A Holocaust survivor has inspired school children after she spoke of her horrific time at the hands of the Nazis.
Mala Tribich was just nine years old when she was forced, along with 28,000 other Jews, into the Trybunalski ghetto in Poland at the start of the Second World War.
The inspirational survivor visited Mill Hill School, Peashill, on Wednesday, July 16, and spoke to a packed room of students and community members.
The 84-year-old was born in Poland in 1930. When the Nazis invaded in 1939, her family fled eastwards and she was imprisoned in the Ravensbruck concentration camp and Bergen-Belsen.
She said: “Conditions were very harsh. They deprived us of everything. We had no food, no water or sanitary provisions. People were dying of hunger and disease.
“We had our heads shaved and we all wore the same clothes. We couldn’t recognise each other. We felt like they took our souls.”
Remembering the day the camp was liberated, Mala said: “I remember seeing people running to the gate and all I could think was how did they have the strength to run. It was because the camp was being liberated.”
Mill Hill student Hannah Johnson, who attended the evening talk, said she was in awe of Mala’s story.
The 17-year-old said: “I loved listening to her. For such an innocent girl to do such courageous things gives us all inspiration. I think it is important that Mala and other survivors are given the opportunity to speak because without them this tragic event could be forgotten and she also encourages us and future generations to treat people as equals.”
Former Mill Hill student, Orianne Brown, 19, of Ripley, organised the talk as part of her work as a volunteer regional ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust.
She said on the night: “I’m absolutely flabbergasted by the turn-out and I hope that Mala’s talk will show us what can happen if prejudice and hatred take hold of society.”