Holocaust survivor captivates pupils
Holocaust survivor captivates pupils
11/02/2010
27 January 2010 marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of all the Nazi concentration camps. We were honoured and privileged to host Susan Pollack, an Auschwitz survivor, to speak at Roedean.
Born Zsuzsanna Biall in 1930 in Hungary, she started by describing life as a young Jewish girl growing up in Hungary. She explained the humiliation of wearing the yellow Star of David; the difficulties her father had in finding employment once his business was closed; and her brother’s frustration that, like most Jews, he was not accepted for university.
In late 1943, her father was one of many men rounded up and taken away on a ‘resettlement programme’. The next day, Susan, her mother and brother were also told to be ready to leave. They baked fresh bread and packed whatever belongings they could carry – Susan, thinking of how to support the family, carried a sewing machine with her.
The family was first held in the Vac ghetto and Monor internment camp before moving, in May 1944, to Auschwitz, in the last transport of Hungarians. "Day after day in a dark, closed wagon, no hygiene, no food or water, people dying. There was not a breath of fresh air.’
On arrival her mother was gassed. Her brother survived, working in the squad moving bodies to the ovens. Susan’s first memories of Auschwitz were of, ‘Noise; drama; fear. All human attributes of love, kindness, affection and tenderness were gone and we were treated worse than animals. Auschwitz was a place of terror.’
Susan was transferred to the Gubben slave labour camp and finally force-marched to Bergen-Belsen in the winter of 1944-45. "On liberation, I was virtually a corpse, unable to walk, and would soon have died."
Although Susan has been bearing testimony for many years, she said it does not get any easier. "I haven’t got over it and nor do I want to. But we are compelled to share these memories to show what discrimination, no matter how small, might lead to."
Over fifty girls attended the talk, and there were many moments of absolute silence as they absorbed Susan’s account. Mrs Yacoub, the History teacher who organised the event said, ‘Susan’s talk was utterly compelling and I was delighted by the mature and sensitive questions the girls asked at the end.’
The girls described the talk as, ‘Thought-provoking and incredibly inspiring, although very emotional at certain points.’ One said, ‘Being Jewish myself, it is very hard to understand the horrifying ways that Jews were treated in such recent times. It could have been me in a different time and place.’