0:00:02 > 0:00:06This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting
0:00:06 > 0:00:11Auschwitz is a place associated with death and horror.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15Kitty Hart-Moxon was a prisoner here
0:00:15 > 0:00:16and she's taken me back
0:00:16 > 0:00:20to the world's most notorious concentration camp,
0:00:20 > 0:00:22where people were taken to be killed.
0:00:24 > 0:00:29They were here three days, four days, naked, on bare boards,
0:00:29 > 0:00:31waiting their turn into the gas chamber.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37I had never been to a place like Auschwitz before,
0:00:37 > 0:00:39and this incredible lady
0:00:39 > 0:00:44is one of the few remaining survivors of this barbaric regime.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48When we arrived, my mother said,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51"I can't believe they're roasting so much meat here."
0:00:51 > 0:00:54That's what my mother said, you know,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56because she had no idea what was happening here.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59That was the smell, burning flesh.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06How many souls were lost in here?
0:01:06 > 0:01:08Screaming in that shower?
0:01:09 > 0:01:13Thinking water was going to come down and just screaming for life.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17I can't believe it's taken me so long to come here.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02Bielsko-Biala is a city in the south of Poland,
0:02:02 > 0:02:06but during the Second World War, it was occupied by Germany.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14The synagogue that once stood in this street was burned to the ground
0:02:14 > 0:02:16and in fear for their lives,
0:02:16 > 0:02:18Jewish families fled their homes.
0:02:22 > 0:02:29That's my friend Trauda. She was the Polish champion in 1939.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32My club won the Polish championship.
0:02:32 > 0:02:33When the war broke out,
0:02:33 > 0:02:36the Poles here took away the statue
0:02:36 > 0:02:39because she was Jewish and they thought, "They'll destroy it,"
0:02:39 > 0:02:42and they hid it and they re-erected it after the war.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45'Kitty Hart-Moxon grew up in this city.'
0:02:47 > 0:02:51And there are many places that hold happy childhood memories here.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56We picnicked here, we played here,
0:02:56 > 0:02:58we did some diving, we had training here.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01Our mothers used to come in the afternoon and collect us,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04you know, and perhaps brought a picnic or something.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08But as war loomed, it soon became clear, even to children,
0:03:08 > 0:03:11that everything was changing.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15We were walking here, and people were clapping all the clubs
0:03:15 > 0:03:17and when we walked, we were stoned.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19- Stoned?- Stoned.
0:03:19 > 0:03:21Stones came from all over, stones.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25And I turned to my friend and said, "Why all these stones?"
0:03:25 > 0:03:30She said, "Don't you know? We're the Jewish club and they don't like us."
0:03:30 > 0:03:33And then of course, the Jews won the championship, so...
0:03:33 > 0:03:35How old were you at that age?
0:03:35 > 0:03:39I think we're talking about the year of 1939. I was 12.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42- I was going on for 13.- So what did you say when your friend said...?
0:03:42 > 0:03:45I didn't know. I didn't know what it was all about.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48It was the first time I was told of anti-Semitism.
0:03:49 > 0:03:54The rise of the Nazis was soon overshadowing every aspect of life,
0:03:54 > 0:03:57even here at this swimming pool.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59That's when the Germans were here,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02it's got a picture of a swastika.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04- There.- There.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06Yeah, it's got a flag with a swastika,
0:04:06 > 0:04:08so that's during the war.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11They used it here, the Germans, during the war.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15But that swastika, it robs all of those beautiful memories...
0:04:15 > 0:04:17- Well, it does.- ..you had of your childhood, doesn't it?
0:04:17 > 0:04:20Of course it does. But the good thing is, they were defeated.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26But that defeat would be many years after occupation,
0:04:26 > 0:04:31years that would have a dreadful impact on many families.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33For Kitty, it would mean leaving Bielsko-Biala.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36See this big building? We're not far.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42Back in the city, she wants to show me all the places she remembers,
0:04:42 > 0:04:43including the building
0:04:43 > 0:04:45'where her family had lived.'
