Auschwitz survivor fears the ‘world hasn’t learnt from WWII’ ahead of 80th anniversary of camp’s liberation
Auschwitz survivors have told Sky News of their pessimism that lessons have not been learnt from history, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp.
“I hope I’m wrong,” says survivor Ivor Perl. “But there’s […] a saying that if one doesn’t learn from history, you’re cursed to live through it again.”
Ivor is nearly 93 years old and it took half a century for him to feel able to talk publicly about his time at the Nazi concentration camp.
“When I was younger I thought to myself, ‘I arrived in this world in a terrible time, 1932, at least when I leave it the world will be in a better place’,” he says. “But I’m doubting it very, very much.
“It’s not my job to cure the problem – my job is to tell you what the problem can be.
“I haven’t got any sign to see that the world has learnt [any lessons from] the Second World War.”
More than a million people, mostly Jewish, were murdered at Auschwitz – just one of the numerous death camps the Nazis built across mainland Europe. On Monday, world leaders will gather at Auschwitz-Birkenau to mark 80 years since its liberation.
People lined up on the railway station after arriving at Auschwitz in the early days of the war. Pic: AP
Ivor was deported to Auschwitz from Hungary at the age of 12. He pretended to the Nazi guards that he was older and found himself sent to do slave labour. His lie almost certainly saved him from the gas chambers.
Out of his parents and their nine children, only Ivor and his brother Alec survived.
“You know why I’m alive today? Because I spoke Yiddish,” Ivor says. “Yiddish is very akin to German.”
Ivor (left) and his brother Alec were the only two people from their family of 11 to survive
When the cattle trucks arrived at Auschwitz, one of the first things Ivor saw was “people working in striped uniforms”.
He explains: “They were Polish Jews and they kept saying [in Yiddish] ‘eat all the food, don’t save any food’ and ‘if they are asked, children must say they are 16 years old at least’.
“We started marching and I went over to my mother’s side. And she said, ‘no darling, go back to your brother, don’t come to me’. I said: ‘Please mum, let me stay’.
“An officer with white gloves, who later said he was Dr Mengele, pointed people, right or left. The ones on the left, for death.”
Dr Mengele asked Ivor how old he was. “I said, ’16’. I can see his face even to this day.
“He said: ‘Okay, go to the right’. If I told him I was 12 years old, I wouldn’t be alive today.”
Ivor Perl shortly after the liberation
‘How could I tell my children what happened?’
Sky News is meeting with Ivor at the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre in north London, run by the health and social care organisation Jewish Care. He’s joined by another Auschwitz survivor, Susan Pollack.
Susan’s recollections of the camp have not faded over the years. “The memory of Auschwitz and the train to Auschwitz will never lose itself in my mind,” she says. When Susan arrived at the camp, her head was shaved and her clothes were changed.
“My mum was sent to the gas chamber,” she says.
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Susan Pollack and her husband, a fellow survivor, chose not to tell their children what happened
Susan, now 94, lives in London and spent years giving her testimony in schools.
After the war, she moved to Sweden and then Canada, where she met her husband Abraham, also a survivor. They had three children.
She says her husband was reluctant to discuss what they saw during the Holocaust. “He didn’t want to talk about it, he said we have to start a new life – we had the children, we didn’t want to poison [their lives].”
Sometimes, her children would ask why they didn’t have a wider family, including grandparents. “I couldn’t tell them that they were gassed, as they were,” she says. “I said they died natural deaths.
“They would ask us why they didn’t have uncles or aunts, [and] ‘why don’t we have a normal life?’
“How could we tell them what happened?”
Liverpool have won the Premier League title after a 5-1 victory over Tottenham at Anfield.
Arne Slot’s men did it in impressive style, turning over Spurs in a convincing win.
It was a rocky start for the Reds after Dominic Solanke put the north London side ahead.
However, fortunes quickly changed in the first half as Liverpool scored three times without a response.
Captain Virgil van Dijk (centre) celebrates. Pic: Reuters
Salah on his knees in celebration after the final whistle. Pic: AP
Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott (below) and Jarell Quansah celebrate after full-time. Pic: PA
Slot cheers after the full-time whistle. Pic: AP
In the second half, it took until the 63rd minute for Mohamed Salah to make it 4-1 before a fifth followed.
The Reds have won the title in manager Arne Slot’s first season in charge, and move level with fierce rivals Manchester United on 20 league championships.
But it makes them arguably the most successful English club ever as they have won more European Cup or Champions League titles.
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk told Sky Sports after the final whistle: “It’s special and it’s something that we don’t take for granted. It’s amazing.
“A lot of emotions before the game, during the whole week, but we got the job done and we (are) truly deserved champions of England. (Liverpool is) the most beautiful club in the world and I think we deserve all of this. Let’s enjoy the next couple of weeks and let it sink in.”
Liverpool’s Kostas Tsimikas poses with a Premier League trophy cut out. Pic: Reuters
Manager Arne Slot and his team after the final whistle. Pic: AP
Slot took over last summer from Jurgen Klopp, who guided them to their previous and maiden Premier League title triumph in 2020, when the COVID-19 lockdown saw matches played behind closed doors.
He is the first Dutch manager to win the Premier League and the fifth man to do so in a debut campaign after Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Manuel Pellegrini, and Antonio Conte.
Speaking to Sky Sports he said: “They [the players] did an outstanding job today. The main job was to win. Everyone said we had got it already. But we had to make sure and we got over the line.”
Several players, including Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, and Mohamed Salah, played leading roles in both the 2025 and 2020 campaigns.
Van Dijk and Salah recently signed new contracts extending their careers at the club.
Mohamed Salah takes a selfie with fans after scouring the fourth Liverpool goal. Pic: AP
Fans at Anfield during the game. Pic: AP
Fans in the stands at Anfield before full-time. Pic: Reuters
Liverpool will have to wait until the final game of the season – at home to Crystal Palace on 25 May – to be presented with the Premier League trophy.
It will be the first time the club’s fans will have seen their side lift the top-flight title in person since 1990.
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Two pro-Palestinian demonstrators have thrown red powder on Tower Bridge – just moments before leading runners in the London Marathon went past.
The protesters were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and remain in custody, said the Metropolitan Police.
A video shared by Youth Demand, which is calling for a trade embargo on Israel, shows two people jumping over a barrier that separates spectators from the race course.
The pair, wearing t-shirts that say “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel”, are then seen standing in the middle of the road on the bridge.
Pic: LNP
They throw red powder in the air as an official marathon car goes past displaying the race time.
A motorbike with a cameraman on board continues along the route, while a second motorbike stops and one of the riders gets off and pushes the pair out of the way, just before the men’s elite runners pass.
Several police officers then jump over the barrier and detain the pair, the footage shows.
There appeared to be no impact on the marathon.
More than 56,000 participants were expected to take part in the 26.2-mile race through the capital.
Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the men’s elite race in a time of two hours, two minutes and 27 seconds, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record in two hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds.
Assefa beat the previous best of two hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds set last year in London by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir.
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Pic: LNP
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “At around 10.38am, two protesters from Youth Demand jumped over barriers at Tower Bridge and threw red paint on to the road.
“Marathon event staff intervened to remove the protesters from the path of the men’s elite race which was able to pass unobstructed.”
The force added that they were “quickly supported by police officers who arrested the protesters on suspicion of causing a public nuisance”.
The Met said the paint “appeared to be chalk-based” and was not expected to “present a hazard to runners yet to pass this point”.
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