Former British soldier: I broke into Auschwitz

LONDON - A former British soldier has described how he switched places with a prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp to gather information about Jewish prisoners inside the facility.

Denis Avey says he was captured by German soldiers while fighting in north Africa and was taken to a camp near Auschwitz. He says he managed to exchange his own uniform with that of a Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz and smuggled himself inside twice.

Avey, 92, says he sought to speak to prisoners — hoping he could describe their situation to people back in England. He said one prisoner named Ernst Lobethall had a sister living in England.

Avey suggested she send her brother cigarettes to trade for food so he could stay alive. Avey spoke Friday at the Holocaust Center in Newark, England.

In his memoir "The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz," Avey describes how he helped a second inmate, Ernst, escape death, according to the Telegraph.

"I am proud to have played a small part in helping one man through the obscenity of Auschwitz," Avey wrote in the memoir.