Willy Field's Chilling Testimony of Survival at Dachau Concentration Camp:

"We arrived at 2am. There were searchlights. We were driven like cattle onto the parade ground. I was beaten by an SS guard with the back of his rifle. There was no choice – one had to carry on, otherwise there would be more beatings.

We all had to undress. It was the middle of winter. We stood naked in the parade ground while we were hosed down with ice-cold water. Eventually, we were given the concentration camp clothing: blue and white striped pyjamas. We were each given a number. Mine was 28411.

In Dachau, all the inmates were counted every morning and evening. It was a dreadful place. I saw lots of things happen. Elderly people would walk into the electric wire that surrounded the camp. In that way, they took their own lives before the Nazis did. People were shot just because they did not do as they were ordered by the guards.

In the overcrowded huts where we slept, we had to hang our towels next to our beds. The towel was no more than a scrappy piece of rag, but if it was not neatly folded, you were beaten. I was given the job of cleaning the windows of the hut. If there was one spot of dirt on the windows, you were beaten. There were no toilets, just holes in the ground. The fear that was instilled into us was chilling. We were too frightened to talk to each other.

One of the roll-calls stays in my mind. It was found that one man was missing. He was eventually found, but until then we were forced to stand in the parade ground for between 48–60 hours in the freezing cold. At least 40–50 people died as a result.

I survived that terrifying ordeal. I was 18 years of age. My parents eventually found out where I was. I was the only member of my family to be arrested and taken to a concentration camp at that time. I was allowed to write a letter to them. My parents and friends tried every effort to secure my release. The only way out was to produce papers for emigration.

When I came to be released, the SS asked me if I had any money to pay for my fare home. I had no money whatsoever. The guards replied, ‘then you can’t go. We are not paying.’ To my amazement a fellow Jewish inmate who was being released at the same time, looked up and said, ‘I’ll pay.’ And he paid my fare. But for him, I would have remained in the camp.

As we arrived on the train through Munich station, there were 3 or 4 Jews with trilby hats standing on the platform. They were waiting for any people being released from the camp. We looked like convicts with our shaven hair. They gave us their hats so that people would not know that we had just been released from Dachau.

I arrived in Bonn early in the morning. I didn’t want to wake my parents because a knock at the door in the early hours of the morning could be an SS raid. I waited for several hours outside the door until I felt able to ring the bell."

Willy Field

King George VI's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens

10,000 Germans and Austrians fought for Britain during the Second World War.

Their particular contribution to the Allied victory over Hitler and Nazism is largely unknown. One in seven of the 75,000 German and Austrian refugees who came to Britain between 1933 and 1939 enlisted in the British Forces, a surprisingly high percentage.

Under Nazi law they were stateless, but according to British law they were still Germans. They all took the unprecedented step of swearing allegiance to King George VI even though, with a few exceptions, they did not receive British nationality until after the war. The majority began their army life in the non-combatant Pioneer Corps, the pick and shovel on their cap badge emblematic of hard physical labour.

They became affectionately known as 'the King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens'.

They had come to Britain as victims of Nazi oppression, mainly the Jewish intellectuals of central Europe but also Aryan Socialists and 'degenerate artists'; the political opponents of Nazism.

All had one thing in common – their lives and those of their families were at risk after the Nazis gained power in Germany in 1933 and Austria in 1938. Born and raised in those countries, the Jewish refugees saw themselves first and foremost as loyal German and Austrian citizens. Their Jewishness was secondary. A trace of Jewish ancestry or opposition to Nazism put thousands of ordinary German lives at risk. Many had relatives who had fought the British during the First World War or they themselves had done so and received the Iron Cross for bravery. All this counted for nothing.

So, just twenty-one years later, they found themselves on the other side in British uniform fighting their fellow Germans. Their story is unique in British history and all the more extraordinary because none of them could be conscripted. All had to volunteer. Each wanted a hand in defeating Nazism and to repay the debt to Britain for saving their lives.

BOOK REVIEW: Saturday at M.I.9 by Airey Neave

Why did I love this book?

Saturday was the codename given to Airey Neave when he worked for MI9, the branch of military intelligence for escape and evasion in World War Two. Neave has achieved legendary status as the first British man to successfully escape from Colditz Castle, Leipzig in Germany in 1942, and make it back to England.

This fortress – nicknamed ‘the camp for naughty boys’ by British officer POWs – was believed by the Germans to be impenetrable and from which no prisoner could ever escape. Neave’s success vastly raised the morale of airmen and soldiers going into action because they knew it was possible to escape from such camps.

Neave was perfectly placed to write this first history of MI9, placing on record the establishment and running of the major escape lines as well the bravery of thousands of women and men of Nazi-occupied countries who aided MI9 and saved over 35,000 Allied personnel.

Their legacy went beyond this to smuggle intelligence out for the Allies. This personal favourite of mine is a timeless narrative that remains one of the foremost classics on MI9, its intelligence operations, agents, and wartime espionage.

This is one of those books that made a pivotal turning point in my career and inspired me to write my book on 'MI9: Escape & Evasion'.