Ivan Shaw BEM, now aged 84 and living in London, was just five when his Jewish parents were arrested by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp.
The youngster was himself being marched towards a train bound for Auschwitz when he was saved by his aunt in a daring rescue.
Mr Shaw, who has been married for nearly 60 years and has three children and six grandchildren, said he had never been aware of antisemitism in the UK until a recent rise caused by the Hamas-Israel conflict.
The number of antisemitic hate crimes recorded by many of the UK’s largest police forces jumped sharply in the weeks following the outbreak of the conflict, figures show.
“I would never have believed it, I thought Britain was different,” he told the PA news agency.
Mr Shaw was born in 1939 in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, part of modern-day Serbia.
In 1944, Germans began to round up and deport Jews, including his mother.
His father decided to go with her, despite only being half-Jewish.
Mr Shaw was hidden by one of his father’s sisters until his concealment was given away by a neighbour.
Holocaust survivor Ivan Shaw at his home in north London, ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day (Lucy North/PA)
He recalled: “After about 10 days I was betrayed by one of the neighbours.
“Who would want to betray a five-year-old little boy? The mind just boggles.”
He was taken to prison by the Gestapo, spending the night alone in a cell before being moved to a transit camp where he was reunited with his family.
The inmates were being taken to a train station to be moved to the Auschwitz concentration camp when one of his aunts risked her life to save her nephew.
Mr Shaw said: “I was taken with thousands of other prisoners to the railway station with a view to being put on a train to Auschwitz.
“The road to the station bordered along a public forest. I was force-marched along this road.
“Much to my amazement, I suddenly found my aunt dashing out of the forest, grabbing me, and running back into the forest.
“The whole incident must’ve taken a few minutes.”
Both of his parents died in the camps, while Mr Shaw was hidden for about nine months by his aunt and her family.
“Had she been betrayed, she would have been shot, the whole family would have been shot, and the house would have been burnt down,” he added.
After the war was over, he moved to Amersham in Buckinghamshire to live with his aunt, and later enjoyed a successful career with retailer Marks & Spencer.
“I have been lucky, I was saved by my family. But millions have not been so lucky,” Mr Shaw said.
“Ninety per cent of Jews in Yugoslavia did not survive the war.
“There were good people and bad people, the Germans who looked the other way saved my life.
“We have to stand up against hatred and prejudice, hatred leads eventually to the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
“I’ve got a photograph of the family which I always point to as my revenge on Hitler.
“He was determined to exterminate my family, and this picture shows he did not succeed.”
Mr Shaw was speaking ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day on Saturday.
Along with others, he shares his testimony in schools and colleges across the UK through a Holocaust Educational Trust programme which gives tens of thousands of young people the opportunity to hear the testimony of Holocaust survivors.
https://www.surreycomet.co.uk/news/national/24075985.holocaust-survivor-urges-people-stand-hatred-prejudice/
