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her mother in 1998, she found a pathetic and pitiful old woman. “The tragedy was that there was no change,” she says.

Suffering dementia, Traudi did not recognise Helga at first. But she had moments of lucidity during the twohour meeting, in which she talked in grotesque detail about Auschwitz .

“She said to me, ‘Newborn babies took only a few minutes; they pulled out some that were electric blue’,” says Helga.

She also told her daughter: “I had orders to treat [the prisoners] with extreme harshness and I made them spit blood.”

While Helga has forgiven her mother for abandoning her, she says she doesn’t “have the right to forgive her mother for what she did at Auschwitz”.

Helga has devoted herself to spreading peace, where her mother spread hate. She has spent 20 years giving school talks and meeting Auschwitz victims and their children.

Now as far-right groups gain support across Europe, she hopes people will learn from the past.

“It is more important to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust now than ever,” she says. “With this book and film I hope I have done my duty.”

Let Me Go is released in selected UK cinemas and digital download by Evolutionary Films.

CONFRONTS HER MUM