![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/March-1.jpg?resize=386%2C500\")
Those of us who gathered to hear the harrowing accounts of Ron Jones\u2019 experience during World War II, would agree, that it was a privilege. This gentle man and natural story teller had seen and suffered things that no person should ever experience when he was taken Prisoner of War in January 1942 and kept in Auschwitz for two years.<\/p>\n
The stories however, also served to remind us of Ron\u2019s resilience, good humour and respect for people \u2013 qualities which undoubtedly contributed to his survival during the war and his recovery afterwards.<\/p>\n
The story unfolded as Ron, at 101 years old, stood to talk to his audience for almost an hour. Born in Rogerstone to an industrial blacksmith and a tailoress, Ron\u2019s father insisted he left school at 14 and follow him into the steel industry. Being in a reserved occupation, Ron would have avoided active service in World War II, had it not been for a mistake made by a typist at Guest Keen Works.<\/p>\n
After training with the South Wales Borderers, Ron was posted to Egypt in August 1941 and captured in January 1942. He spent eight months in appalling conditions in a POW camp at Alta Mura in southern Italy; covered with lice, freezing cold at night and reliant on Red Cross parcels for survival. With conditions so bad, a few hundred of the POWs offered to work. They were put on a passenger train, thinking they were heading for Milan. When the train stopped, they were in the Brenner Pass and were handed over to the Germans. It was August 1943. They were loaded onto cattle trucks; the destination was Auschwitz. Approaching the camp they saw men in striped pyjamas digging trenches in the freezing cold. Ron said: \u2018They were all bound for the gas chambers; we were looking at dead men walking. We had arrived at our final destination, in more ways than one\u2019. <\/em><\/p>\n Cigarettes were currency in Auschwitz. By giving the guards some, the British POWs were allowed out into the field to play football every Sunday. When the Red Cross realised this, they brought footballs and shirts in the colours of the home nations. Ron\u2019s mother had taught him to sew and he decided to use his skills to embroider the Prince of Wales feathers onto the Welsh shirts, using thread from old socks.<\/p>\n With the Russians advancing into Poland, the<\/p>\n German guards forced Ron and the other POWs to march towards the Austrian border. In what became known as The Long March or The Death March, the POWs trudged wearily for 17 weeks, with little or no food and sleeping in fields in temperatures as low as minus 25 degrees. Some six hundred miles were covered. Two hundred and sixty men soon became less than a hundred. Ron remembers the time when he ate a raw chicken. \u2018It was lovely\u2019 <\/em>he said.<\/p>\n When liberated from a barn by US forces, Ron weighed 7 stone (half his original weight), was covered in lice and sick when he ate anything. \u2018But I was still alive\u2019<\/em>, he said. In May 1945, Ron returned home to his dear wife Gwladys and to a community which supported his long road to recovery. \u2018It took me four of five years before I was back to normal again\u2019. <\/em><\/p>\n Ron joined the Royal Legion after he retired and worked tirelessly to raise money through the selling of poppies .<\/p>\n Our thanks are to Ron for sharing his experiences with us and to the Friends of Wenvoe Library for organising what is hopefully the first of many \u2018Meet the Author\u2019 evenings.<\/p>\n Read all of Ron Jones\u2019 story in \u2018The Auschwitz Goalkeeper\u2019.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Those of us who gathered to hear the harrowing accounts of Ron Jones\u2019 experience during World War II, would agree, that it was a privilege. This gentle man and natural story teller had seen and suffered things that no person should ever experience when he was taken Prisoner of War in January 1942 and kept in Auschwitz for two years. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[137,9],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-1ss","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5514,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5514","url_meta":{"origin":5608,"position":0},"title":"Meet the Author","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st January 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Meet the author - Wednesday February 13th at 7:30pm upstairs in The Wenvoe Arms. (Free entry; donations to the library) Ron Jones who lives is Risca is 101 years old and is the oldest Poppy seller in Wales. He was 23 years old when he became a POW in North\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Event Notices"","block_context":{"text":"Event Notices","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=237"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5512,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5512","url_meta":{"origin":5608,"position":1},"title":"February News","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st January 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Meet the author - Wednesday February 13th at 7:30pm upstairs in The Wenvoe Arms. (Free entry; donations to the library) Ron Jones who lives is Risca is 101 years old and is the oldest Poppy seller in Wales. He was 23 years old when he became a POW in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Community Hub"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Community Hub","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5582,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5582","url_meta":{"origin":5608,"position":2},"title":"Meet the Author \u2013 Ron Jones","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd March 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"WENVOE COMMUNITY LIBRARY Tel: 02920 594176 \u2013 during opening hours or wenvoelibrary@outlook.com Like and follow us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com\/WenvoeCommunityLibrary Meet the Author \u2013 Ron Jones This was the Library\u2019s first Meet the Author talk. Ron Jones who will be 102 in April, spoke about his war-time experiences as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Community Hub"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Community Hub","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11560,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=11560","url_meta":{"origin":5608,"position":3},"title":"April 2022 Book Choice","author":"Alan Williams","date":"4th May 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"While Paris Slept by Ruth Druart Nobody had time to sleep at the latest Page Turners meeting as the latest novel was vociferously discussed. The book is set in two timelines, 1944 and 1953, and tells the story of a baby given away by a mother as she boards the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5597,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5597","url_meta":{"origin":5608,"position":4},"title":"Seven Good Reads","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd March 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 This month, we each reviewed a book of our own choice that we had enjoyed. \u2018The tattooist of Auschwitz\u2019 by Heather Morris. This book is based on the real life of Lale Sokkolov a survivor of Auschwitz, interviewed by Heather Morris. It is the love story of Lale and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5247,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5247","url_meta":{"origin":5608,"position":5},"title":"MILK DELIVERIES","author":"Alan Williams","date":"22nd December 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"MILK Ron may no longer be delivering the milk around the area but the company Bright & Early still are. Their aim is to attempt to deliver to all their customers before 7am to make sure everyone has milk in time for breakfast. If you are a past customer or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5608"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5609,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5608\/revisions\/5609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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