0:04:45 > 0:04:46Changed a lot from now.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51Just open the door and walk in.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55On the banisters were these wonderful sunflowers.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57Very high doors.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59Your face has lit up when you came in here.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02- Well...- It has!- Maybe, yeah!
0:05:07 > 0:05:11It's clear that this city does feel like home to Kitty,
0:05:11 > 0:05:16and being forced to say goodbye is a moment she's never forgotten.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20We had to flee, like two, three days prior to the outbreak of the war
0:05:20 > 0:05:24because we were near the frontier and we already knew invasion was...
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Obviously, my father knew invasion was going to take place.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30My mother and I were on holiday. We weren't here.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34We got back and when we got back, there was absolute chaos.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37The whole house was in chaos because they were packing everything up
0:05:37 > 0:05:41and they were sending us somewhere. And we had to go.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45- Was your mum crying?- No, they were just doughtily getting on with it.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47You just knuckle down and do it.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49So you don't think of any emotions.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52- Kitty, you don't just knuckle down and do it, do you?- Well, you do.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54- It takes a strength. It takes...- Well, you do,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57it's no good you getting emotional and starting crying
0:05:57 > 0:06:01because then you're not going to act rationally.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05We take for granted now the security we have, don't we?
0:06:05 > 0:06:07- Yeah, yeah.- Because you were just...
0:06:07 > 0:06:11- You'd been ripped out of your comfort instantly.- Yeah,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14and worse to come, these people that were fleeing,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18they were followed by the planes that were coming over, the invasion,
0:06:18 > 0:06:19which were flying very low
0:06:19 > 0:06:22and were strafing people that were fleeing.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25- Strafing?- You know, they were shooting.- Machine-gunning?
0:06:25 > 0:06:27Machine-gunning from the planes.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31They came very low and people were hiding in ditches and whatever,
0:06:31 > 0:06:33and they were hit as they were fleeing.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41Kitty and her family were able to get a train out of the city.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43Others were not so lucky.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49Many Jews were rounded up in Bielsko-Biala
0:06:49 > 0:06:52and taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54The lives they knew were over.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59Here, hundreds of thousands would be killed by the Nazis.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05Kitty was one child who managed to escape Auschwitz,
0:07:05 > 0:07:07if only for a short time.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11She travelled with her parents to Lublin in the east of Poland.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14It's nothing far. It's very, very close.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17'And I'm retracing that journey with her.'
0:07:20 > 0:07:22In what was once the Jewish ghetto,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25there's a museum that chronicles this city's past.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29Kitty's here to retrace her own personal history.
0:07:29 > 0:07:30This isn't the actual document
0:07:30 > 0:07:34because my documents were taken away by the Gestapo, sent to Auschwitz.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38It took me 50 years to find this in the archives in Germany.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40'And the staff have agreed
0:07:40 > 0:07:44'to help her find the places important to her in Lublin.'
0:07:44 > 0:07:47- The church, the forest...- Yeah.
0:07:47 > 0:07:53- The...the manor house?- Yeah, and the post office.- And the post office.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00Kitty's family travelled to this city to escape the Nazis
0:08:00 > 0:08:03but soon after they arrived, German troops invaded
0:08:03 > 0:08:07and she remembers them terrorising the Jewish families in these streets.
0:08:09 > 0:08:15The round-ups, the police battalions smashing into the homes constantly,
0:08:15 > 0:08:17pulling people out, throwing them down,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20getting them to assemble at the bottom and deporting them.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23- Throwing them where? - Down the stairs.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28Downstairs, from... Sometimes out of the windows.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31They just picked people up and threw them. Got it?
0:08:31 > 0:08:34Sometimes, when there was such a raid, you hid.
