Holocaust survivor recalls 'hell on earth'

A Holocaust survivor, who was aged 10 when the Nazis closed his Jewish school in Germany and deported him, has described the "hell on earth" that followed.

Manfred Goldberg, now 94, was sent to the Riga ghetto in Latvia with his mother and younger brother.

He went on to be sent to five labour camps over the course of World War Two, including more than eight months in the Stutthof concentration camp and its subcamps – Stolp and Burggraben.

Mr Goldberg, who lives in London, has been sharing his experiences with children in Shropshire to ensure that people never forget what happened.

It comes as events to mark Holocaust Memorial Day are held across the West Midlands region.

This year, the annual memorial date will mark 80 years since the largest World War Two concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was liberated on 27 January 1945.

In just over four-and-a-half years, Nazi Germany systematically murdered at least 1.1 million people at Auschwitz, built in the south of occupied Poland near the town of Oswiecim.

In a visit to a Newport school, Mr Goldberg told pupils: "My purpose for coming here is because what happened must never be forgotten, in order to make sure it can never ever happen again."

He described how his father had been able to escape to the UK days before World War Two broke out.

His younger brother Herman died in the camps, he said, while he and his mother survived and were reunited in 1946.

Mr Goldberg said: "Once people understand what the Holocaust represents, I think every single one of them contributes to preventing it ever happening again.

"Silence never helps the oppressed."

Tamworth Castle in Staffordshire will be lit up in purple as one of the memorial events taking place on Monday and a wreath will also be laid outside St Editha's Church in the town, in honour of victims of the Holocaust and other genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

The Royal British Legion will hold a ceremony outside the church at 11:00 GMT.

Council leader Carol Dean said the castle would be lit up in tribute to survivors and to take a stand against prejudice, discrimination and hatred.

She said: "The Holocaust threatened the fabric of civilisation, and genocide must still be resisted every day."

"Our world often feels fragile and vulnerable, and we cannot be complacent.

"Even in the UK, prejudice and the language of hatred must be challenged by us all."

Services were held on Sunday by Redditch and Sandwell councils.

At the Sandwell event, Mindu Hornick spoke about her journey as an Auschwitz and Holocaust survivor.

Ms Hornick, from Birmingham, gives talks to young people about the horrors of the camps and has previously spoken to the BBC amid rising reports of antisemitic incidents in recent years.

Events in Worcester included an interfaith ceremony, poetry readings and a talk about the response of ordinary people to the radicalisation of the Nazis.

Telford & Wrekin Council is holding a special civic ceremony at AFC Telford on Monday and will be livestreaming it on Facebook. The event will include testimony from Mr Goldberg.

And Warwick's annual street service will take place by the war memorial, including readings by school children and a poem written by a King's High student on this year's theme - the fragility of freedom.

Several primary schools in the town are taking part in a special ceremony to learn about the Kindertransport - a mission that helped thousands of Jewish children to safety from Germany and Austria before the outbreak of war.

A service will also be held in Wolverhampton, organised by the city council and Interfaith Wolverhampton, at the city's art gallery.

People are being urged to take part in the remembrance by placing a lit candle in their window in the national Light the Darkness at 20:00.

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