Our Holocaust survivor stories reflect a wide variety of personal experiences of the Holocaust across Nazi-occupied Europe and provide a valuable insight into the lives of many who suffered from racism and discrimination. These true stories of Holocaust survivors and their families, presented by descendants and family friends, can be adapted to any audience and any age from Year 6 to adult.
Browse our collection of survivor stories covering experiences across Europe including concentration camp stories, stories of forced labour, confinement in ghettos, escape stories, children in hiding and refugee stories.
Our Survivor Stories
Yisrael Abslesz
Yisrael survived several selections for the gas chambers, daily life in Auschwitz-Birkenau and the infamous death march.
Charlotte Amdurer
Judith reveals the miracle of Charlotte’s and her sister Frieda’s escape but also the stories of those trapped in Austria.
Major Leonard Berney
One of the first of the Allied troops through the gates of Bergen-Belsen, he came face-to-face with its many horrors.
Toby Biber
Toby’s family hid in their own home in Poland for two and a half years until March 1942 when they were rounded up and marched to a hangar outside the town. They were kept in terrible conditions for a week before being taken to Dubienka where Toby and her siste
Lela Black
After being denounced and incarcerated at the Haidari military camp, they were transported to Auschwitz in cattle trucks.
Naomi Blake
Naomi was transported in the notorious cattle trains to Auschwitz, where family members were sent to the gas chambers.
Eva Cato
Eva and her mother survived the Siege of Budapest by sheltering in a basement for weeks with almost no food.
Tony Chuwen
His dramatic story includes his incarceration in two concentration camps and his escape by jumping off a moving train.
Stella Curzon
They could not believe that the people amongst whom they lived harmoniously would overnight become their oppressors.
Mirjam Finkelstein
Mirjam and her sisters were taken from Bergen-Belsen for a prisoner exchange, narrowly escaping arrest by German soldiers.
Steven Frank
Following the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, Steven’s father, who was a lawyer and member of the Dutch resistance, was arrested, imprisoned and tortured.
George Garai
George was forced onto a four-day death march from Mauthausen to Gunskirchen Concentration Camp.
Sam Gardener
Despite going into hiding, his mother and siblings were gassed in Treblinka and his grandfather and his cousins were shot.
Emmy Golding
The insidious rise of the Nazis from 1933 onwards forced Emmy, her parents and her sister to flee Germany in search of a safe haven.
The Graber Family
After several periods of hiding in empty apartments in Paris, Estera decided to send her two young sons away to safety in the French countryside.
Tootje (Cato) Granaat
Harsh measures taken against Dutch Jews, forced some family members into hiding, some worked with the Resistance, and others were transported to Westerbork transit camp
The Hahlo Family
The Hahlo family were Christian, not Jewish, having converted in 1892. Gerry’s 12 year old father escaped Germany alone.
Willy Halpert
Willy saw his father arrested on a street in Belgium because he was Jewish. Thanks to his dad’s quick thinking, Willy’s life was saved.
Fanny Höchstetter
Within days of the Nazi Party taking control of the Reichstag Fanny, Jewish and a senior civil servant, was forced to retire.
Anton & Sonja Hundsdorfer
When Hitler took control of Germany in 1933 Anton, as a Communist and political opponent, had to flee for his life.
Walter & Herta Kammerling
Walter Kammerling arrived in England from Vienna on a Kindertransport aged just 15, never to see his parents and older sister again.
Lushka Kelly
Lushka’s story movingly describes her separation from her parents and youngest brother, who were sent to extermination camps.
Moshe Senensieb and Ester Kraut
Ester and Moshe suffered atrocious conditions under Soviet forced labour, but this kept them safe from the terrors of Nazi occupation.
Jan Kurz-Bernstein and Lola Waksman
Jan barely survived hard labour in Siberia, but after recuperating he joined the Berling Army and helped to liberate Warsaw.
Helga Lemer
Discrimination grew worse until the terrible events of Kristallnacht in 1938 when Jewish property was ransacked and burned.
Liesel Katz
Liesel’s diary is a window into the horrors of hatred of the Jews leading up to the Holocaust. The narrative conveys the immediacy of events allowing audiences to encounter shameful antisemitic hate on a young victim.
Sabina Miller
Sabina was captured, interviewed by the Gestapo five times and then sent to the Pawiak prison in Warsaw.
Renée and George Morton
From 500 letters between 1938 and 1945, Francis reconstructs the fate of Renée's family, most of whom were murdered.
Mascha Nachmansson
Her parents, brother and sister were forced into the Łódź ghetto where cramped conditions, starvation and rampant disease caused their deaths.
