Only Brit Holocaust survivor to visit Auschwitz has devastating reason to go back
Only Brit Holocaust survivor to visit Auschwitz has devastating reason to go back
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British Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich says she has to walk through the gates of Auschwitz concentration camp despite it giving her terrible “flashbacks” because she doesn’t want those who died “to be forgotten.”. Mala, 94, admits it is “painful” to walk into the notorious camp, as she lost most of her relatives during the Holocaust, including three grandparents who perished there. “It is easier to count who remained because there were so few,” she told The Mirror. “Of all my immediate family there were two of us left, my brother and I.”.
Mala is the only British Holocasust survivor to have travelled to Auschwitz, where she will join King Charles on Monday, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Jewish genocide. As she walks towards the daunting ‘Work Sets You Free’ gates at Auschwitz, she tells The Mirror why she keeps visiting the scene of such “horror” inflicted by the Nazis in World War II.
“I keep coming back because I don’t want them to be forgotten. I feel like I’m visiting them, it is their resting place," she said. “I don’t know how much longer I will be coming and it is painful but if you don’t do anything they are just forgotten. I want them to be part of my life still. “.
Mala, who was awarded an MBE by the late Queen, visited Auschwitz where 1.1 million people were murdered, on the eve of the 80th anniversary of its liberation. “Being here does give me flashbacks, the buildings themselves are scary for me,” she said, looking over at the red bricked barracks.
