'HATRED IS NOT THE WAY'

Speaking to mark the publication of his new memoir, Ivor Perl describes how he survived both Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps during the Holocaust

- Tom Garner

Auschwitz and Dachau have become bywords for the genocide of European Jews and other persecuted groups during the Second World War. Millions of people died at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators in these camps, with the horror of what took place casting a long shadow across the world.

Of the six million Jews who were killed, almost 1.5 million were children. A much smaller number survived but the majority of them lost their families and were burdened with traumatic memories for life. Today, the surviving children of the Holocaust remain committed to ensuring that similar crimes against humanity never occur again.

One such survivor is Ivor Perl. He and his elder brother Alec were the only survivors from their large Hungarian Jewish family and endured unimaginable suffering in several concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau. Here Ivor, the author of the recently published memoir Chicken Soup Under The Tree, recalls Jewish life during his childhood, the terrible conditions in the camps and how his brother repeatedly saved his life.

Cheder in Makó

Born as Yitzchak Perlmutter in 1932, Ivor grew up in a large Orthodox Jewish family in the Hungarian town of Makó. His father worked in the vegetable wholesale business, with the young Yitzchak having four brothers David, Mordechai, Abroham (later known as Alec) and Moishe, and four sisters Raizel, Blume, Malka, Faigale.