Pola Friend
Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz & Ravensbruck Survivor

At the age of 14 Pola Friend was separated from her parents and left with her two younger sisters when the Germans came to their Ghetto in Pabiance, Poland. "My mother shouted: 'Look after them.' I still feel guilty that I survived and they didn't."

After spending two years in a former prison in Charneckiego, the three sisters were transported to Auschwitz. "When we got there, we saw corpses on the electric fences. They had been electrocuted. The SS told us 'that is what will happen if you try and escape.'" Pola was separated from her sisters never to see them again.

Pola is full of praise for her liberators. "The Swedish Red Cross took many survivors from Ravensbruck to Denmark. When we saw women with milk churns and baskets of bread, we went mad, we stuffed ourselves. The kindness of the Danish people and the Swedes - I will never be able to tell you. They sacrificed so much."

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