Holocaust survivor Edith Baneth, now 88, was a prisoner in the Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Neuengamme, and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps during World War II. On Jan. 27, the world marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet Red Army troops in 1945. Auschwitz was a network of concentration camps built and operated in occupied Poland by Nazi Germany that functioned with horrific efficiency. An estimated 1.1 million people, mostly Jews from across Europe, were killed in the gas chambers or died from systematic starvation, forced labor, disease, and medical experiments in the infamous concentration camp. An estimated 200,000 inmates survived, and a few of them, though well into their eighties and nineties, still recall the extermination campaign today.
Christopher Furlong/Getty
Auschwitz survivor Stefan Sot, 83, holds a picture of himself taken in Warsaw during the war. Sot was 13 years old during the Warsaw Uprising in August 1943, when he was sent from his home to a camp in Pruszkow prior to being transported by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was later moved to a labor sub-camp, where he worked in a kitchen for S.S. officers. After the war, he worked as a typesetter at a printing house.
Kacper Pempel / Reuters
Eighty-nine-year-old Susan Kluger at her home in London. As the Russians approached Poland, the Nazis saw the end of the war coming, and Eva was sent from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen, where she was eventually liberated by the British in 1945.
Christopher Furlong/Getty
In Budapest, Imre Varsanyi holds up a photo of fellow survivors during World War II. Now 86, Varsanyi was 14 when he and his family were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was the only member of his family to survive. After the war, Varsanyi did not talk about Auschwitz for 60 years because he felt so ashamed of having survived.
Laszlo Balogh / Reuters
Auschwitz survivor Sam Pivnik, 88, lives in London. At age 14, Pivnik and his family were forced to march to Auschwitz by the Nazis. His father and mother, sisters Chana and Handel, and younger brothers Meir, Wolf, and Josef were all murdered in the gas chambers.
Christopher Furlong/Getty
Lajos Erdelyi, 87, holds a drawing made by a campmate as he poses for a portrait in Budapest. Erdelyi was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944 and was later moved to another camp. When he was freed, he weighed less than 66 pounds but still tried to walk home. He collapsed and was taken to a hospital by a farmer.
Laszlo Balogh / Reuters
Holocaust survivor Eva Behar was liberated by the British after being sent from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen in early January 1945.
Christopher Furlong/Getty
Ninety-year-old Eva Fahidi, 90, holds a picture of her mother, father, and sister. Fahidi was 18 in 1944 when they were moved from Debrecen to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where her entire family was killed.
Laszlo Balogh / Reuters
Susan Pollock, now 84, was transported from her home in Hungary to Auschwitz, where her mother was immediately taken from her and sent to the gas chambers. Susan was subjected to hard slave labor until she was eventually forced to walk to Bergen-Belsen in freezing weather and later liberated by British forces.
Christopher Furlong/Getty
Auschwitz survivor Erzsebet Brodt holds a picture of her family, all of whom were killed in the concentration camp. She was 17 when she was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau along with her family. Remembering the journey to the camp, she said those who were “sick or about to give birth were forced out and put into one wagon. When the wagon was opened in Auschwitz we saw that everyone was dead inside.”
Laszlo Balogh / Reuters
