Grandchild of the Holocaust

Rene Salt was the only member of her immediate family to survive the Holocaust. In this moving programme she returns to Poland and Germany with her grandson Adrian to tell him for the first time the full story of her past. From the Polish town where she spent a happy childhood, to the horrors of Belsen, she tells the individual story of her suffering in the midst of a world of mass slaughter. Adrian's grandfather also returns to Germany where, as a British soldier, he helped liberate Belsen. This is an emotional journey, modestly recounted by a seemingly ordinary family.

Auschwitz (also called Auschwitz-Birkenau), located in southern Poland, was a prison camp, an extermination camp and a slave labour camp. Upon arrival, young and able-bodied prisoners were sent to the slave labour camp. The rest went directly to the gas chambers, unless chosen for medical experiments. This process was known as 'Selektion'. The prison camp housed political prisoners. In addition to people of Jewish origin, other inmates included homosexuals and Roma (Gypsies). Some 83,000 Poles were killed or died at Auschwitz.