I survived the Holocaust. The next generation must not hate in the name of tolerance

When we returned to Hungary after the war, I became ill, and as a result I remember certain things but not others. But the experience itself accompanied me throughout my life.

For many years, we did not talk about it at home. It was only when I was a teenager that I began to ask questions. I asked my mother directly. I began to read. Slowly, the full extent of the evil emerged. It was not only our family. It was not only our small town in Hungary. It was not even only Hungary. Almost the whole of Europe had been affected. Later, of course, this became what we now call the Holocaust.

One memory, however, has always been clear to me: liberation.

We had been put on a train before the British arrived in Belsen, so it was American soldiers who freed us. Suddenly, everything changed. We became free. We could eat. We had proper food and proper rooms to live in. Life, which until then had been defined by fear and deprivation, was suddenly different.

People react to experiences like this in very different ways.

One reaction is to carry it as an emotional and psychological burden for the rest of one’s life. That is very difficult because it can turn into bitterness, and bitterness can become hatred.

The other reaction – the one I try to follow – is to incorporate it into your life and make it a source of strength. I live by a simple principle: if I could survive Belsen, I perhaps can survive everything else, apart from my own death.

That does not mean forgetting. It means refusing to let what was done to you determine who you become.

I was reminded of this recently in Cardiff, when people from different denominations and communities gathered together. They spoke in different ways, but they expressed the same emotions and the same commitment. I think that is very important.

To those who feel threatened today, I would say this: do not be frightened. Fight back. Fight back by trying to educate those who can be educated. And it is important that the authorities notice this as well and act on it.

This is why testimony still matters.

I believe that when a survivor speaks, it is more powerful than what people read in books. That is how experience is passed on. History becomes real when it has a human voice.

I hope the younger generation will remember, and that they will be different from those who hate and are intolerant of people who are different – in their convictions, their religion, or the colour of their skin.

My message is a simple one: Do not hate in the name of tolerance.

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Peter Lantos was Born in Hungary in 1939. In 1944, he was deported with his parents to the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in Germany. His father did not survive, but Peter and his mother were liberated and returned to Hungary. Peter qualified as a Doctor and defected to England in 1968, where he established a successful career in academic medicine and, latterly, as a published author and playwright.

As told to Jordan Howell.

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