Holocaust survivor talks to Winchester students

3:58pm Friday 21st November 2008

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A HOLOCAUST survivor has spoken to students at Peter Symonds College in Winchester.

Josef Perl, 78, gave the talk as part of the college’s Diversity Week on Wednesday.

Mr Perl, who moved to England after World War Two, spent time in one of the camps attached to the extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Whilst in a ghetto, he witnessed the execution of his mother, four sisters, his nephews and niece.

Towards the end of 1944 as the Russians approached, Josef and other prisoners were sent on a death march. They trudged for two weeks in freezing temperatures and heavy snow. Eventually, he and the few who had survived were loaded on to wagons and taken to Buchenwald. On April 11 1945, they were liberated by the Americans. Only 178 people survived the march.

He is an active survivor who regularly speaks to students about his experiences in the hope that the younger generation will make a difference to the future.

Josef has written his testimony in a book called “Faces in the Smoke”.