Denis Avey

Who is Denis Avey?

Denis Avey 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 in order to smuggle himself into that prisoner's camp in order 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.