At just six years of age Hannah Lewis watched as Nazi soldiers rounded up a group of Jews, including her mother, in the Polish village where they lived.

Lining them up in front of a well the soldiers opened fire. Then they turned and herded the remaining people together and took them to a concentration camp.
"You just knew when to lie and when to pretend to be somebody else, purely because your life depended on it.

"My mother gave me a big hug and without looking back, walked to the German at the door. I walked towards the door and stood on the steps to see what was happening.

"There were so many people gathered around a well and it didn't occur to me what was happening until I heard the gunshots. Then I saw them shoot my mother. I just froze.

"But I knew that I mustn't cry, I knew instinctively that she had played her last dice to give me a chance to live and if I cried they would know.

"I even thought to myself that maybe my mother was just injured and that she would come back for me when the war was over."

"My first memories of the war are not actually memories but feelings. Feelings that something wasn't right in the air.

"I remember seeing random beatings and shootings, but amazingly you just got used to it, we had to acclimatise.

"The first time the Gestapo started to round up the Jews, it was a very traumatic experience, but I wasn't scared because I had my mum with me.

"At times it was a case of several families being in a very small single room. People were reluctant to let in families with young children because they were likely to start crying which would lead them to us.

"Some families would stifle their children until they stopped crying because they were so frightened of the Gestapo finding us."

Hannah, an only child, was taken to a concentration camp and survived.

She moved to England in 1949 and now lives in north London. She has only recently been able to talk about her experiences but recognises the importance of sharing what she saw and lived through with today's generation of children so they can understand the impact the Holocaust has had on the contemporary world.

Hannah, 67, found comfort throughout her ordeal in her relationship with her mother.

She said: "After leading a more comfortable life and when life gets better, you start to think that you may have imagined the whole thing. It was not until I returned to Poland that it hit me again."

Hannah's story was just one recounted to students at Harris City Technology College last Friday as they learned about the Holocaust.

Six million Jews lost their lives, sent to extermination camps or sytematically killed by the Nazi regime during World War Two.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of prisoners from Auschwitz.

Their talks were part of a day of assemblies and workshops to inform students about the Holocaust in the lead up to national Holocaust Memorial Day tomorrow (Thursday).

Dan Moynahan, headteacher of the school in Maberley Road, Upper Norwood, said: "Hearing the accounts of actual Holocaust survivors made it a real experience for our students and the children were able to understand the repercussions of racism."