‘If you lost weight, you were sent to the gas chamber’: Auschwitz ordeal of 13-year-old girl separated from her family
An Auschwitz survivor who was just 13 when she arrived at the concentration camp says the recent rise in antisemitism is driven by “ignorance”.
Separated from her mother as she passed through the gates, Susan Pollack told Nazi guards she was 15 so they would keep her alive.
“Somebody whispered to me, your mother will be gassed. How could I respond? I was just hopeless.”
Susan, now 94, shared her story with Sky News presenter Sarah-Jane Mee ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day.
Susan Pollack as a young girl, now 94 years old and an OBE. Pic: PA
Born Zsuzsanna Blau in 1930 in Hungary, Susan became aware of antisemitism around her from a young age. Her uncle was murdered by fascists. His attacker was sentenced to just two years in prison.
After Germany invaded Hungary in 1944, the Nazis and their Hungarian collaborators organised the deportation of Hungarian Jews, under the supervision of high-ranking SS officer Adolf Eichmann.
In May that year, Susan and her family were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland by cattle truck. In less than two months, almost all of Hungary’s Jewish population, some 825,000, was deported.
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How was Auschwitz liberated?
“On arrival we scrambled out of the trucks, and men and women were separated immediately,” Susan says, recalling her first moments at the concentration camp.
“I was left on my own, surrounded by shouting. I felt pure terror and devastation.”
Inside Auschwitz, she says she was “dehumanised” and survived by behaving as a robot.
She described having to stand in front of Dr Josef Mengele, the infamous camp physician, every morning, who would look at their naked bodies. Those who were deemed to be losing weight too quickly were sent to the gas chamber, Susan recalls.
Prisoners from Hungary arrive at the Auschwitz concentration camp in spring 1945. Pic: AP/DPA
The railway leading to the concentration camp. Pic: AP
“You don’t think that you live in a world which does those things.”
Amid the advance of Allied forces in 1944, Susan and others were put on a “death march” from Auschwitz, like tens of thousands of others.
Prisoners were moved out of camps near the front and forced to walk long distances in the bitter cold, with little or no food, water or rest. Those who could not keep up were shot.
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The ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (Work Sets You Free) gate at Auschwitz. Pic: AP
Susan was taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, where she suffered from tuberculosis and typhoid.
“I wanted to die. I had no energy anymore,” she said.
“When I was liberated in Bergen-Belsen I couldn’t walk, I could hardly talk and I just crawled out to die,” she continued.
“I felt a gentle pair of hands, lifting me up. A gentle pair of hands. And he was a British soldier.”
She and others were then taken to Sweden, where she says they were given regular food.
“And we had a Jewish man in his 20s, and he played music every night,” she says.
“The lights were turned off and he played classical music every night, and that is what saved my life as well, in terms of thinking and hope and understanding.”
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Auschwitz remembered 80 years on
It is estimated that 1.1 million people were killed at the Auschwitz extermination camp in the less than five years it existed. The majority, around a million, were Jews.
Susan, who now lives in London, regularly talks about her experience and was made an OBE for services to Holocaust education and awareness in the 2023 New Year Honours.
Asked about the recent rise in antisemitism, and how it makes her feel, she says she thinks it is down to “ignorance”.
But she said the “kindness and helpfulness” of individuals will make us “stronger”.
Susan Pollack’s full interview will be aired on The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee programme on Sky News at 8pm this evening.
Many people are feared dead and dozens have been injured in a stampede at a Hindu festival in northern India.
Images from the scene in the city of Prayagraj, in Uttar Pradesh state, show bodies being stretchered away and rescuers helping those who were hurt.
Millions of people were attempting to take a holy bath in the river at the massive Maha Kumbh festival when there was an initial stampede at 1am local time (1930 UK time).
Ambulance crews have been taking the injured to hospital. Pic: APTN
Authorities said people trying to escape it were then caught in a second – and more serious – stampede at an exit.
Devotees had congregated to bathe at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers.
A Rapid Action Force unit, a special team deployed during crisis situations, has been sent to the scene. Pic: APTN
A Rapid Action Force unit, a special team deployed during crisis situations, has been sent to the scene.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to the chief minister for Uttar Pradesh state, Yogi Adityanath, calling for “immediate support measures”, according to the ANI news agency.
Authorities had expected a record 100 million people to visit Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh – “festival of the Sacred Pitcher” – on Wednesday for the holy dip.
It is regarded as a significant day for Hindus, due to a rare alignment of celestial bodies after 144 years.
Huge crowds gathered on Tuesday at the Hindu festival, the world’s largest religious gathering. Pic: Reuters
The Maha Kumbh festival, which is held every 12 years, started on 13 January and is the world’s largest religious gathering.
Organisers had forecast that more than 400 million people would attend the pilgrimage site over the next six weeks.
Hindu devotees arriving for a holy dip on Tuesday. Pic: AP
Authorities have built a sprawling tent city on the riverbanks, equipped with 3,000 kitchens and 150,000 toilets and 11 hospitals.
Stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds can gather in small areas.
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Iran says Israel and America would be “crazy” to attack its nuclear facilities, adding it would spell a “very bad disaster” for the region.
