Frank Bright
was 16 when he arrived at Auschwitz with his mother, Toni. In a crowd of prisoners, they shared a quiet goodbye…
I didn't see my mother...
...but she saw me...
...and she broke ranks
She came over to me...
...shook my hand...
... and went back
to her place.
to her place.
The last I saw
of my mother...
of my mother...
... was at the end
of what was later called
"the ramp".
of what was later called
"the ramp".
She turned
to the left.
to the left.
After we had been
put inside our hut...
put inside our hut...
...I went outside,
and I saw
flames...
and I saw
flames...
..and I was told
what they meant.
what they meant.
It was then that
I realized
what happened.
I realized
what happened.
And I remember
standing there
looking at the flames
and thinking...
standing there
looking at the flames
and thinking...
... which of the flames is my mother?
At least 1.1 million people were deported to Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi concentration camps, according to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. The exact figure remains unknown. The majority didn’t survive.
Once orphaned, Frank was forced to work at a factory in what is now Poland, where he remained until his liberation in 1945. He eventually settled in England, married and had two daughters. One of them, Toni, is named for his mother.
Frank Bright died in August 2023. He was 94 years old. He shared more memories in the documentary The Last Survivors.
