Holocaust survivor shares lessons from history

Students at Isambard Community School had the opportunity to listen to the harrowing account of 86-year-old Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack.

Students from year nine were able to listen to her testimony as part of a visit organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust, under its outreach programme.

Susan was born Zsuzsanna Blau on 9 September 1930 in Felsögöd, Hungary.

In late May 1944, Susan and her family were sent by cattle truck to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Susan was separated from her mother who she later learned had been sent directly to the gas chambers. Susan was selected to work and remained at the camp for around 10 weeks before being sent to Gubbem in Germany to work as slave labour in an armaments factory.

With the Allies advancing, the prisoners were forced on a Death March to Bergen-Belsen. On 15 April 1945 Susan was liberated by the British Army.

After liberation, Susan learned that her brother Laci was the only other member of her family to have survived. After the war, Susan lived in Sweden before moving to Canada where she met and married a fellow survivor.

Today they have three children and six grandchildren. Susan now lives in London and regularly shares her testimony in schools across the country.

Speaking to a packed hall of students who listened in rapt silence, she said: “It is important to speak to you at your age, 14, because that is the age when these terrible things happened to me and my family. To this day I cannot understand why it happened. This was the darkest point in humanity’s history and I live with it every day.”

Natalie Chapman, teacher of Humanities at Isambard, said:

“It is a privilege for us to welcome Susan Pollack to our school and her testimony will remain a powerful reminder of the horrors so many experienced.

“We are grateful to the Holocaust Educational Trust for co-ordinating the visit and we hope that by hearing Susan’s testimony, it will encourage our students to learn from the lessons of the Holocaust and make a positive difference in their own lives.”