I was a teenager at Auschwitz

Holocaust survivor Dita Kraus is now 90 years old, but she was only 14 when she was taken to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in Poland. She worked in the children’s hut and she’s now known as the ‘librarian of Auschwitz’. Dita remembers being desperately hungry and cold, but along with her mother she survived her time there. After coming face to face with SS doctor Josef Mengele they were sent to Bergen-Belsen, another concentration camp, where she saw many people starving to death. Eventually the British army liberated the camp and they were freed, but Dita’s trials were not over. She tells Emily Webb her remarkable story. Dita has written a book about her experience called ‘A Delayed Life: The true story of the Librarian of Auschwitz’.

Presenter: Emily Webb Producer: June Christie

Photo: Dita Kraus Credit: Courtesy of Dita Kraus