0:08:34 > 0:08:39Once, I hid with one of these boys that I knew under the bed.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41And I remember I was saying something
0:08:41 > 0:08:44and he put his hand in front of my mouth to really keep quiet.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49- So they upped the aggression every time?- All the time, yeah.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51All the time there was this terror, you know,
0:08:51 > 0:08:55and these incredible massacres that went on.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00Increasingly, families in the ghetto
0:09:00 > 0:09:02felt cut off from the rest of the world
0:09:02 > 0:09:06but some did try to tell relatives what was happening.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08My mother would write nearly every day, you know,
0:09:08 > 0:09:10and I used to go and post letters,
0:09:10 > 0:09:12but that's the only one that came through,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15and she wrote it in German so they could read it and censor it.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18It was censored. Look.
0:09:18 > 0:09:19It's got a "censored" stamp.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23She knew not to write anything of any importance, you know,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27and my relatives didn't speak Polish anyway, so she wrote in German,
0:09:27 > 0:09:31- but it's got all our signatures there.- Where's yours?- There.
0:09:32 > 0:09:33That's mine, look.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36- "Viele grusse" - many kisses? - Many kisses.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39- "Many kisses, Kitty." - Yeah. Isn't that weird?
0:09:39 > 0:09:41'Even getting to the post office
0:09:41 > 0:09:44'became difficult for the Jewish population'
0:09:44 > 0:09:48as barbed wire and soldiers separated this city.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51They never got as far as sealing it
0:09:51 > 0:09:54but we always knew they were going to do it.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59- 41 was closed and surrounded with a fence.- Yeah.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01- And that's the town divided?- Yeah.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10This city was changing, and becoming very dangerous.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14They were patrolling almost all the time around the ghetto,
0:10:14 > 0:10:17and when you saw a patrol,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20you were supposed to get off the pavement into the gutter.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22I did know that, and I got off
0:10:22 > 0:10:25but my friend didn't get off. He didn't get off.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28He said, "Why should I get off?" You know, he didn't get off,
0:10:28 > 0:10:30and this patrol, they just pulled this gun
0:10:30 > 0:10:31and shot him through the head.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36That was the first time I really, really understood danger.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38- You saw him... - I saw him...- Shot dead?
0:10:38 > 0:10:40Shot head, yeah, in front of me.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42It must still haunt you.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46Yeah, it's been haunting me for a long time because I felt guilty.
0:10:46 > 0:10:51Why didn't I pull him, you know, into the gutter, kind of thing.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55- How old was he?- He was 15. He was just a little older than me, yeah.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00In fear for his family,
0:11:00 > 0:11:04Kitty's family made the difficult decision to leave Lublin.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10They travelled to a small village south of the city,
0:11:10 > 0:11:13but when troops threatened and killed people there too,
0:11:13 > 0:11:15they had no choice but to flee again.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22This time, Kitty and her parents hid in woodland.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27- 70 years...- 70 years. - ..today, I was in this forest.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29How can you believe that?
0:11:30 > 0:11:33'And this forest had its own dangers.'
0:11:33 > 0:11:37In the night-time, we had the wolves.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39The wolves came around sniffing, you know.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42- The wolves?- Wolves, pack of wolves, yeah.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44There wasn't just one wolf.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47They'd go, "Oooh", you know, the wolves' howl?
0:11:47 > 0:11:51That's all you heard in the night, with the glowing eyes.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53We were not afraid of the wolves.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56Kitty, I'm not sure you'd be afraid of anything.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58Oh, yeah. Oh, God, no, don't say that.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00I was terribly afraid of the patrols
0:12:00 > 0:12:03because if they found us, they would have just shot us, you know.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06So...oh, yeah, it was pretty scary,
0:12:06 > 0:12:08but what do you do?
0:12:08 > 0:12:12It's no good screaming because then you give yourself away
0:12:12 > 0:12:13so you know, you lie low.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17What does it feel like to be back here 70 years later?
