TO MARK today's 75th anniversary of VE Day, Mady Gerrard has allowed us to share her harrowing story of life surviving Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen concentration camps during the Holocaust.
Ms Gerrard, 90, is a retired fashion designer now living in St Arvans, Chepstow.
“In 1944, at 14 years old, I was deported from my native Hungary to Auschwitz," she said.
“I was engaged to be married to the love of my life. He was to be a doctor and I was to be an art historian, but that wasn’t what Hitler had planned for us.
MORE NEWS:
- Man accused of attempted Spar robbery remanded in custody
- On patrol with police warning people off the roads in Gwent
- Police used Tasers to subdue dangerous driver when stinger device failed
“We arrived in Auschwitz on July 8. It was hell. We didn’t have underwear, just a dress and a pair of shoes. We had our heads shaved. I remember being horrified that my fiancée had seen me with my head shaved. In the end it didn’t matter; he died there.
“On one occasion I had developed some type of bite on my left arm. A German noticed it. My red-headed friend and I were selected out. At the end of each barrack there was a little space which was separate and we were taken there.
“There was a door which was like a barn door, only three-quarters of the way up. I kept saying to my friend, ‘We have to climb out of here. If we don’t we are going to be gassed’.
“She wouldn’t come with me. I left her and climbed back to the rest of my friends. Nobody ever saw her again after that night.
“I always think that was the most horrible day of my Holocaust because I thought it was my fault. I thought that maybe I could have done more; I could have tried harder to make her come with me; that she was gone and I was here.
“I lived there until October and then they took us to Germany. We went to a town called Guben. It was a small camp, just 350 girls.
“In Guben we had to work, unlike in Auschwitz where we did absolutely nothing.
“We knew that the Russians and the British had to be very near because we heard guns going off and we heard noises like tanks.
“On Sunday April 15 in 1945 I noticed a Jeep was coming and I knew it wasn’t a German one.
“Two days later we were moved to a place which was used during the war as a SS youth training camp. That was the end of the war.
“I returned to Hungary to look for my father, but he had died in Auschwitz. I stayed in Hungary for 10 years and it was 1956 by the time I left for Britain.
“We came by bus from Vienna as refugees. We were taken to Yorkshire for three years, and were looked after. We didn’t go through the things the refugees are going through now. There was a lady from Cardiff who invited me and my three-year-old daughter to Wales to see what I could do for a living.
“Ten years after that I went to Canada for two years and then on to New York for 16 years.
“I married twice. I got married in Hungary first, but divorced. Then 33 years later I married again, to Paul in New York. He was Hungarian as well. We got married in this country and were married for 14 years before he died. I now live in Chepstow near to my daughter and three grandchildren, and I still do plenty of designing.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here