JEWISH INTEREST
December 2023
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33
Heroic Coward By Paul R. Bartrop, Professor Emeritus of History, Florida Gulf Coast University
E
ighty years ago this discovering that a fellow Britmonth, in December ish prisoner was confined in 1943, a prisoner was the Jewish labor section of the sent to Auschwitz. While camp, he smuggled himself there was perhaps nothing into the camp, attempting surprising in that fact, there to meet with this man and was something quite special witness the conditions under about this prisoner. which he was imprisoned. Charles Joseph (“Charlie”) He could not locate the BritCoward was a British prisoner ish POW but witnessed the of war who became known gas chambers, malnutrition, as the “Count of Auschwitz” cramped living quarters and Paul Bartrop after he helped save the lives SS treatment of the prisoners, of at least 400 Jews working on slave and saw it as his humanitarian obligation labor details. His story from 80 years ago from then on to resist the brutality conis unquestionably worthy of recollection. fronting the Jews. Born in England in 1905, he enlisted in Due to his ability to speak German fluthe British army in June 1937 and rose to ently, Coward was named as the Red Cross become Quartermaster Battery Sergeant liaison officer for the British prisoners. Major. On May 25, 1940, as German Acting as their go-between with the guards, forces were sweeping all before them in he used the limited freedom this provided France, Coward was captured during the to engage in resistance activities. He and unsuccessful British defense of Calais. He other British prisoners smuggled food and made two escape attempts before reachassorted items to the Jewish inmates and, ing a prisoner-of-war camp. While at the through coded letters, he smuggled reports camp, he made numerous further escapes. to the British War Office regarding camp On one occasion, while a prisoner of war conditions and information he believed on the run, he even received the Iron had military value. The information these Cross while posing as a wounded German letters contained was later used as evidence soldier in an army field hospital. He was during the Nuremburg Trials. In addition, recaptured on each occasion. he witnessed the arrival of trainloads of In December 1943, he was sent to Jews for extermination. Auschwitz III (Monowitz). Here, he was Coward’s greatest achievement at Ausplaced in the E715 labor detachment chwitz was liberating hundreds of Jews. camp (administered by Stalag VIII-B), British prisoners of war received packwhere British POWs were detained. Upon ages containing Swiss chocolate from the
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International Red Cross, and Coward used these as a bargaining chip with the SS to obtain the corpses of dead non-Jewish prisoners. He had these placed in ditches along the paths Jewish slave laborers took to and from work. The Jews would slowly drop out of the group and hide in the ditches; Coward would swap their clothing and identities with the corpses and give the healthy Jews the documents and clothes he had taken from the corpses. They then adopted these as new identities and were smuggled out of the camp to freedom. It has been estimated that through this scheme, Charlie Coward saved up to 400 Jewish lives. In December 1944, he was sent back to the main camp of Stalag VIII-B. He was finally liberated in January 1945, in Bavaria. After his liberation, Coward remained active in his opposition to the Nazis. He acted as a witness during the I.G. Farben Trial at Nuremberg in 1948-1949 and attested to the sadistic treatment of Jews. In his court statement, he mentioned that during his imprisonment in the labor camp I.G. Farben, workers would openly admit they knew about the gassing and were fully aware what role they were playing in the war. In 1954, British author John Castle published a biography of Coward, “The Password is Courage,” which recorded his wartime activities. This book was then made into a movie of the same name in 1962, directed by Andrew L. Stone.
Portrayed by Dirk (later,Sir Dirk) Bogarde, Coward’s humanitarian efforts were recognized; however, as the film did not fully illustrate the terror of the Holocaust and the pain and suffering endured by the Jewish prisoners, it did not sufficiently acknowledge the fullness of Coward’s feats. Charles Coward’s exploits were a product of his unwavering devotion to human life rather than his duty as a soldier. In 1963, in recognition of his nonviolent resistance during the war, he was named as one of the Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Then, after his death in 1976, the Department of the Righteous at Yad Vashem released a statement commemorating Coward’s righteous and brave actions as a humanitarian. He received appreciation and respect from his home country in 2010 when he was posthumously named a Hero of the Holocaust by the British government — a Holocaustrelated equivalent of a civic knighthood.
Author’s note
Pressure of work here in Australia has necessitated a reevaluation of my activities and I have decided that, after 13 years, I should retire from writing these monthly articles. I have been pleased to write for what I still consider to be "my" Jewish community so that I could add to the community's understanding of the universal nature of the Holocaust. My very best wishes going forward; I'll keep looking at the publication online, though no longer looking for my name and article!
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