Surviving a NIGHTMARE

Renee Salt - one of the last living survivors of the Holocaust, who ended up marrying one of her rescuers - shares her heartbreaking memories

- KATE THOMPSON

On first meeting Renee Salt, she looks like any other doting grandmother, but on her face are signs of the horrors she witnessed when she was young and had her innocence shattered by unspeakable evil.

The 93-year-old from north London bore witness to the 20th century’s worst atrocity, the Holocaust. Seventy-seven years since the end of World War Two, Renee Salt’s memory is razor-sharp as she recalls her harrowing story.

‘I was born in Zduńska Wola, Poland, in 1929. I lived with my mother Sala, father Shajek and younger sister Stena. We were a happy, tight-knit family,’ Renee recalls.

After the invasion of Poland in September 1939, German officers evicted Renee’s family and they were thrown out with no possessions. The Nazis established a ghetto, where all Jewish people were forced to live.

It was a miserable existence with Renee and seven other relatives crammed into one room, forced to work in a factory making socks for the German Army, but it was nothing compared to the horrors to come.

In 1942, Stena was suddenly taken away during a round-up in the ghetto by SS officers. The family were absolutely devastated, but utterly powerless to prevent it.

Then, two years later, Renee and her parents were taken by train to destination unknown, which turned out to be Auschwitz Birkenau.

‘When we arrived, guards screamed at us to get off the train,’ Renee says. ‘My father jumped off and in the chaos, I lost sight of him. I never saw him again.’