A SURVIVOR of the Holocaust has been talking to students in North Yorkshire about his harrowing personal tale of Nazi persecution.

Ninety-year-old Harry Bibring recounted a moving story of bigotry, violence and injustice against the Jewish people as he grew up in Vienna during the Second World War.

He told students at Richmond School and Sixth Form College how the population of 175,000 Jews in the city in 1925 was reduced to just 300 in hiding as Hitler’s fascists tightened their grip.

In the 1930s he enjoyed an idyllic lifestyle and attended a good school, enjoyed swimming and ice-skating and life with his father Michael, mother Lea and sister Gertie.

Then in 1938 Hitler annexed Austria and he was turned away from the skating rink, swimming pool, and cinema because he was Jewish. He was also expelled from his school and sent to another where Jewish children had to sit on the floor while the rest of the class had chairs.

Things became so bad that his parents managed to get him and his sister on “kindertransport” which took Jewish children to safety in England. Mr Bibring never saw his parents again.

Religious studies teacher Kate Craven said: “It has been an absolute privilege to hear Mr Bibring’s personal experiences of such a dark period of history and I am sure our students will have long and lasting memories.”