0:12:17 > 0:12:20It's just incredible, isn't it?
0:12:20 > 0:12:24To actually come back to remember the places
0:12:24 > 0:12:27- and to tell people what happened. - You see, if it was me,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30I don't think I'd want to go back. I think I'd want to block it out.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33- No...- I wouldn't want to revisit any of that tragedy in there.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35It doesn't work. Just believe you me,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39if you try to block things out, it does never work
0:12:39 > 0:12:40because they haunt you.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42No, no, it doesn't work.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45That's where a lot of the survivors made a mistake. They just...
0:12:45 > 0:12:48They block it out, but it doesn't work like that
0:12:48 > 0:12:51because you've got it in your head, and it happened to you,
0:12:51 > 0:12:53and you got to actually talk about it.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56- I wouldn't last two minutes in there.- Oh, yes, you would.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59- You lasted three weeks.- You would have lasted a lot longer than me
0:12:59 > 0:13:01because you've got all this to get rid of.
0:13:03 > 0:13:04You could have lived...
0:13:04 > 0:13:08You could have lived on all that for a couple of months!
0:13:17 > 0:13:20All these places are important pieces in Kitty's story,
0:13:20 > 0:13:23but finding them is anything but easy.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32'And it's particularly difficult for me.'
0:13:32 > 0:13:35LAUGHTER
0:13:37 > 0:13:39I'm all right!
0:13:40 > 0:13:42Hold my hand!
0:13:49 > 0:13:54One building she's been desperate to find is a church in Lublin.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57The priest here gave them false documents
0:13:57 > 0:13:59to try to help them evade the Nazis,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02and Kitty has fond memories of him.
0:14:02 > 0:14:04He looked like a tomato, you know,
0:14:04 > 0:14:06a bit like you, kind of red and...
0:14:06 > 0:14:08LAUGHTER
0:14:12 > 0:14:14So I look like a tomato!
0:14:17 > 0:14:19It's a heavy door. Thank you.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25This is the church.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27It's very much to what it was.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31But once given the false papers inside this church,
0:14:31 > 0:14:35it was decided the family should be split up for their own safety.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39The priest had a plan and the plan was, we had to part,
0:14:39 > 0:14:41because we couldn't survive, all of us together, so...
0:14:41 > 0:14:44- Which is a pity. - Well, it just couldn't be done.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47We would have all got killed, that's the point,
0:14:47 > 0:14:49and we all had different names and things,
0:14:49 > 0:14:51and it would have been too difficult.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54For men, it was very difficult.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58Sometime after they separated, Kitty's father was killed,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02but she wasn't to know that until well after the war was over.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07Kitty and her mother went to this railway siding
0:15:07 > 0:15:12and blended in with a group of Poles being taken to work in Germany,
0:15:12 > 0:15:13but when they arrived,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16it was discovered by the SS that they were Jews
0:15:16 > 0:15:18and they were sentenced to death.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23They came for us the next morning and took us into this courtyard,
0:15:23 > 0:15:26and we had to stand facing the wall, with the arms up,
0:15:26 > 0:15:27and at the back of us,
0:15:27 > 0:15:31there were all the machine guns with the men in helmets waiting to shoot,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35and then we were just standing there, nothing was happening,
0:15:35 > 0:15:38and all of a sudden, there was this great explosion.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42It was just, "Pssh!" And some of these people fell to the ground,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45you know, and I sort of touched myself, I remember,
0:15:45 > 0:15:48and I thought, "Well, I haven't been hit." One of the SS came
0:15:48 > 0:15:51and he said, "No, we're not going to shoot you just like that.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54"No, no, no. We have to know where these documents came from."
