I was terrified to finally see Auschwitz... but I could not let my father down

WALKING through those infamous huge iron gates, under the haunting sign "Arbeit macht frei" (work sets you free), a terrified Gary Sokolov couldn't stop his legs from shaking.

- By Karen Rockett

Knowing he was about to witness the horror of his parents' past and desperate to honour them, the build-up of emotion rendered him a wreck.

Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps on Monday, the only son of the "Tattooist of Auschwitz", Slovakian Jew Lali [sometimes spelled Lale] Sokolov, was visiting the notorious death camp for the first time in memory of his late parents.

His pilgrimage to the site of the execution of one million of his fellow Jews was being filmed for a new Sky History documentary to be broadcast on the anniversary.

Many readers will already be familiar with his parents' incredibly moving love story, documented in the 2017 best-selling novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Lali's former carer and housekeeper Heather Morris.

A TV mini-series, starring Harvey Keitel as an older Lali, was also made last year.

But for the first time, the couple's only son has now seen first hand what his heroic parents endured and survived during the Second World War. And it shook him, quite literally and emotionally.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Express, Gary, 63, said: "I was absolutely terrified to go to Auschwitz but I did not want to let dad down.

"I didn't know if I had the guts to do it, but there were so many unanswered questions.

"As I walked through the gates, though, under 'Arbeit macht frei', my knees were shaking so badly that they had to stop filming until I could compose myself and get my legs to work properly. I was sobbing and felt like a coward."

But it was once he was through the gates and taken on a behind-the-scenes tour of the camp that the full horror of what happened there 80 years ago truly hit home.