The Saboteur Of Auschwitz by Colin Rushton

Author : Colin Rushton

Title : The Saboteur Of Auschwitz

Published : 2019

Publisher : Summersdale

Pages : 288

Genre : Biography 

     In 1942, young British soldier Arthur Dodd was taken prisoner by the German Army and transported to Oswiecim in Polish Upper Silesia. The Germans gave it another name, now synonymous with mankind's darkest hours. They called it Auschwitz. Forced to do hard labor, 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.

     It's a funny thing to realize about a subject that you feel you have a pretty good knowledge about, that in fact you still have so much to learn. I have even been to Auschwitz but it wasn't until I picked up a copy of The Saboteur Of Auschwitz did I become aware that British P.O.W had been kept there. In fact for a large part of its running life. I suppose when we think of allied P.O.W's are mind goes to those war film of the sixties and seventies such as The Great Escape or Colditz. It's easy to slip into the fictional worlds presented to us, and why shouldn't we a two-hour film is much simpler for our minds to get a grip on. But this in and of its self does a great diss honor to those men who lived through it. I suspect if not for Arthur's story being laid out in this book I may never have known this fact. 

     In this book, the author has tried to give us the best overview of Arthur's life. It goes a long way in showing us the character of a man who suffered a great deal in his time at the camp and just maybe how he lived to come out the other side. Much like many of his generation, he saw it as his duty to fight for his country in any way he could. And whilst he served bravely and to the best of his ability fate laid him to a place that he could never have imagined in his darkest nightmares. It is through his eyes that we get to witness a different view of the camp. Treated only slightly better than those the camp was set up to exterminate they moved around more seeing every aspect of camp life. They were valued as engineers a trait to be explored to its fullest in the advancement of the Third Reich. I think if not for this saving grace their fates would have been a great deal worse. 

     It is hard to imagine what these men witnessed on a daily bases. I can only guess at the feeling of impedance at seeing the brutality hand out to the other poor unfortunates of the camp and being able to do little about it. Men like Arthur fought back in the only way they could small acts of sabotage at the factory they were forced to work at. Even here they were threatened with death if ever they were caught in the act. But I suspect that in their minds doing anything to slow this death machine was enough to keep them going. A need to fight back against the evils of such a place no matter what. This is a book the gives the reader insight into a group of people most don't really know about. It's not like my government has done anything to highlight what these men went through. It seems like it is something they wish to leave in the past forgotten for all time. So I have to thank the author for bringing it to the forefront and to educate us on what these men went through. 

      For me, it is through books like this that I can educate myself of the past, And whilst the subjects are never easy to read about I feel they are important ones. Already we are losing our connection to what to place during the war. For many younger people, it is an abstract subject there is nothing to connect it to the lives they live. And with each passing year, those that lived it are slowly becoming less and less. So for me, books like this are important they show us what has happened in the hopes that it will not agian.