0:15:54 > 0:15:57I don't know whether they found out from other people
0:15:57 > 0:16:00but certainly from us, they didn't know our documents,
0:16:00 > 0:16:02and so what they did eventually,
0:16:02 > 0:16:08they commuted our death sentence to life imprisonment in Auschwitz.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33Well over a million men, women and children died
0:16:33 > 0:16:36in the Auschwitz concentration camps,
0:16:36 > 0:16:39and I'm travelling back there with Kitty.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47She was just 15 when she was held in Birkenau,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50the second of the camps at Auschwitz.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52It was known as the death camp.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57When people were taken off the trains here,
0:16:57 > 0:17:00they were forced into a building known as the sauna.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04Here, they were stripped of all their possessions.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08Both the prisoners and their clothes were disinfected.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12They saw all these constructions, which they didn't know what it was,
0:17:12 > 0:17:14and they thought they were factories.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17They thought people were working. They saw us working,
0:17:17 > 0:17:19wandering around, working,
0:17:19 > 0:17:24so it gave people a sense of security, if you like,
0:17:24 > 0:17:26because it was all a deception.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32Kitty witnessed what the soldiers called the sorting of people.
0:17:32 > 0:17:38Well, sorting out meant people who were allowed into the camp,
0:17:38 > 0:17:41and people who went straight into the gas chambers.
0:17:41 > 0:17:43They were still being sorted out here,
0:17:43 > 0:17:46so people were stripped, completely stripped naked.
0:17:46 > 0:17:47Children, adults together?
0:17:47 > 0:17:51Sometimes children with mothers, sometimes the children on their own.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53They'd take the children away from their mothers.
0:17:53 > 0:17:55The children weren't allowed to live
0:17:55 > 0:17:57so they didn't even come into the sauna.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59They were taken straight to the gas chamber.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01Do you know what those photographs do for me?
0:18:01 > 0:18:03There's all machinery around this place
0:18:03 > 0:18:08and the machinery to dehumanise people and to kill people,
0:18:08 > 0:18:10and that personalises it.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13Well, it does, that is why they have done it.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15It shows you the people,
0:18:15 > 0:18:18most of whom actually perished here, you know, were killed here.
0:18:29 > 0:18:35In Birkenau, the gas chambers and crematoria now lie in ruins,
0:18:35 > 0:18:39but Kitty has vivid memories of the crimes committed here.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42There was a time when they were burning them alive.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46They weren't just burning the bodies that were here, yeah?
0:18:46 > 0:18:49There were occasions when they were burning them alive,
0:18:49 > 0:18:50so you heard all the screams.
0:19:05 > 0:19:12The end of my hut is almost a few yards to the gas chamber.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16So what was it like, being so close? What was the smell like?
0:19:16 > 0:19:18Well, the smell was horrendous.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20When we arrived, my mother said,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24"I can't believe they're roasting so much meat here."
0:19:24 > 0:19:26That's what my mother said, you know,
0:19:26 > 0:19:28because she had no idea what was happening here.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31That was the smell, burning flesh, you know,
0:19:31 > 0:19:37and you had big chimneys and actually had fire, fire and smoke coming out.
0:19:37 > 0:19:42Sometimes the smoke was so dense, the whole place was kind of blacked out.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44There was a never-ending stream of people,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47so a group of people would be sat in these woods,
0:19:47 > 0:19:49just sit there, picnicking.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53Children would pick some flowers, there was a flowerbed here,
0:19:53 > 0:19:57and a bit of a lawn, you know, just a pretence.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00Kitty, the picture you've just painted there in my mind
0:20:00 > 0:20:05- is of children here picking flowers...- Yeah. Yes.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07- ..and the gas chambers there.- Yeah.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09Life, death.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Yeah, yeah, exactly that. But these people didn't connect that.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15They thought they were some factories.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18They didn't know those were gas chambers.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20Why were the people waiting up there on the hill?
0:20:20 > 0:20:24Because there wasn't any room in the gas chamber! They were full.
0:20:24 > 0:20:29What's it like, Kitty, watching people walk to their death?
