A HOLOCAUST survivor educated school pupils in St Albans about his experiences of the Auschwitz concentration camp this week.

Zigi Shipper addressed a packed audience at Sandringham School with an in-depth look into the war and what he went through as a child in them days.

The 79-year-old was born to a Jewish family in Lodz, Poland, but his parents divorced when he was five-years-old and was left to be brought up by his father and grandparents.

In 1939 when war broke out Zigi's father escaped from Poland to Russia and has since never been in touch.

He told pupils that life living in a ghetto was hard work and Zigi was sent in cattle trucks to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

His emotional encounter involved explaining how they were sent to showers on their arrival where they were shaved and tattooed.

Everyone else from the ghetto had to go through a "selektion" where a Nazi officer decided who was fit enough to work and who should immediately die.

The following years saw 79-year-old join a death march to Germany and were soon off to Denmark.

However before this could happen there was a British air attack after which all the Nazis left. They were left surrounded by a British Army and liberated on May 3, 1945.

Finally in 1947 Zigi arrived in the UK, where he married and had a family.

Speaking about the testimony, Tamara Fitzgerald, director of learning at Sandringham School, said: “It is a privilege for us to welcome Zigi Shipper to our school and his testimony will remain a powerful reminder of the horrors so many experienced.

“We are grateful to the Holocaust Educational Trust for co-ordinating the visit and we hope that by hearing Zigi's testimony, it will encourage students to learn from the lessons of the Holocaust and make a positive difference in their own lives.”