Ivor Perl
In 1999, Ivor broke decades of silence, documenting his experiences and earning a BEM for his dedication to Holocaust education. ‘It’s better and easier to love than to hate’.
Margot Pogorzelski
After escaping to England aged just 19, she was arrested and interned on the Isle of Man as an ‘enemy alien’.
Rela Rogoff
After seeing her father murdered, Rela survived pogroms, interrogations in a Gestapo prison and 19 months in Auschwitz.
Cilla Rotblat
After escaping to Russia they were arrested by the Soviets, transported to the Ural Mountains and forced to work, Yaakov in the copper mines and Cilla in the camp.
Sala Slater (nee Herting)
In August 1942, when the French police began their arrest of all Jews, Sala managed to escape. She eventually crossed the Alps into Switzerland.
Marie Stein
From then until their liberation she lived constantly with the risk of getting beaten up, killed or sent to a concentration camp.
Eric Strach
Eric had tried desperately to get his family including his sister’s two young children out of Czechoslovakia to join him in France, but they had been deported to Terezín
Ruth and Raimund Neumeyer
The children departed on a Kindertransport to England in May 1939, while their parents remained stranded in Munich.
Alice Svarin
In August 1944, when the German army entered Slovakia, the few Jews remaining went into hiding in the mountains.
Paulette Szklarz
Weeks before the liberation of Paris, all the Jewish children’s homes were raided and the children were sent to Auschwitz.
Eva Urbach & Ulli Adler
Eva and her sisters escaped to Britain and Argentina in 1938 and 1939. Their parents were murdered at Auschwitz.
Eva & Istvan Wirth
Eva was deported to Auschwitz, then transported to Germany and forced to work in a weapons factory.
Our Holocaust Speakers
All our speakers are based in the UK and are direct descendants of Holocaust survivors. Their diverse backgrounds reflect the rich variety of our Holocaust stories and presentations.
Aliya was born in a displaced persons camp in Italy and grew up in Israel. She shares the little-known story of Polish Jews who survived the war if they managed to endure brutal Soviet forced labour camps in the remote parts of the Soviet Union.
Aliya Middleton
As a secondary school teacher, David understands the importance of Holocaust education. He tells his parents' stories to honour them, albeit posthumously, and to demonstrate where prejudice, discrimination and unkindness can ultimately lead.
David Wirth
Jacqueline feels a great sense of responsibility to share her grandmother's story with others. She believes it is essential to bring these survivors’ stories to life and not leave the Holocaust confined to the pages of a history book.
Jacqueline Luck
Francis’s motivation is to tell the story of just a few of the millions of Jews who were persecuted and murdered in the Second World War, to counter the increase in Holocaust minimisation and denial.
Francis Morton
Judith sees her promotion of Holocaust education and her work as an educator in anti-Jewish racism as indelibly linked. The alarming rise in antisemitism has convinced her that educating the next generation may offer a solution to the ‘oldest hatred’.
Judith Hayman
Gloria tells her father’s story to remember the murdered members of her family, and to counter recent increases in antisemitism and Holocaust denial. She believes one person’s story can mean more than many statistics in conveying the reality of that dreadful time.
Gloria Silver
Standing on the railway tracks where my family once walked, Lia couldn’t contain her tears. She realised she wasn’t just a visitor but the bearer of a legacy.
Lia Bratt
Melvyn tells the story of a family member, Willy Halpert, who never spoke about his past. He recalled his story with Melvyn’s help, researching and visiting places he was hidden.
Melvyn Leach
Dalya hopes to inspire other grandchildren to connect with their grandparents’ history, especially while they are still alive to answer questions.
Dalya Wittenberg
John is committed to keeping his father’s story alive to further Leonard’s hope that it would help prevent future atrocities. He sees it as fighting back against Holocaust denial, which Leonard found particularly distasteful.
John Wood
Lesley believes the murder of millions of Jews, as well as of other minority groups, must not be relegated to a ‘detail of history’. She promotes the importance of speaking out against intolerance, bullying and persecution.
Lesley Urbach
Vera grew up listening to her mother’s Holocaust stories and those of other survivors. In honouring her mother’s memories, she tries to combat the myth of Holocaust deniers and to enable people to learn lessons from history.
Vera Bernstein
Gabriel tells his mother’s story because he has always been interested in history, including that of his own family; and because he believes that every Holocaust survivor’s story is unique and should be told.
Gabriel Stein
Ernie’s family’s experience of intolerance and hatred in the Nazi period made him realise the importance and relevance of Holocaust education in standing up against antisemitism, Holocaust denial, racism and today’s genocides.
