Concentration camp survivor speaks at London Met on Holocaust Memorial Day
As part of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations, London Metropolitan University hosted a special lecture for a group of local school and college students.
Ben Helfgott, a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, was he guest speaker. He spoke candidly about his experiences as a Polish Jew in World War II.
Ben was nearly 10 years old when the war broke out and after failed attempts to escape the German soldiers marching into Poland, his family was sent to live in the Piotrkow ghetto for three years. Tragically Ben’s mother and sister were both killed during this time and Ben was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp along with his father. He then was moved from Buchenwald to Schlieben concentration camp where he was separated from his father.
Shortly before the end of the war he was sent to Theresienstadt camp before his liberation in 1945, whereupon he learned of the death of his father, just days before. Ben came to the UK aged 15, with 250 other orphaned child survivors and went on to become a national weightlifting champion and compete twice in the Olympic Games for Great Britain and the Commonwealth Games.
During the question and answer session at the end of Ben’s lecture, a student asked if he felt hatred towards the perpetrators of such suffering; Ben replied he has never felt bitter about his experiences saying: ‘If you hate others you will hate yourself’.
The lecture was organised by Dr Inge Weber-Newth, Principal Lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Languages and Education, who gave an introductory lecture on the Holocaust. She also spoke about the importance of remembering victims of more recent genocides.
Holocaust Memorial Day is the international day of remembrance for the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides. This year will see the 65th anniversary of the closing of Auschwitz-Birkenau. For more information about Holocaust Memorial Day 2010, please click here.
3 February 2010