A BOOK written by a Bassaleg man recalling his two years spent as a prisoner of war at Auschwitz concentration camp was launched last night.

Ron Jones’ book The Auschwitz Goalkeeper tells the story of his detention at the camp in Poland from October 1943 until January 1945 and was launched at The Royal British Legion in Queen Street, Newport.

The 96-year-old spent time there after being captured in Benghazi, Libya.

At the concentration camp, he worked at the IG Farben chemical factory from 6am until 6pm, six days a week.

But on a Sundays he got to play football and was goalkeeper for the Welsh prisoner of war team.

The Red Cross gave the Welsh, English, Scottish and Irish teams their own kits.

Speaking to the South Wales Argus earlier this year on his experience, he said: “Life in the prisoner of war camp wasn’t that bad really. But it was the march that was terrible. I could still see it when I went back to Auschwitz. I couldn’t sleep with the memories.”

A staunch Newport County fan, he attended his first game when he was seven and was at their Wembley play-off final against Wrexham in May.

Mr Jones still sells poppies for the Royal British Legion every November and visits schools to talk about his life.

And he revisited Auschwitz with a BBC film crew last month for a feature shown on The One Show.

The book, published by Gomer Press, was co-written with Joe Lovejoy, the former chief football writer for the Sunday Times and The Independent and the ghost writer on Ryan Giggs’ autobiography,