A Holocaust survivor has recounted her harrowing experience to Honley High School pupils as part of a drive to stamp out racism.
Courageous Iby Knill, 90, spoke to 270 year nine students about her struggle for survival after being persecuted by the Nazis, deported to Auschwitz and sent on a death march during World War Two.
Iby, who now lives in Leeds, lost her father and other relatives during the terrifying period in which she was captured, tortured and imprisoned due to being seen as Jewish.
Students asked questions about the effect of her ordeal upon her and how she coped over two fascinating afternoon-long sessions and discussed links to modern day racism that still prevails in the UK.
History teacher, Dylan Murphy, who organised her visit said: “It was an honour to host Iby as her story is so inspiring and we were very lucky to have her.
“Her traumatic experience can teach us a lot about racism and its dangers, which sadly is still very much in existence today.
“I hope that her talk and deeply moving poem that she ended the event with educated our students and we would love to be able to welcome her back in the future.”
Iby was born in Bratislava to Jewish parents who smuggled her across the border to Hungary after she was forcibly removed from her school by authorities. She stayed with a cousin and one of his friends before becoming a member of the Resistance effort but was imprisoned and beaten for her activism, released and then re-captured for being in the country illegally in 1944.
After being moved to an internment and refugee camp she was released on parole but was soon recaptured and deported to Auschwitz when the Nazis occupied Hungary.
Iby had a narrow escape after she was liberated whilst on a death march towards the Bergen-Belsen camp the following year.
She later became an interpreter for the British military, where she met her husband, whom she now lives with.
She regularly shares her testimony with students around the country and released a book about her experience in 2010.
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