The warning came in the first interview to be given by Iran’s foreign minister since its arch nemesis Donald Trump’s inauguration.
In an exclusive interview with Sky News in the Iranian capital, Abbas Araghchi also mocked the US president for proposing a “clean out” of Palestinians from Gaza. Iran’s top diplomat suggested instead that Israelis be sent to Greenland.
Sky News’ international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn with Mr Araghchi
Mr Araghchi invited Sky News to Iran’s foreign ministry for the interview, taking the opportunity to address talk of Israel attacking Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons programme with US backing.
“We have made it clear,” he said, “that any attack to our nuclear facilities would be faced with an immediate and decisive response. But I don’t think they will do that crazy thing. This is really crazy. And this would turn the whole region into a very bad disaster.”
Donald Trump. Pic: Reuters
In his first term in office, Mr Trump reneged on America’s support for an internationally negotiated deal over Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons programme, which saw uranium enrichment limited in return for sanctions being lifted.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is for civilian and peaceful purposes. However, since Mr Trump went back on the deal, Iran has returned to enriching uranium to levels that have no purpose other than building a nuclear weapon, say Western governments.
Mr Trump has hinted he would prefer a diplomatic solution, saying a new deal with Iran would be “nice”.
But Mr Araghchi said although he was prepared to listen to President Trump, it would take a lot more than that for Iran to be convinced it should begin negotiations with the US towards another deal, given what happened with the first.
“The situation is different and much more difficult than the previous time,” he said. “Lots of things should be done by the other side to buy our confidence… We haven’t heard anything but the ‘nice’ word, and this is obviously not enough.”
‘Take them to Greenland’
The foreign minister was also dismissive of Mr Trump’s latest comments about the Middle East. The re-elected president’s proposal that Gaza is cleaned out of Palestinians has prompted outrage across the region.
Mr Araghchi mocked the idea with one of his own: “My suggestion is something else. Instead of Palestinians, try to expel Israelis, take them to Greenland so they can kill two birds with one stone.”
Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on 1 October, 2024
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts Iranian rockets. Pics: Reuters
Iran’s allies ‘are rebuilding themselves’
In his short term in office, Mr Araghchi has seen allies and friends assassinated and toppled from power.
He conceded Iran’s allies have been weakened, saying: “Hamas and Hezbollah have been damaged. But at the same time, they are rebuilding themselves, because as I said, this is a school of thought, this is an idea, this is a cause, this is an ideal that will always be there.”
Iranians hope deal could be done with West
Iranians we spoke to on the streets of Tehran said they hoped a deal could be done with the West if it could lead to a lifting of sanctions and an improvement in Iran’s dire economic fortunes.
Some estimates place inflation at 50%, while youth unemployment is near 20% and the currency is at an all-time low.
Trust between Iran and America is also at rock bottom levels. Making progress towards any agreement and lifting sanctions will be enormously challenging.
Donald Trump thinks the Chinese startup DeepSeek, which claims it has a technical advantage over US rivals, should be “a wakeup call” for American AI firms.
DeepSeek says its artificial intelligence models are comparable with those from US giants, like OpenAI which is behind ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, but potentially a fraction of the cost.
That has triggered a fall in various US shares, especially chipmaker Nvidia which registered a record one-day loss for any company on Wall Street.
But the US president believes the success of the Chinese firm could be helpful to America’s AI aspirations.
“The release of DeepSeek, AI from a Chinese company should be a wakeup call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win,” Mr Trump said in Florida.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has promised to outperform rival firm DeepSeek. Pic: AP
He pointed to DeepSeek’s ability to use fewer computing resources. “I view that as a positive, as an asset… you won’t be spending as much, and you’ll get the same result, hopefully,” he added.
On Monday, the DeepSeek assistant had surpassed ChatGPT in downloads from Apple’s app store.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has given his rival some acknowledgement in a post on X, reacting to DeepSeek’s R1 “reasoning” model – a core part of the AI technology which answers questions.
“DeepSeek’s r1 is an impressive model, particularly around what they’re able to deliver for the price,” he wrote.
But Mr Altman was also defiant: “We will obviously deliver much better models and also it’s legit invigorating to have a new competitor! we will pull up some releases.”
There have been concerns DeepSeek could undermine the potentially $500bn (£401bn) AI investment by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank in Stargate which Mr Trump announced last week at the White House.
That project essentially aims to build vastly more computing power to boost AI development.
But while addressing Republicans in Miami on Monday, Mr Trump remained upbeat. He claimed that Chinese leaders had told him the US had the most brilliant scientists in the world.
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He indicated that if Chinese industry could come up with cheaper AI technology, US companies would follow.
“We always have the ideas. We’re always first. So I would say that’s a positive that could be very much a positive development.
“So instead of spending billions and billions, you’ll spend less, and you’ll come up with, hopefully, the same solution,” Mr Trump said.
The intense attention on the Chinese firm has not all been good news though. It reported suffering “large-scale malicious attacks” on its services.
The company said it was hit by a cyber attack on Monday which disrupted users’ ability to register on the site.
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