.[2]

Avey claimed that he exchanged uniforms with a Jewish prisoner and smuggled himself into Auschwitz to witness the treatment of Jewish inmates, whose camp was separate from but adjoined that of British POWs. His claim has been challenged.[3][4] His memoir The Man who Broke into Auschwitz, written with Rob Broomby, was published in 2011.

Life (until retirement)

Avey was born in Essex, England, in 1919. As a boy he learned boxing, was head boy at school and studied at Leyton technical college. He joined the army in 1939 at the age of 20, and fought in the desert campaigns of North Africa in the 7th Armoured Division, (the "Desert Rats"). He was captured by the Germans while attacking Erwin Rommel

Denis Avey

Denis Avey (born in Essex in 1919) is a British veteran of the Second World War who was held as a prisoner of war at a camp adjacent to Monowitz. Whilst there he saved the life of Jewish prisoner Ernst Lobethal, by smuggling cigarettes to him. For this he was made a British Hero of the Holocaust in 2010. He has also claimed that he exchanged uniforms with a Jewish prisoner to smuggle himself into Monowitz to gain information about the treatment of inmates: this claim has been challenged. His memoir The Man who Broke into Auschwitz written with Rob Broomby, was published in 2011.

Avey was born in Essex, outside of London, in 1919. As a boy he learned boxing, was head boy at school and studied at Leyton technical college. He joined the army in 1939 at the age of 20, and fought in the desert campaigns of North Africa in the 7th Armoured Division, known as the "Desert Rats". He was captured by the Germans while attacking Rommel's forces near Tobruk, Libya, and saw his best friend killed next to him. He escaped to Greece by crossing the Mediterranean Sea floating on to

The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz

Memoir

AuthorDenis Avey, Rob Broomby
PublisherHodder

Publication date

2011

The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz is the title of a claimed autobiographical, but later classified as semi-autobiographical and semi-fictional book by Denis Avey, who is a recipient of a British Hero of the Holocaust award. The book was written together with Rob Broomby and published by Hodder in 2011.[1] It carries a foreword by Sir Martin Gilbert. The novelist James Long assisted with research and helped to edit and structure the manuscript.

Book synopsis

Denis Avey relates his wartime service and how he came to be held prisoner in E715A, a camp for Allied Prisoners of War adjacent to Auschwitz. He describes how he exchanged uniforms with a Jewish inmate of Auschwitz III in order to enter this camp to discover more about conditions there, with a view to reporting these to the authorities after the war.[2] He also relates how he smuggled cigarettes to another Jewish inmate Ernst Lobethal, having obtained these fr

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