A WORLD
War Two Holocaust survivor has visited school pupils to share her traumatic experiences.
Iby Knill, 94, was invited to Rhyddings Business and Enterprise School, in Oswaldtwistle, to speak to year 10 pupils, staff and parents about her time as a political prison in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Born in Czechoslovakia in 1923, she lived in Bratislava until having to flee to Hungary in 1942 and was eventually rounded up and transported to Auschwitz in 1944.
She was only able to survive thanks to her ability to speak six languages and was given nurse duties despite having no medical training. Iby was freed by the Allied Forces in 1945 and later married a British soldier and moved to England. She featured in the BBC series ‘My Story’ in 2010 and has since written two books. Year 11 pupils who will visit both Auschwitz and Kraków-Płaszów next month also attended the talk. They will be joined by Karen and Cat Handford, from the charity Wil’s Wishes, which is funding the trip. The charity was set up after Karen lost her son, William, to bowel cancer, age 24, and aims to raise awareness of the condition.