Denis Avey has written a best selling book about how he broke into Auschwitz.
Denis Avey's story looks fake.
Denis Avey 'broke into Auschwitz' to expose Holocaust; but is this fantasy?.
According to Avey's book:
Avey was in camp E715, a prisoner of war camp near Auschwitz.
He smuggled himself into Auschwitz.
He swapped places with a Jewish inmate.
He saved the life of another Jewish inmate, called Ernst Lobethal.
HOWEVER, many people do not believe Avey.
The people who doubt Avey's story include former Auschwitz prisoners, Jewish organisations and historians.
Dr Piotr Setkiewicz, the head historian at Auschwitz, says he does not believe Avey’s story of the swap.
The World Jewish Congress has called on Avey’s publishers to verify the accuracy of the book.
They say: "We are deeply concerned about the charge that a significant part of Mr Avey’s story - ie that he supposedly smuggled himself into the Auschwitz-Buna concentration camp - is exaggerated if not completely fabricated."
Yad Vashem is Israel’s official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust
Yad Vashem now says it cannot honour Avey, because it could not back up his claims.
Irena Steinfeldt, a spokeswoman for Yad Vashem, said:
"We didn’t find anyone to confirm it. We went through several testimonies of Jewish inmates, and none of them mentioned that it happened. There was nothing to substantiate it."
Former prisoners at Auschwitz and at camp E715 - the PoW camp in which Mr Avey was held - have disputed Avey’s story.
They say a prisoner swap would have been impossible.
Avey (left)
Reportedly, Avey was a British prisoner in PoW camp E715, a few hundred yards from one of the parts of Auschwitz, known as Auschwitz III or Monowitz.
He worked in the same chemical factory as some of the Auschwitz prisoners.
One day, as the two work columns of the Jewish and the British prisoners drew close, a Jewish prisoner and Avey swapped places.
Brian Bishop, who was at camp E715, says: "I don’t believe it. I can’t understand how he did it. To do something like that you need to have several people helping on both sides — our side and the Jewish side."
Sam Pivnik, who was at Auschwitz, says: "Avey’s story seems to me highly unlikely. Swapping places with an Auschwitz prisoner wasn’t just risking his own life, but those of everyone else in his block; and he was taking a huge risk that he wouldn’t be informed on. It isn’t a chance that I would have taken. Prisoners in Auschwitz were so desperate, you couldn’t take the risk of trusting them."
Auschwitz historian Dr Setkiewicz points out that many people would have had to have been involved in such an exchange, and it would have been extremely risky as there were many spies in the camp.
He says: "As there are no testimonies by other survivors, I certainly would not include this story in any book that I wrote."
In his book, Avey writes that he swapped places with a Dutch Jewish prisoner called ‘Hans’ and smuggled himself into Auschwitz III.
However, in an interview he gave to the Daily Mail in December 2009, Avey claimed to have swapped with someone called Ernst Lobethal.
Avey said that Ernst was in Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, which is four miles from Auschwitz III.
In his book, Avey writes of passing under the ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ sign, as he enters Auschwitz III.
Dr Setkiewicz confirms, there was no such sign there; it was at the Auschwitz I camp six miles away.
Avey claims the clothes he borrowed from the Jewish prisoner were infested with lice.
But, former prisoner Sam Pivnik says: "We were made to be scrupulously clean at all times in Auschwitz III work-camps, and you risked a severe beating if you got dirty.
"The SS were terrified of typhus outbreaks and the prisoners’ uniforms, bedding and barracks were endlessly disinfected and deloused."
Avey’s claim to have broken into Auschwitz is dismissed by Ingrid Lobet, the daughter of Ernst Lobethal.
She says: "I don’t believe this happened. Where is the detail in what he saw there that can’t be gleaned from the vaguest Holocaust account?
"Most of the Jews spoke only Yiddish. How is some starving, Yiddish-speaking Jew going to be mistaken for a British PoW while in PoW barracks?
"Did (Avey) memorise the switched survivor’s number in German so that he could respond to it at a roll call?"
Avey’s story is almost identical to that told by another former PoW at camp E715 called Charles Coward.
Coward's story is now widely discredited by Holocaust scholars.
Coward claimed to have smuggled himself into Auschwitz by swapping places with a Jewish prisoner.
In 2001, Avey gave an interview to the Imperial War Museum in which he spoke about his time as a prisoner. He did not mention smuggling himself into Auschwitz.
Professor Kenneth Waltzer, a 'world authority' on the Nazi concentration camps, says: "The pattern of sustained silence, despite interviews, and then the tumbling out of the story does indeed raise suspicions."
Brian Bishop says: "Why does he start telling this story now? I don’t understand why all these stories are coming out now. It looks like they’re waiting for everybody to die and then no one can contradict them."
aangirfan: ANNE FRANK aangirfan: FAKE
aangirfan: FASCISTS, 'JEWS' AND PEASANTS
