'Do not hate', Auschwitz survivor tells students
IT'S a talk he's given 50 times over the past year alone but holocaust survivor Zigi Shipper never tires of telling it.
Sent to Auschwitz at the age of 14, he witnessed atrocities that his young audiences find incomprehensible.
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Living witness: Holocaust survivor Zigi Shipper talks to New College Nottingham students Jade Clarke and Lauren French, both 18, before their trip to Auschwitz.
He believes he owes it to those families wiped out to tell their story.
Mr Shipper's account begins over 70 years ago as a young boy in the Polish city of Lodz, home to 260,000 Jews like himself.
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Sometimes the 82-year-old is asked how he remembers events from so long ago.
His reply is "how can I forget?"
After the Germans invaded, 10-year-old Zigi, who was brought up by his grandparents, worked 7am-7pm in a metal factory in the city which became a ghetto. He describes himself as lucky but just as frequently talks of feeling dehumanised.
Recalling his arrival at Auschwitz in an overcrowded cattle truck, he remembers how the old, disabled, children and mothers with babes in arms were segregated.
"German guards tried to rip the child from their arms. Many times they shot the woman and child," says Mr Shipper.
Others were sent to their fate in the gas chamber.
His teenage audience hangs on every word as he says: "How can a human being do that in daytime and in the evening sit down with their wife and children and eat his dinner knowing what he did at lunchtime? What kind of people are they?"
Mr Shipper was given striped pyjamas to wear, with a number.
"I thought now I have absolutely nothing. I haven't got parents, grandparents, no possessions, not even a name. All I am is 84303."
He was later sent to a labour camp, where again he spoke of unimaginable horrors. Sadly, his grandmother, who had been detained in a different concentration camp, died on the day it was liberated and he doesn't know what happened to his father.
He was eventually reunited with his estranged mother in London where he met a French girl, married, had two daughters and six grandchildren.
Mr Shipper tells the audience: "It does not matter how much you've read, or seen on film or hear from a holocaust survivor. When you go to Auschwitz-Birkenau you will never forget what you've seen. It becomes part of you. I beg of you, whatever you do in your future life, do not hate. We are all the same."
Lauren French, an 18-year-old student at New College Nottingham's High Pavement sixth form says: "You read books but it's not the same as hearing it direct."
Jade Clarke, 18, says to Mr Shipper: "Despite the fact you had everything taken away from you, you carried on surviving."
Comments
by kpi99
Friday, March 09 2012, 11:48AM
“flushed”
by kpi99
Friday, March 09 2012, 11:38AM
“Well and truly flushes out jonyboy.”
by jonyboy
Friday, March 09 2012, 10:05AM
“Okay Grammamamma youve flushed me out.I holeheartedly agree that the holacaust should be a lesson for everyone and not forgotten.
The problem i have is given the suffering of the Jewish people why is it that they now perpitrate such injustice on the Palastinion people in blatant disregard of UN motions. Have the people of Isreal not learned from history? Further to this the powerfull jewish lobby in America is very influential in moulding American public opinion and i fear is leading us into further conflict.
As i said i,m against any regime denying human rights .”
by grammamamma
Thursday, March 08 2012, 6:31PM
“Not quite "one event seventy years ago" Jonyboy. It was a series of events ocurring over several years. There are people still alive whose lives were changed for ever by those events, so it's quite natural it should still be referred to. The event did not finish in 1945. However, in a few decades all those people will be gone, but their experiences must be remembered.
I agree that atrocities still happen throughout the world, and we cannot intervene in every instance, though I feel we should have intervened in some of the bloodbaths that have taken place in the last two decades.”
by jonyboy
Thursday, March 08 2012, 9:45AM
“Why would i have to appologise to anyone for the actions of the Nazis, the lost lives of our soldiers was enough. My point is that public opinion can be influenced by our rulers in the way they report world events,past and present, and pass opinions through our media.The Iraq conflict a good example.
I beleive that process is continueing ,motivated by influential people in high places moulding public opinion,the latest propagander exercise is Iran.
I condemn the abuse of all human rights anywhere , and wonder why we are constantly reminded of one event seventy years ago”
by Neo_MadBadger
Wednesday, March 07 2012, 8:53PM
“Well said freyamorel. personally I think that jonyboy's original post was nothing less than a veiled apology for the actions of the nazis. As for kumkat, well, it's obvious tosh.”
by kpi99
Wednesday, March 07 2012, 8:45PM
“kumkwat
So that makes it ok to insult the memories of all those killled in the holocaust does it? I find your views quite disgusting.”
by freyamorel
Wednesday, March 07 2012, 12:48PM
“Ted_Notts: I think that history is a useful thing to learn from in general. In this case I'm talking about the Holocaust- humankind will, in my opinion benefit from understanding why this happened- then we can hopefully prevent it from happening again. This is what I mean by 'mistake'- I intended it as more of a general term, applying to all of history and all people, rather than a specific 'mistake.'”
by Ted_Notts
Tuesday, March 06 2012, 9:55PM
“Freyamorel,
Whose mistakes?”
by freyamorel
Tuesday, March 06 2012, 9:03PM
“Jonyboy: I'm very glad that you feel that you can make your own judgements but to assert that everyone else is able to, without learning from our past mistakes, is perhaps over-optimistic. As I point out in my blog: even today we are spouting the same rubbish as we did in the lead up to the Holocaust: 'they're taking our jobs, they're taking our money.' You might say it's overdramatic to draw a parallel between todays prejudices as those before the Holocaust, but I'm pretty sure that the German people never anticipated that their bigotry would contribute to the mass murder of innocents- they were normal people just like us. So it most definitely could happen again, if we don't work actively to stop it.
I respect your opinion and admire the fact that you are so self-assured but must say that I find your use of the word 'indoctrination' in that context quite disturbing.”