Survivor gave much in life

The tattooed numerals on his arm spoke a thousand words.

Holocaust survivor Fred Silberstein was just 14 when he was crammed into a rail freight car and transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp with hundreds of terrified Jews in 1943.

The Nazis etched the number 106795 into his skin as a means of identification – a lifelong reminder of modern humanity’s worst atrocity against itself.

Mr Silberstein, who died on November 23, emigrated to New Zealand in 1948 and was a regular speaker at schools and community group meetings throughout west Auckland.

He recalled his wartime experiences in an effort to educate people about the dangers of racism and was instrumental in having a holocaust memorial erected at Waikumete Cemetery.

The Blockhouse Bay resident also provided voluntary bereavement support at the district court and through the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Grief was something he understood only too well after losing his parents and countless friends in camps like the one where he was incarcerated.

It was a simple lie that spared him from the same fate.

Mr Silberstein told guards he was 15 when he arrived at Auschwitz – adding a year to his real age and saving himself from immediate execution in the gas chambers along with all of the other children.

His remaining two years behind barbed war were horrific beyond imagination.

Mr Silberstein was among 10,000 prisoners used for medical experiments by war criminal Dr Josef Mengele and was once operated on without an anaesthetic.

Six people held him down while the doctor used his scalpel.

Mr Silberstein gave evidence at the Nuremburg Trials in 1946, helping condemn Nazi leaders like Herman Goering and Rudolph Hess.

He is survived by his wife Billie, two children and five grandchildren.

A funeral was held on Wednesday.

- © Fairfax NZ News