In 1942, the young soldier Arthur Dodd was taken prisoner by the German Army and transported to Oswiecim in Polish Upper Silesia. At the time he found no resonance in the German name for the place. They called it Auschwitz: a name now synonymous with man's darkest hour. Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most infamous German death-camp of the Second World War, functioned for the incarceration and extermination of those that the third Reich deemed 'undesirables': Jews, homosexuals, Communists. What is less known is that it was the fate of hundreds of British POWs to find it their prison, and to behold the atrocities meted out by Hitler's SS. This is the true story of one of those witnesses. Forced to do hard labour, 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.

A prisoner, an escapee, a survivor: Arthur Dodd was a spectator in hell. >> "A human witness to inhumanity: Arthur Dodd's account is another important piece of evidence." Legion, The Royal British Legion Magazine "A unique tale. history will be grateful that Arthur Dodd's story was told". Scottish Legion News "The book is a harrowing addition to public knowledge of the Holocaust" Soldier Magazine "(A Spectator In Hell) is an extraordinary story." Military Illustrated".