Ernie Hunter
Ella’s MA dissertation on the role of third generation Holocaust descendants in transmitting survivor testimony clarified for her the importance of Holocaust education; and prompted her to start sharing her grandpa’s story.
Ella Garai-Ebner
Angela wants her father’s story and his family’s fate to be heard because we must never give up trying to learn from the past and striving to make a better world.
Angela Strach
Gerry shares his family story with young people who will be shaping the world in future; by highlighting persecution in Nazi Germany, he wants them to think about the injustices minorities and refugees suffer today.
Gerry Hahlo
After rewatching his mother’s video testimony, Seymour was inspired by her humanity, resilience and humour. He is motivated to share her testimony as a form of resistance to discrimination, nationalism and genocide.
Seymour Kelly
Inspired by her father’s lifelong and active commitment to equality and spreading the ideals of tolerance, compassion and respect, Susanna is dedicated to using her family’s story for something positive.
Susanna Rosenberg
Jan and Lola both died young, before being able to give survivor testimony, so Noreen feels she tells their story in their place. She wants there to be recognition that they lived and for their memories to endure.
Noreen Plen
Maralyn’s purpose in telling Sam’s story is not only to educate about the Holocaust and to demonstrate triumph over adversity, but to show where extremism and racism can lead. It is a message of acceptance of difference and a call to address injustice.
Maralyn Turgel
Sam didn’t know about his mother’s immense courage until he read her story in later life. He describes her strength and determination as well as an incredible will to survive.
Sam Rogoff
Calum Isaacs tells the astonishing survival story of his grandmother, Mirjam Finkelstein. He learned from her the importance of maintaining a tolerant society by keeping alive stories like hers.
Calum Isaacs
Emily’s mother’s story has many resonances with the experiences of refugees today. She hopes that it will encourage all those who hear it to speak up and to act when they see injustice.
Emily Cass
Anita is dedicated to applying her 20 years of teaching experience to educate about the Holocaust. In doing so she wishes to ensure that her mother’s message of promoting understanding between faiths continues.
Anita Peleg
Helen feels the need to continue the work that her mother began in speaking of her experiences. She especially welcomes speaking to non-Jewish audiences who may have little knowledge of the Holocaust.
Helen Stone
Peter was born and lived in Vienna; when he was nearly 9 years old his family returned to England. Having seen the powerful effect that his father’s talks have had on students, Peter continues the work on Holocaust Education that his father engaged in.
Peter Kammerling
Mascha’s inner strength, her dignity, and her absolute dedication to Holocaust education inspired Jeanette to continue in her mother’s footsteps, in memory of all who had perished in the Holocaust.
Jeanette Marx
Sandra tells her mother’s story of survival to fulfil a promise made to her mother, who believed in tolerance, understanding and compassion for ‘the other’. She also feels a deep obligation to acknowledge the existence of the relatives she never knew.
Sandra Miller
Diana realises that her mother’s memories are now her responsibility. She tells and retells Margot’s story to as wide an audience as possible with a plea for tolerance and understanding.
Diana Cook
Vivienne feels strongly that she is carrying forwards her mother’s intention that her story should not be lost – the very reason why Eva agreed to give recorded testimony. She believes profoundly in the value of education to change lives.
Vivienne Cato
Melanie feels compelled to share her family’s fascinating stories and ignite an interest in the Dutch Holocaust among a wide audience.
Melanie Martin
Bernice is regional co-ordinator for Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation; she met Toby Biber in 1995 when interviewing her and they have been great friends ever since.
Bernice Krantz
Joan knew little of her mother’s early life in Germany until Liesel’s locked teenage diary was opened and translated.
Joan Noble
Tim’s quest is to find out more about what happened to the family during the Third Reich. He wants to share his family’s story to show how easily normality can be shattered, and how acts of kindness emerged in the darkest of times.
Tim Locke
Jane talks about her mother’s experience of surviving the Holocaust, whilst friends of hers did not, as a tribute to her mother’s hope and vision. Jane hopes that listeners will appreciate the importance of kindness and their power to change other people’s lives.
Jane Curzon
Having heard her grandpa speak when she was at school, Maggie realised the importance of keeping not only his story alive, but also his sentiments and legacy. She hopes to continue to spread his word emphasising his thoughts about not being a bystander.
Maggie Fleet
By telling her grandfather’s story, Avital believes she is continuing his legacy and encouraging meaningful discussion about how to best relate to others to create a kinder, more respectful and forgiving world.
Avital Menahem
Debra was inspired by her mother Paulette’s story to publish a book and to present her family Holocaust story to honour her memory and that of other family members murdered in the Holocaust.