British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met with a previous British soldier who was witness to the Holocaust to label International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Former British prisoner of conflict at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Denis Avey, swapped clothes with a Jewish prisoner and took his space in the camp on two separate occasions in decree to see if the rumors about the death camp were accurate.

“[Avey’s] tale is even more poignant on this, the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau; a reminder of the unimaginable cruelty faced by those held there and why we must continue to fight persecution and intolerance wherever it is found,” stated Brown