Auschwitz survivor would rather ‘shake hands’ with SS guard than Holocaust denier

Out of nine siblings, only he and one brother survived the gas chambers.

By Jewish Breaking News

“If someone comes to me who’s a Holocaust denier, I’d rather shake the hand of an SS man who was my guard at Auschwitz rather than them.”

Those are the powerful words of Holocaust survivor Ivor Perl who spoke to Metro News on Monday marking the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation.

Every day in the late 1930s, young Perl would make his way by foot to school in Mako, a small town in southeastern Hungary. Like other Jewish children at the time local children would pelt him with rocks and hurl antisemitic slurs, shouting “Dirty Jew” as they passed by.

But those cruel childhood experiences were only a prelude to the horrors that awaited. He was only 12 when he was forced into Hungary’s ghettos before being transported by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Out of nine siblings, only he and one brother survived the gas chambers.

“You could see a German officer with white gloves pointing left and right,” Mr. Perl told the British-based news outlet.

“And he comes to me, stops. He said, ‘How old are you?’ And then I realized what he said. I said, ’16’… he looked… for a millisecond, I could see in his eyes he knew I wasn’t telling the truth. But he said, ‘All right, go on, go to the right.’”

Unknown at the time, the SS officer pointing him away from the gas chambers was none other than the infamous Nazi Josef Mengele.

“Left meant gas chamber, depending which side you’re on,” he said. “But when he pointed you to the right, it meant life. Well, we didn’t know that at the time. It meant you would go with the men who could work. So I said I was 16.”

His life was saved because he lied about his age.

For fifty years afterward, Mr. Perl kept his experiences locked away, sharing them only with his wife and children. It wasn’t until 1995, during a VE Day commemoration at his local synagogue, that he finally began speaking publicly about what he had endured.

Despite everything he experienced, he warns against hatred, believing it damages both the hater and the hated equally.

“Unfortunately, I can see this is what life is. It’s a vicious cycle. I don’t think the Holocaust, per se, won’t happen again – but it will come in a different overcoat,” he says.

“Can you think of a time in your life, in humanity’s lifetime, when the whole world was at peace? There’s always been a war of some sort or another.”

Today, at 93 years of age, Mr. Perl remains one of the last few remaining witnesses to humanity’s darkest days.