He had been a prisoner since 1940 and was becoming more trouble than he was worth, having escaped nine times so far and frequently sabotaging his work details. But at Auschwitz, Coward organized his biggest act of sabotage yet — smuggling hundreds of Jewish prisoners out of the camp, right under the Nazis' noses.


Because Coward spoke fluent German, he was tasked with being the Red Cross liaison between England and the roughly 1,200 British POWs at Auschwitz. The Red Cross would relay his messages to England, which would then use that intel to negotiate with Germany over the living conditions of the POWs. This role allowed Coward to move somewhat freely around the camp, and even to surrounding towns, where he witnessed trainloads of Jewish prisoners heading into the extermination section of the camp. Soon, he was smuggling Red Cross supplies intended for the British into the Jewish section. And not long after that, he devised a way to not only smuggle supplies in, but to smuggle Jewish prisoners out

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