As I walked away little did I know I would never see my mother or brothers again

BRAVE Mindu Hornick knows all about the Holocaust truth.

She arrived at Auschwitz in a cattle carriage, but survived, along with her older sister Bilu, after a Polish prisoner advised the girls to lie about their ages and claim they were skilled seamstresses.

“When we arrived at the camp there were 70 of us, all women, mothers and children, in the wagon,” Mindu said. “As we got out of the wagon a Polish man, in striped uniform, spoke Yiddish to my mother and told her to send us ahead, and say we were 17 and 19 years old.

“He said, ‘Don’t worry, you will see them later’.

“I realise now that saved our lives. My mother and brothers were sent to the gas chambers.

“I can still remember walking away from my mother, looking back and seeing her scarf blowing over her face.

“Little did I know at the time that I would never see her or my young brothers again.”

Mindu said her life was saved thanks to being sent to work in an underground ammunitions factory, seven months after she first arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942. “When people ask how I survived, I always tell them the same thing – sheer luck,” she added.

After being liberated by the US Army in May 1945, Mindu initially returned to Prague, but was forced to flee to live with an uncle in Birmingham in 1948 during the Soviet occupation.

“After the café culture of Prague, Birmingham felt very smoky and dark, but I was safe and free for the first time,” Mindu added. “I feel it is important for us to tell our stories.

“For many years, not only myself but most of the Auschwitz survivors could not speak about what happened.

“It was too hard to share what we experienced – but now we are getting older I think it is important to tell our stories and not allow the past to be forgotten.”