A SOLDIER captured and held at Auschwitz during the Second World War has been persuaded by school children to speak publicly about his experiences for the first time.
Royal Marine Frank Riding was forced to work at the concentration camp for much of the war after he was captured during the fall of Crete.
Although protected under the Geneva convention, he was forced into factory work at the camp and saw the brutal treatment of Jewish and gipsy prisoners by the Nazis.
After he was released, Frank, from Oldham, remained silent about his ordeal, telling only close family members.
Now, aged 91, he has spoken in detail to a group of school children who plan to retrace his footsteps by visiting the site of the former camp.
Although 1,600 British PoWs were forced to work in the Nazi labour camp, few have ever spoken about their experiences.
Witnesses at the Nuremberg Trials after the war told how British prisoners of war shared rations with the Jewish prisoners.
Pupils studying media production at Cedar Mount High in Gorton, Manchester, met Frank through a teacher at the school who lived next door to him.
'Documentary'
A colleague, English teacher Paul Barker-Mathews, said: "We were looking for a story to base a short documentary on. Our head of religious education is a neighbour of Frank's and knows him as a family friend. It was she who brought up his story and we thought it would be a great subject for our students.
"PoWs (prisoners of war) were treated differently from other prisoners, although they still suffered great hardships. They were not supposed to talk to Jewish or gipsy co-workers on pain of death, but they did.
"Soldiers shared food with them and attempted to protect them from the Nazis as best they could."
After four years in captivity, Frank feared that withdrawing SS troops would kill the British prisoners, but instead he was forced by his captors to leave the camp and make the notorious 500km `death march' from Poland to Germany in January 1945.
He was finally freed by American troops.
Students were so inspired by his story they spent more than a year raising funds for a trip to Poland to see the site where the soldier and his comrades were held captive.
A group of 13 teenage students and four teachers will visit the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Birkenau death camp and lay a wreath at the memorial plaque for British PoWs at the local cemetery.
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He is a former Royal Marine, A proud and Horourable man, and still today in conflict overseas the Royal Marines just like Frank are serving there country and doing above and beyond their call of duty.
My uncle also did this march from Auschwitz to Regensburg (I think) in South Germany, although he was held elsewhere in Lower Silesia for 4 yrs and only saw Auschwitz briefly. It was an ordeal, one British POW and friend of my uncle was shot by the guards while urinating against a tree. After the war, when my uncle found out about the British massacre of the Cossacks, 40-50,000 men, women and children at Lientz he felt ashamed of what the British had done and never went to a rememberance parade once.
I just wonder what his thoughts are about how britain has changed? and if it was worth the effort ?That the very people he fought actually now have a say on how britain is run and now own a lot of our infrastructure.And if his standard of living as a pensioner in britain is what he expected.?
I saw another Manchester former soldier on a documentary, who had also been forced to work at Auschwitz. On his arrival, he saw an SS Guard beating a frail lady. Instinctively, he left the line to remonstrate with the guard, but the regular German soldier guarding his group pulled him back, pleading with him to get back in line - "otherwise they'll just shoot you!". He's never got over what he had to endure there either. It's right that they should talk about it. All credit to those men.
David of Manchester, the British didn't massacre the Cossacks at Lientz in 1945. They handed them over to the Russians. The merits of that can be argued, but they didn't massacre them.
Well done we fought two world wars and won and yet we have poverty still in britain and we have pensioners dying each year because they cannot afford heating Ect,and we have old people being abused in homes Ect .WELL DONE BRITAIN .Thats the way to look after the people for fighting ? I wonder how many get the same benefits for fighting in iraq afghamistan Ect .Keep fighting lads so that this system can forget everything you do for ""YOUR"" COUNTRY? I wonder if the school has done a film on the old soldiers who freeze to death each year or get taken to court for non payment of rates Ect?? Lets get real and stop living with rose coloured glasses on .lets face it we let all our soldiers down who fought two world wars and we are doing the same today.Write to me and i will tell you some hometruths how we treat our elderly in modern britain..
God bless you Frank for passing your painful story on. And God bless the students for paying tribute. There is still a lot of good in this country.