00:00by the community
00:02or hosts by the community
00:06for decades
00:08we have spoken
00:10to people across the country
00:12sharing our painful memories
00:15we have done this out of deep sense of duty
00:19to
00:20ensure that what happened to our families
00:23and six million
00:25for Jewish men, women and children
00:27is never forgotten
00:30soon there will be no witnesses left
00:35that is why I ask you today
00:37to just listen
00:39not to
00:40just listen
00:41but to become my witnesses
00:44also
00:45I was born in Piotrkow, Trybunowski
00:47in Poland
00:48in 1930
00:50I was the middle child of my parents
00:53Sarah and Mosher helped
00:55but
00:56it was an older brother Ben
00:58and a younger sister Lucia
01:00I had a happy childhood
01:03we lived in a country
01:05comfortable apartment nearby
01:07with
01:08extended family
01:10and there was a relatively large Jewish community
01:14life was
01:15very
01:16quiet
01:17ordinary
01:18but
01:19very pleasant
01:20and happy
01:20throughout
01:21he
01:22received
01:23in
01:24not
01:25but
01:26would
01:27please
01:28in
01:29Sept
01:31ima
01:25Nazi Ghetto was established in my hometown.
01:30Life there was brutal. It was overcrowded. Food was...
01:35...scarce. Disease was everywhere. And even as a 12-year...
01:40...old child, I was forced into her.
01:45Labor.
01:48Like so many families.
01:50This line was torn apart.
01:55My mother and my eight-year-old sister.
02:00They were taken away in December 1942.
02:03What happened to them is...
02:05...indescribable.
02:06They were murdered in the most horrific...
02:10...way.
02:11Shot into open.
02:13So, erm...
02:15...open pits...
02:17...in Crackle Forest.
02:20This was actually taken place all over the country.
02:25The forest killings.
02:28My father and brother were...
02:30...and imported to Buchenwald.
02:32I was sent with my five-year-old cousin...
02:35...first to Ravensbruck...
02:37...and then to Bergen-Belsen.
02:40I later learned that my father was murdered by Trank.
02:45...and escaped a death march...
02:47...just days before the break.
02:50In the camps, we were stripped naked...
02:54...shaved...
02:55...and put through...
02:56...trees in cold showers...
02:58...and even the...
02:59...pris...
03:00...and...
03:01...given the prisoner's job.
03:03When...
03:04...we...
03:05...looked...
03:06...at each other...
03:07...we...
03:08...baily...
03:09...recognized each other.
03:10We...
03:11...we...
03:12...all looked the same.
03:13We were stripped...
03:15not only of our freedom, but of our identities, our dignity.
03:20Our humanity. It was as if they had taken.
03:25Away our very souls.
03:28When I arrived in Berlin
03:30the first thing that hit me was this
03:35the smog and the stench.
03:37It was a hell on earth.
03:40Those still alive shuffled about like scary.
03:45Skeleton and just collapsed where they stood.
03:50Disease was everywhere and I became very ill with typhus.
03:55One day from the winter.
04:00The window of my barracks.
04:02I saw people running and all.
04:05I could sing cobbles.
04:06How have they got the strength to run?
04:09I couldn't.
04:10To move a muscle.
04:11That was on the 15th of April, 1940.
04:15When we were liberated by the British Army.
04:20And here I want to stress that they were wonderful.
04:25And I really pay tribute to them.
04:30Of how wonderful we were treated.
04:33And life just.
04:35Changed instantly when they arrived.
04:38Nearly eight.
04:40Every year after liberation.
04:41I received an attack from my older brother Ben.
04:45Against all odds he had survived.
04:48It was a race.
04:50It was published by the Central British Fund committee.
04:53For me to come to England.
04:54For me to come to England.
04:55When we were reunited.
04:57Ben was a hero.
05:00Just 11 years after his liberation.
05:03He was a captain.
05:04Just 11 years after his liberation.
05:05Captain.
05:05The British weightlifting team.
05:07At the 1956 Melbourne.
05:10for
05:16Olympics.
05:17Thanks to Jonas Olis.
05:18To make sure.
05:33and they seemed terribly.
05:35One of them's greatest wishes...
05:38what's to see the Holocaust Memorial Learning Centre built beside.
05:43A permanent place with survivor testimony would...
05:48be preserved and what future generations could understand.
05:53Where antisemitism and hatred could lead.
05:58If left, I'm challenged.
06:03He did not live to see the memorial.
06:08But he would have been proud to know that parliament now...
06:13passed the Holocaust Memorial Bill...
06:16and that work was soon.
06:18Again...
06:20Having endured the Holocaust...
06:23these survivors never imagined...
06:25we would witness antisemitism.
06:28at the level it is today.
06:31What we have seen...
06:33in Manchester on Yom Kippur...
06:36and in Sydney on Han...
06:38has shaken me...
06:40to the cold.
06:43How 81 years after the Holocaust...
06:46can Jewish people once again...
06:48be targeted in this way.
06:51Remembering the past...
06:53is no longer enough.
06:55I speak to you...
06:56leaders...
06:58of this country...
06:59of this country.
07:00I proudly call home.
07:03and I pledge...
07:06that you do...
07:07what you need...
07:08not...
07:09needs to be done...
07:10to tackle this...
07:11hang...
07:12through.
07:13When I was in Bergen-Benzelsen...
07:15I still had hope...
07:16because...
07:17without...
07:18hope...
07:19there's no...
07:20survival.
07:21Today...
07:22I have...
07:23hope...
07:24I hope...
07:25in the next generation...
07:26the thousands...
07:27of...
07:28young people...
07:29who have heard...
07:30my testimony.
07:31Thank you...
07:33for inviting me...
07:34to speak to you...
07:35today...
07:36and thank you...
07:37for listening.
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