Mala Tribich, the only British Holocaust survivor to attend the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation, shared her harrowing experience and warned that the world hasn't learned the lessons of the past.
A concentration camp survivor has warned that the world hasn't learned the lessons of the Holocaust as she shared her own experience. Mala Tribich, who was born in Poland, is the only British Holocaust survivor to attend a ceremony commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz today (January 27).
As a young girl, she was separated from her mother and sister who were marched to their deaths in a forest with communal graves before she was taken to the Ravensbrück camp in crowded 'cattle trucks' and later to Bergen-Belsen. On BBC Radio 4 this morning, she spoke of the importance of remembering those who didn't survive and urged people to make the world a better place. She said: 'Unfortunately, they haven't learned the lessons and wars are still going on and people getting killed. What can I say? We're all hoping for a better world but we need to contribute to it and make sure that our young people get the right education.' The 94-year-old told the Today programme that, as a young girl living in a ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland, her family were taken to a 'very dilapidated' synagogue before her mother and sister were part of groups of 50 people were marched out at dawn. The first group were marched to a forest where communal graves were 'ready waiting for them', but she stayed behind with the permission of a policeman. 'What happened after that is absolutely horrific,' she said 'I just can't tell you how they were killed, I can't bear to talk about it.' Mala and others were later taken to a train station where she boarded crowded 'cattle trucks', unaware of where she was being taken to. The journey took around four and a half days with 'very little' food provided at some stops and some people died along the way. When the transport arrived at the Ravensbrück concentration camp in northern Germany, one of Mala's aunts who had been on the same journey became ill and was taken to hospital. She never came out and died there, as did Mala's best friend Pema Blachman. 'I usually use the names of people because otherwise they're just unknown,' Mala told Radio 4. 'No one will ever remember them.' Everyone on the transport had to queue up and give their details when they arrived at the camp. They were stripped of all their possessions, including their clothes, as they were made to undress, had their heads shaved and entered 'cold' communal showers. The concentration camp guards then gave them striped jackets, a shirt and what Mala described as 'clogs'. 'When we looked at one another, we really couldn't recognise each other,' Mala said. 'It's so different when one hasn't got one's hair. 'It felt awful, it really did something to our soul. At that time, we really lost all hope of really getting out of it because all the time it was getting worse. Every day of the war, each day was worse than the one before.' Towards the end of the war, Mala was taken to Bergen-Belsen where she was put in a 'very big tent' with people from all over Europe. 'The first thing that struck you when you got in was the smell and the smog,' she said. 'There were people there but they were skeletons and they're shuffling along aimlessly and as they would shuffled along, they just collapsed and died. Not all of them obviously but there were dead bodies all over and there were piles of dead, decaying corpses. It was a horrific scene.' When Bergen-Belsen was liberated in April 1945, Mala had typhus which was 'raging through the camp'. She remembers seeing people running as she looked through a window from an upper bunk bed and wondering why - and how they had the strength to run at all. All of the children were evacuated to a garrison town nearby where tents and hospitals were built. Asked how she kept going, Mala said: 'I have to admit that I don't know. I really don't know. It's part of my nature perhaps not to give in or not to be even likely. 'Because you didn't have much choice in those situations for about five and a half years. I can hardly believe it when I think about it. 'It's so long ago and the reason I remember it is that I've been talking about it to other people. Not ever since - the talking came quite a bit later.' Mala was taken to a children's home in Sweden before coming to the UK. Unaware if any of her family survived, she was reconnected with her brother Ben - who later represented Great Britain as a weight lifter at the Olympics - having written to her after the war. Mala is representing all of the British Holocaust survivors at the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz today (January 27). 'I'm remembering all those that didn't survive,' she said. 'The message is to try and change the world to a better place so there should be no discrimination against people who happen to have a different religion or a different colour skin or whatever. 'There should be more tolerance of one another. We're all individuals, we're all different, but we're all people.
HOLOCAUST AUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR HISTORY EDUCATION DISCRIMINATION TOLERANCE
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