Horrors of the Holocaust

Mala Tribich MBE, 85, talked to Year 11 pupils at Newman Catholic School in Carlisle about her time as a young girl in Poland during World War Two – 70 years after she was liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany. 

Pupils listened intently to Mala's story on Thursday afternoon. 

She said: “I tell them my story but I tend to understate things rather than overstate them. 

“It doesn’t help to talk about what happened. It is still as vivid today as it was back then when I was 14. I am good at covering things up and controlling my emotions. 

“I don’t spell out the real horrors as each one is very personal. Some of them are not personal to me but they are to my mother and sister.

“It is sheer luck that I survived as there were several incidences when I might not have survived .” 

Jewish Mala, who now lives in north London, spent time in the Ravensbruck and Bergen-Belsen camps where conditions were appalling and Mala contracted typhus. 

At the time of the liberation by the British army, Mala was very ill. She was transferred to a hospital and it was many weeks before she recovered. 

Three months later she was sent to Sweden where she spent nearly two years. Not expecting any of her family to be alive, Mala was surprised to receive a letter from her brother Ben in England, the only other member of her close family to have survived.

In March 1947, Mala came to England to be reunited with Ben. She learnt English, attended secretarial college and within a year was working in an office. In 1949, she met Maurice, who she married in 1950. 

The mum-of-two said: “I have been back to Belsen several times. It is very painful and very sad to go back.

"I treat it as a visit to a cemetery and remember the victims when I am there. I was there for the 70th anniversary of the liberation. 

"Opportunities to speak to survivors are getting scarcer as we are all getting older."

Emily Lowrey, a history teacher at Newman School, organised the visit with the Holocaust Educational Trust. 

She said: “We studied Nazi Germany at the end of Year 10 and we are finishing that in Year 11 looking at east and west Germany. 

"It also ties in with what the children learn in RE about religion and conflict. 

“Mala’s amazing story is a very powerful reminder of the horrors and prejudice experienced by so many during the Second World War. 

“We would like to thank the Holocaust Educational Trust for raising awareness of the Holocaust in schools and for co-ordinating the visit.” 

The Holocaust Educational Trust was established in 1988. Its aim is to educate young people about the Holocaust and the important lessons to be learned for today.