0:20:29 > 0:20:31Well, you saw it day in, day out,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34and there was absolutely nothing you could do.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37You were just helpless, weren't you? You were simply helpless.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39There was absolutely nothing you could do.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42Well, you had the choice - you could go in with them.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50The gas chambers may be gone from Birkenau
0:20:50 > 0:20:52but they can't be forgotten,
0:20:52 > 0:20:55and a short distance away in the main Auschwitz camp,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58there are still some standing.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00So this is where they stood.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02Yeah, and that's where they threw in the gas.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05And these people thought water was going to come down.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07Exactly that, that's what they said, "To the showers."
0:21:07 > 0:21:11- And they were packed in here?- Yeah, and then they were burnt in there.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14Burnt in the ovens.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17All this is presented as a warning from history.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22And the possessions of the dead are all around this museum.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28It was Kitty's job in the camp to sort through the men's jackets,
0:21:28 > 0:21:30looking for valuables.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33If you look, those are genuine suitcases.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37People had to actually put their names on - why, I don't know,
0:21:37 > 0:21:40because they were all going to die, because they didn't know.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42All these people are dead,
0:21:42 > 0:21:46but that was a deception. People thought, "Oh, well,
0:21:46 > 0:21:48"we've got to take a suitcase, we've got to go somewhere."
0:21:48 > 0:21:51That looks like a child's case with a little tag on it.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54Yeah, there'd be loads of suitcases from all over Europe.
0:21:55 > 0:22:00'Kitty has much more to show me, from the crutches taken from prisoners
0:22:00 > 0:22:01'not valued by the Nazi regime...'
0:22:01 > 0:22:03Aw...
0:22:03 > 0:22:06'..to the hair taken from people about to die
0:22:06 > 0:22:07'in order to make cloth.'
0:22:07 > 0:22:10It fades and deteriorates.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13This is the very worst I've seen.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17And that's a fraction of what there was, of course, like I said to you.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Most of the stuff's been burnt down.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22That's what they salvaged after the war
0:22:22 > 0:22:24because they came and burnt it all down.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29- So they've just shaved this off people.- Well, yeah. Some...
0:22:29 > 0:22:32Hair was shaved as people came in, into the camp,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35but then hair was shaved off also after they were gassed.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41I actually wonder, when I ask Kitty if she has been damaged by this,
0:22:41 > 0:22:43I wonder, how could she not be?
0:22:44 > 0:22:48And she's telling the story and she's asking the questions,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52she's pointing out that this is hair from a human being,
0:22:52 > 0:22:56but I do think that she has maybe told the story so many times,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59because she wants so many people to know,
0:22:59 > 0:23:01that she underestimates the impact.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06Do you know what? I thought I'd cry when I came here.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10I don't want to cry. I'm just so, so angry.
0:23:10 > 0:23:11I'm furious.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18The possessions on show here are deeply personal.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22It's only when I stood beside them that that it really hit me.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25- I noticed you crying coming down the stairs.- Yeah.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28It was just the shoes of the children...
0:23:30 > 0:23:33I don't know if I can actually... I'm sorry.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39Just, when I saw the children's shoes, it was too much.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43There were just so many.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46But the hair too, we saw the hair...
0:23:48 > 0:23:51It's very difficult for me to speak when I cry. Sorry.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54But when we saw all that hair...
0:23:54 > 0:23:56and the shoes, it was just...
0:23:56 > 0:24:00I just realised how many people it was, and...
