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Albert Veissid is one of the few people who can say that his building skills saved his life. The irony is, he never had any.

In 1944, aged just 20, Veissid was sent from his home in Lyon in the south of France to Auschwitz, the extermination camp in Poland where more than 1 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered between 1942 and 1945. As he was standing in line waiting to have his head shaved and a prisoner number tattooed on his arm, he made a snap decision that became a matter of life or death.

鈥淲hen I entered Auschwitz I said I was a mason,鈥� says Veissid, now 84 and living in Provence. 鈥淚 actually worked selling clothes in a shop, but I remember my friend leaning over and quickly saying to me, 鈥業t鈥檚 better that you write mason鈥�. If you look up the camp documents you can see I am marked down as someone with construction skills.鈥�

Veissid鈥檚 lie about his skills meant the Nazis selected him to work in a construction unit reinforcing a large underground bunker near the camp with six Polish men.

Last month, builders working at the same site dug up a bottle hidden in the concrete wall of the school that now stands there that brought Veissid鈥檚 story to the world鈥檚 attention. The bottle contained a note with 鈥�9 September 1944鈥� and the names, camp numbers and home towns of seven young prisoners aged between 18 and 20 from France and Poland written on it. The discovery has stirred up horrors that Veissid had spent years trying to forget. Indeed, he can鈥檛 even remember writing his name on the paper, though, having seen it, he is convinced he must have. 鈥淥n that document there is my first name, surname, my camp number, as well as 鈥楲yon, France鈥�,鈥� he says 鈥淚t was I who wrote that on the bottom. It鈥檚 my handwriting.鈥�

He refers to the message as a 鈥渨itness statement鈥� penned by men who knew they might not live to tell their tales in person. Now, after years of silence, Veissid has decided to do just that and give a few select interviews about his 鈥渋nfernal existence鈥� in the camp and how posing as a builder kept him alive. 鈥淭his is what you might call a scoop,鈥� he says. 鈥淎fter this, I won鈥檛 talk about it any more.鈥�

A means of survival

Veissid鈥檚 job in Auschwitz was to use stone blocks to reinforce a bunker which he was told would be used as an air raid shelter. Often, though, these structures were put to use as gas chambers or crematoriums. He did not know this at the time.

Veissid says manual labour was preferable to the life of a standard prisoner. 鈥淲e were very lucky to work somewhere without the attention of kapos [inmates, mostly convicts, who worked as supervisors] and the SS, because the kapos would beat you, and the SS would beat you even more,鈥� he says.

A Hungarian man he was working with knew a bit more about construction than Veissid, so helped him pick up some basic skills. 鈥淗e knew how to mix cement with water and that sort of thing; enough for us to get by,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 say he was a professional mason, but he knew enough for us to fool the kapos.鈥�

He also struck up a friendship with his workmates. Among them were the six Polish builders also named on the message, who smuggled him extra rations of vegetable soup, as non-Jewish Poles were given more food than deportees from abroad. 鈥淣ormally the Poles would have had nothing to do with a little Jew from Lyon,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t was very difficult to survive on the rations of the deportees, but because I was working in this group with the Polish, they had more to eat. I was able to eat some of their soup and build up my strength. They helped saved my life.鈥�

In another stroke of luck Veissid was largely unsupervised by the guards for several weeks, so his lack of building skills went unnoticed. This also meant he was able to rest and build up his strength 鈥� something almost unheard of for most concentration camp inmates who, if they were not executed, were likely to be worked to death.

I worked selling clothes in a shop, but my friend said, 鈥榠t鈥檚 better that you write mason鈥�. I was marked down as someone with construction skills

But this grace period didn鈥檛 last long. When the kapos inspected his work and realised how little had been done, he was brutally punished 鈥� something he refuses to discuss. 鈥淚 was lucky they didn鈥檛 hang me,鈥� he says. 鈥淭o them, what I was doing was effectively sabotage. They did things that I can鈥檛 explain, but they spared my life. At least they spared my life.鈥�

Having escaped death at the hands of the kapos and guards and buoyed by the strength he had mustered resting in relative privacy in the bunker, Veissid was able to survive several more weeks until the Soviet army began its approach in January 1945.

The prisoners were moved westwards towards another camp, at Buchenwald in Germany, away from the Russians. 鈥淚n France, we call that 鈥榯he March of Death鈥�,鈥� says Veissid. 鈥淚t was the middle of winter, there was deep snow and it was extremely cold. I was able to go on because I had built up my strength.鈥�

Rescue and recovery

Veissid was rescued by the Allies, after walking all the way to Karlovy Vary, in what is now the Czech Republic. He does not remember how long he had been walking for. He spent the next three months in a sanatorium, recovering from an attack of tuberculosis. When he had fully recovered he was able to resume his career selling clothes in Marseille and the neighbouring towns.

While he was in Auschwitz he had met an old neighbour 鈥� a 17-year-old boy named Rafael Carraco 鈥� who told him his close family had escaped capture. 鈥淗e said, 鈥楢lbert, don鈥檛 worry. Your parents headed off to hide themselves long ago鈥�,鈥� says Veissid. 鈥淚 gave him a piece of bread to say thank you, because he rescued my morale, because I was relieved to know that my parents were hidden.鈥� It later emerged that his father had sheltered in a cinema, his mother at a farm 20km from Lyon and his brother under a bridge. They all survived the war.

鈥淚t was very lucky I was the only one of my family to be deported. I can name many families where the mother, father, sons, daughters, cousins were all deported 鈥� and never came back.鈥�

When Veissid was repatriated to the Hotel Lutetia in Paris, he sent his family a telegram saying he was still alive. They were reunited at Lyon Perrache station in June 1945.

Looking back

Now, an elderly gentleman with children and grandchildren, Veissid is focused on living his life rather than looking back. He says that this is why he has not spoken of his time in Auschwitz for so many years, and explains how caring for his family has spared him from survivors鈥� guilt and helped him move on. 鈥淭here are deportees who live their whole lives with this,鈥� he says.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 have the traumas any more, because life carries on,鈥� he adds. And with that, Albert Veissid turns his attention back to his life in Provence after deciding, just for a few days, to tell the world the remarkable story of the clothing salesman who posed as a builder to survive Auschwitz.