A HOLOCAUST survivor gave a first-hand testimony to students at a Teesside college yesterday.

Harry Bibring, who escaped to the UK from Austria on the Kindertransport, was speaking to students at Stockton Sixth Form College on a visit organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Students were able to ask him questions to better understand the nature of the Holocaust.

Rachel Angus, acting Principal of the college, said: “It is a privilege for us to welcome Harry Bibring to college and his testimony will remain a powerful reminder of the horrors so many experienced. We hope that by hearing Harry’s testimony, it will encourage our students to learn from the lessons of the Holocaust and make a positive difference in their own lives.”

Mr Bibring, 87, was arrested along with his family in 1939 and forced to live in a house with 50 other Jewish women and children. The family intended to flee to Shanghai but his father was robbed on his way to buy the tickets.

In November 1940 his father died of a heart attack and his mother was deported to the death camp at Sobibor in Poland in 1942. Mr Bibring and his sister had earlier fled to England on the Kindertransport but were initially separated on their arrival.

In 1945 he met his wife-to-be and was married two years later, having one son. He went on to work for 20 years as a manufacturing engineer and later became a lecturer at Middlesex University. He continues to live in England and has two grandchildren.