大象传媒

These are the moving words of Eva Schloss. Eva and her family were in hiding in Amsterdam during the Second World War. As Jews they were hunted down by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps.

Six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, but many, like Eva survived. It's believed that in total 15 million people died, including disabled children, gypsies, homosexuals and other individuals who for whatever reason were viewed by the Nazis as racially inferior or seen as degenerates, They, and Jews were sent to the gas chambers.

Eva was captured on her 15th birthday, she describes what happened.

鈥淲e thought this will be the end of us, we really thought we are going to be killed immediately because if you have been hiding, you鈥檝e got an 'S' on your papers, those people had worse treatment, so we thought we would be taken wherever and shot."

With her parents, she was taken to Auschwitz and the worst part for her was the selection which took place when they arrived.

"One of the most horrendous experiences I went through was the selections, which meant that people, who, in the eyes of the Nazis were not supposed to live anymore, they are taken out and this is what happened to my Mother. She was selected by Dr Mengele himself to be gassed, and for three months I thought I鈥檇 lost her, but she was saved through a miracle and we were re-united and liberated together."

It's impossible for Eva to give us an insight into what life was like in the camps, but she describes what happened day in and day out...

"We got up when it was still dark, four or five o鈥檆lock, of course we didn鈥檛 know what day it was, what month it was, what week it was, every day was the same. There was a roll call for two hours. You had to stand in any weather outside and at first it wasn鈥檛 too bad, but when you got very weak, to spend two hours without moving was already a terrible strain. Then you were picked out to different work commanders, it was always physical, very very hard work that went on the whole day without any breaks and no food."

Her story is very moving and the best person to tell it is Eva herself. She spoke to 大象传媒 Radio York's Jonathan Cowap ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day. Take a few minutes to listen to what she has to say...

Holocaust Memorial Day

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is held on 27th January every year, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.

The first HMD was held in 2001 and aims to commemorate all those killed in the second world war, as well as those in more recent atrocities in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur.