Despite many attempts of denials by some neo-Nazis and some so-called “academics” even, the Holocaust did happen. It is a well-documented fact that during World War Two millions and millions perished in forced labour and extermination camps. Not only Jews, but also other ethnic, religious and political "undesirables".

A very large volume of the documentation - photographs, film footage, written documents and orders issued to the German fighting forces and various units - are by the perpetrators of the atrocities themselves. For any serious researcher on the subject, there is no shortage of authentic documentation and evidence. In fact the evidence is simply overwhelming. There are also numerous eye witness reports and stories and a large number of scholarly work analysing the events leading up to this tragic and dark phase in human history.

Yet with all the evidence available there is still an awful lot of ignorance that surrounds those dreadful events. For the majority born after the War the events seemed incomprehensible. Not unnaturally, for in retrospection, it seems incomprehensible to us who witnessed it all or in part.

Any form of scholarly analysis of the Holocaust within the framework of World War Two, however important, detailed and precise it may be, does not come anywhere near in conveying the real horror of the story, the millions of individual tragedies, the rending apart of families, the loss of lives, the loss of loved ones.

It is against this historical background that this story attempts to describe a microcosm of happenings within an ordinary family that tried to live an ordinary life, under extraordinary circumstances.

For us, the survivors, these events robbed us not only of many members of our families, our loved ones, our friends, but also our entire childhood, our youth and in many instances our homeland, traditions and our roots. In remembering our past, we attempt to send out a warning to save the future.