Ivor Perl
was 12 when his family was killed at Auschwitz. He and one surviving brother were taken to Dachau camp, where Ivor turned 13 and recalls marking his bar mitzvah alone behind barbed wire…
the barbed wire...
the birds fly by...
speaking to God:
let me get out
of this hellhole
absolutely naked,
and I'll never ask
another thing from you
for my life".
God answered my prayer.
talking to God and asking for
further, further help.
that's the problem
with being
a survivor.
tends to
remind you
of something
A month after his bar mitzvah, Ivor said he and his brother were marched to a different section of Dachau, one of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps. Camp records indicate at least 32,000 people died there during the Holocaust.
Ivor and his brother survived and were liberated together by American troops in 1945. Today Ivor lives in England, but says he still considers himself an honorary American.
Ivor Perl shares more memories in the documentary film The Last Survivors, a collection of testimonies by Holocaust survivors that is available to stream for free online.
