YESTERDAY, The Northern Echo told the story of Toni Zwaak, the North-East grandmother who survived the horrors of the Belsen concentration camp 60 years ago.

We know from the response we have had how much her account moved our readers, reducing some to tears.

As a girl of 14, Toni was forced to endure unimaginable torture, including being raped by gangs of soldiers.

Now settled in Darlington and aged 79, Toni's courage in telling her story was inspirational.

Today, we tell another story of Belsen. It is a story which 86-year-old Charles Hall, who lives in Hartlepool, has found hard to talk about for many years.

Charles was a member of the 113th anti-aircraft regiment of the Royal Artillery involved in the liberation of the camp where 70,000 lost their lives.

"When I came home I didn't want to talk about it," he says. "I tried to put it out of my mind."

Sixty years after the liberation of Belsen and the end of the war, what is important now is that the horror is not put out of our minds; that it is never forgotten; that future generations understand what happened.

That is why we so loudly applaud Toni Zwaak and Charles Hall for telling their stories.