Early life Dodd's father served in the
British Army during the
Boer War and was a
Sergeant during
World War I when he was captured. Dodd left school in 1934 aged 15, and became an
apprentice mechanic for a motor transport company in his native
Northwich, moving to the Weaver Navigation Company in 1937. In September 1938, he nearly lost his left foot when it became trapped between a ramp and a turning wheel. He received extensive
physiotherapy for his injuries, but still only received a rating of 'B2' when he tried to enlist into the
Army, too low to allow him to join up. However, as he had an
HGV licence, he was permitted to enlist as a military
driving instructor As they were marched to the concentration camp and factory where they would be working, Dodd tells of a teenage Jewish girl, stripped to the waist, who was being savagely whipped by an
SS officer. Dodd and the other POWs attempted to get between him and the bleeding girl. The SS officer pulled out his pistol and threatened to shoot Dodd, who was at the front, if he interfered further. A
Wehrmacht soldier warned Dodd that he meant what he said. The
British troops stepped aside and the officer resumed beating the girl. with its accompanying smell of burning flesh from the crematorium at nearby Auschwitz II, was to be Dodd's home for the next 14 months. During his imprisonment in Camp E715, Dodd said he witnessed the mistreatment and killing of Jewish inmates at the camp by their
SS guards, including Jews hanging from the gallows in
Auschwitz I and several pushed off high scaffolding. and in the
BBC's
Auschwitz: The Forgotten Witness (1997). In the latter programme, Dodd returned to Auschwitz to find the location of Camp E715, and tried unsuccessfully to gain admission to the
IG Farben plant to claim the 14 months back wages he said they owed him for his forced wartime labour there.
Decline in health and death In November 2009 it was reported in the
Wirral News that, aged 90, Dodd was battling with
Alzheimer's disease and required full-time care at a
care home in
Cheshire. A campaign was launched to raise the £500 a week needed to cover the cost of his care. He died in the early hours of 17 January 2011 aged 91. ==See also==