A Spectator in Hell: A British Soldier's Story of Imprisonment in Auschwitz

In 1942, the young soldier Arthur Dodd was taken prisoner by the German Army and transported to Oswiecim in Polish Upper Silesia. At the time he found no resonance in the German name for the place. They called it Auschwitz: a name now synonymous with man's darkest hour. Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most infamous German death-camp of the Second World War, functioned for the incarceration and extermination of those that the third Reich deemed 'undesirables': Jews, homosexuals, Communists. What is less known is that it was the fate of hundreds of British POWs to find it their prison, and to behold the atrocities meted out by Hitler's SS. This is the true story of one of those witnesses. Forced to do hard labour, starved and savagely beaten, Arthur thought his life would end in Auschwitz. Determined to go down fighting, he sabotaged Nazi industrial work, risked his life to alleviate the suffering of the Jewish prisoners, and aided a partisan group planning a mass break-out. A prisoner, an escapee, a survivor: Arthur Dodd was a spectator in hell Cover Page......Page 1 ISBN: 1840246146......Page 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 3 Other books by the same author:......Page 4 CONTENTS......Page 5 PROLOGUE......Page 7 PART ONE: ARTHUR’S STORY......Page 13 CHAPTER ONE......Page 15 CHAPTER TWO......Page 22 CHAPTER THREE......Page 30 CHAPTER FOUR......Page 38 CHAPTER FIVE......Page 51 CHAPTER SIX......Page 62 CHAPTER SEVEN......Page 69 CHAPTER EIGHT......Page 76 CHAPTER NINE......Page 83 CHAPTER TEN......Page 89 CHAPTER ELEVEN......Page 96 CHAPTER TWELVE......Page 103 CHAPTER THIRTEEN......Page 109 CHAPTER FOURTEEN......Page 115 CHAPTER FIFTEEN......Page 124 CHAPTER SIXTEEN......Page 131 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN......Page 137 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN......Page 146 CHAPTER NINETEEN......Page 153 PART TWO: OTHER ACCOUNTS......Page 165 Leon Greenman......Page 166 Norbert Wollheim......Page 170 Terry Gorman......Page 172 John Green......Page 179 Douglas Bond......Page 185 Cyril Quartermaine......Page 187 Cyril’s Diary......Page 188 Mayer Hersch......Page 198 Denis Avey......Page 205 Ronald Albert Gaines......Page 209 William Charles (Charlie) Hayward......Page 211 John Best......Page 212 PART THREE: SNAPSHOTS FROM AFFIDAVITS GIVEN UNDER OATH AT NUREMBERG......Page 217 PART FOUR: RESPONSES TO ARTHUR'S STORY......Page 233 PART FIVE: THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT'S TREATMENT OF SURVIVORS......Page 249 EPILOGUE......Page 256 LEST WE FORGET......Page 257 Other Summersdale Books......Page 268 In 1942 the young soldier Arthur Dodd was taken prisoner by the German Army and transported to Oswiecim in Polish Upper Silesia. The German name for the place was ‘Auschwitz': a name now synonymous with man's darkest hour. Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most infamous German death-camp of the Second World War, functioned for the incarceration and extermination of those that the third Reich deemed “undesirables”: Jews, homosexuals, Communists. What is less known is that it was the fate of hundreds of British POWs to find it their prison, and to behold the atrocities meted out by Hitler's SS. This is the true story of one of those witnesses. Forced to do hard labour, starved and savagely beaten, Arthur thought his life would end in Auschwitz. Determined to go down fighting, he sabotaged Nazi industrial work, risked his life to alleviate the suffering of the Jewish prisoners, and aided a partisan group planning a mass break-out. Arthur Dodd was a British soldier who, after being captured by the Nazis, was sent to Camp Three of Auschwitz. He eventually escaped, but returned on several occasions to sabotage the camp. This book tells the story of the horrors he saw at Auschwitz. Auschwitz exterminated those deemed 'undesirables' by the Third Reich: Jews, homosexuals, Communists. What is less known is that it was the fate of hundreds of British POWs to find it their prison and witness the atrocities meted out by the SS.