Survivor Reflects on Auschwitz Horrors and Liberation
Survivor Ivor Perl shares his harrowing experiences at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, reflecting on the horrors faced during the Holocaust and the eventual liberation by Soviet forces.
Ivor Perl arrived at Auschwitz II-Birkenau with his mother, four sisters, and two brothers after being rounded up in Hungary in 1944 at the age of 12.
Only Ivor and his brother Alec survived to witness the camp's liberation by the Soviets on 27 January 1945.
"The situation was horrendous. All I can say is that, eventually, when you used to go to bed, you hoped that the person you lived next to died overnight," he told the BBC's Jordan Dunbar. "Why? You could pinch his shoes or his clothes. We were not human beings anymore."
Ivor was selected to work in the labour camps and recalls being unable to imagine the "horrors" that would be revealed when Auschwitz was liberated.
"However much horror you thought about, you'd never imagine what was happening," he said. "Whoever imagines something about gassing people and burning them? You know, it never came into the mind."
After liberation, Ivor and his brother were taken to a displaced persons camp. Ivor was then selected to be brought to England under a British government scheme designed to assist survivors, initially moving to Southampton and subsequently to Ascot.
