84303

last friday a holocaust survivor came to my school and gave a talk about his experiences during world war 2. his name is zigi shipper and he is a cute, short 83 year old who walks with a slight hobble. he smiles and laughs and jokes when he's not being serious and is surprisingly positive and playful/flirtatious (lol seriously). at one point he spoke polish to one of my classmates because he doesn't often get the opportunity. he speaks german and yiddish too and his english is amazing. zigi is proud to be 100% british, which he says he is because he chose to come and live here. obviously his tale was very moving but he never cried. i wasn't surprised because i guess he had sort of numbed to the pain of his story after telling it so many times, like he numbed to the beatings he got at auschwitz-birkenau extermination camp just for being jewish. when he was there in 1944 he was separated from his grandma who had brought him up and stripped of everything: all zigi had was a set of pyjamas and the prisoner number 84303. the biggest regret he has is not being given the chance to put his arms around his grandma and say thanks for bringing him up. the saddest part is that she died on the day her camp was liberated. :-( zigi saw lots of death and lost his faith several times during the war, but now he definitely believes in God. luck was on his side back then; he had typhoid and survived without medicine or even knowing what disease he had - it was his friends who stuck with him and gave him strength. zigi shipper's last message was to never hate anyone because it ruins your life and eventually you will hate everybody. he doesn't forgive the nazis for what they did because that is for God and the dead to do but he hates nobody. i got teary eyed throughout his speech but the tears didn't come until he bent down and kissed my friend's forehead (she was sat crying in the front row) then said 'i hope i don't go to prison for that' omg. also he became a great-grandad 2 weeks ago! :-)