0:24:00 > 0:24:03I just, I don't even know if I can be in this building any more.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05I think I might have to go outside.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25Fear was a very common emotion in Auschwitz,
0:24:25 > 0:24:28nowhere more so than in Block 25,
0:24:28 > 0:24:30known as the death block.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33When selections were carried out for the gas chamber,
0:24:33 > 0:24:35which was nearly every day, somewhere else,
0:24:35 > 0:24:38they were put in there naked,
0:24:38 > 0:24:41naked, in there, waiting to die,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45sometimes three days, four days, a week, without water.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50It was in here that female prisoners were held
0:24:50 > 0:24:52before being taken to the gas chambers.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57The bars on the windows were there so the people couldn't get out
0:24:57 > 0:25:02and if you passed it, which you didn't really...weren't to do,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05because it was really out of bounds,
0:25:05 > 0:25:09hands of people just sticking out, just begging for a drink
0:25:09 > 0:25:11because they were here three days, four days,
0:25:11 > 0:25:16naked on bare boards, waiting their turn into the gas chamber
0:25:16 > 0:25:22and the stench when they opened the doors here was unbelievable.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24You could smell it all over the camp,
0:25:24 > 0:25:29so you kept away because you knew you were going to be next here.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32- There wouldn't have been one person per...- Eight.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34Eight to one of these.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37Eight people to one of these,
0:25:37 > 0:25:40in all these stone huts.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42Kitty, rats live better.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45Rats would eat the people alive, you know.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49Rats were running around and just biting people.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58Kitty and her mother were moved out of Auschwitz
0:25:58 > 0:26:00shortly before it was liberated.
0:26:00 > 0:26:05They were taken on a so-called death march, used as slave labour
0:26:05 > 0:26:07and held in other camps.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10Somehow, they survived,
0:26:10 > 0:26:13but so many they knew didn't.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19When you talk about lots of these people,
0:26:19 > 0:26:24these beautiful, lovely human beings, reduced to ash,
0:26:24 > 0:26:26does that give you nightmares?
0:26:26 > 0:26:29- Does that traumatise you? - It did, but not any more.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31It did, yeah, sure it did.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33When you were here or afterwards?
0:26:33 > 0:26:36When I was here, I tried to shut it out completely,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39you know, like I said to you, you had to hypnotise yourself
0:26:39 > 0:26:42so you simply didn't see it, because you couldn't live,
0:26:42 > 0:26:45and I saw people that took it in and committed suicide.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48So it was either, you took it in, committed suicide,
0:26:48 > 0:26:50or you sort of... You don't want to know.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53So at what point did you start having the nightmares?
0:26:53 > 0:26:56Well, I probably had nightmares immediately after,
0:26:56 > 0:27:00and then I began to analyse, "What's the good of me having nightmares,
0:27:00 > 0:27:01"what's the good of me hating?"
0:27:01 > 0:27:04You're entitled to hate.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06You're entitled to hate the people who did this.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10Yeah, but it destroys you if you do that.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12If you start hating, it destroys you.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14- I don't understand that. I just don't.- Well...
0:27:14 > 0:27:17What do you mean, it destroys you? It's natural emotion.
0:27:17 > 0:27:18Yeah, but whom do you hate first?
0:27:18 > 0:27:23Like we were saying, all these people all around Europe were, um...
0:27:23 > 0:27:25responsible, because there were a lot of collaborators.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29Are you going to hate everybody? Because you don't know who was who.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31Where do you stop the hate?
0:27:41 > 0:27:43All around the camps at Auschwitz,
0:27:43 > 0:27:46there are reminders of the atrocities committed here.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52'For me, I feel privileged to have been on this journey
0:27:52 > 0:27:54'with a lady who has survived so much.'
0:27:54 > 0:27:57How can you take a body and throw it in there as if it's nothing?
0:27:57 > 0:28:00'Her life story is amazing
0:28:00 > 0:28:04'and her knowledge of a human being's capacity for evil
0:28:04 > 0:28:06'is invaluable.'
0:28:06 > 0:28:09This is where they were gassed?
0:28:09 > 0:28:11If I was to ask you, of all the thoughts you have,
0:28:11 > 0:28:13all the stories you've told,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17what is the prevailing lesson about all of this?
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Well, the prevailing lesson is, you never know when it can happen again.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd