Gathered with his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Zigi Shipper celebrates a 90th birthday that represents the ultimate triumph over his Auschwitz abusers. At a jubilant party this weekend, the Holocaust survivor toasted a milestone that he could never have dreamt was possible when he was sent to the concentration camps. Zigi, who became a great-grandfather for the fourth time last week, is the pivotal figure at the heart of a family whose very existence is proof the Nazis’ despicable mass extermination programme was defeated. Seventy-five years after the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, Zigi, of Bushey, Herts, is one of a dwindling number of British Jews who can testify to the horrors perpetrated within its barbed wire fences. As world leaders prepare for a symbolic ceremony there next Monday, this extraordinary survivor just keeps going. He speaks about his experiences as if they happened yesterday, to make sure no one ever forgets. “Today telling people what happened in Auschwitz and the other camps is more important than ever,” says Zigi, originally from Lodz, Poland. “We must never give up. There are now so few of us left, so we must talk, talk, talk, for as long as we can. “My message is always the same. I always say to people I meet, ‘Why do you hate? Why does anyone hate?’ Hate is the worst thing that can happen to you. “It is terrible that there is still racism today. I cannot believe it is still happening. People say a certain group of people is not good, but to me everybody is the same. “Should you hate someone because they have a different skin colour to you? No! If you cut yourself it’s the same colour of blood as anyone else. “That is why I have never given up speaking to children and adults across Britain.” I meet Zigi at the home he shares with wife Jeanette, whom he met in London in 1949. Forced to be prisoner 84303 when he was sent to Auschwitz as a 14-year-old, Zigi possesses amazing energy for a man of his age. This spirit can be traced back to the war, and his experiences at Auschwitz and another concentration camp, Stutthof. He remembers his experiences so vividly that When Prince William and Kate visited the latter in 2017 during a tour of Poland and Germany, Zigi was one of their guides. Today he is on the list of plaintiffs in the trial of a 93-year-old former concentration camp guard accused of complicity in at least 5,230 murders in his time as a watchman at Stutthof. It is another battle that he has no intention of giving up on. As a child Zigi lived with his father and paternal grandparents. His parents were divorced. The childhood he describes as “comfortable” was turned upside down when the Second World War broke out in 1939. Three days later he awoke to see his father standing over his bed to tell him the Germans were coming and that he had to leave. Like many Jews, his father mistakenly believed the Nazis would not harm women and children. Zigi would nev
Auschwitz survivor's ultimate victory over abusers on his 90th birthday
Gathered with his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Zigi Shipper celebrates a 90th birthday that represents the ultimate triumph over his Auschwitz abusers. At a jubilant party this weekend, the Holocaust survivor toasted a milestone that he could never have dreamt was possible when he was sent to the concentration camps. Zigi, who became a great-grandfather for the fourth time last week, is the pivotal figure at the heart of a family whose very existence is proof the Nazis’ despicable mass extermination programme was defeated. Seventy-five years after the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, Zigi, of Bushey, Herts, is one of a dwindling number of British Jews who can testify to the horrors perpetrated within its barbed wire fences. As world leaders prepare for a symbolic ceremony there next Monday, this extraordinary survivor just keeps going. He speaks about his experiences as if they happened yesterday, to make sure no one ever forgets. “Today telling people what happened in Auschwitz and the other camps is more important than ever,” says Zigi, originally from Lodz, Poland. “We must never give up. There are now so few of us left, so we must talk, talk, talk, for as long as we can. “My message is always the same. I always say to people I meet, ‘Why do you hate? Why does anyone hate?’ Hate is the worst thing that can happen to you. “It is terrible that there is still racism today. I cannot believe it is still happening. People say a certain group of people is not good, but to me everybody is the same. “Should you hate someone because they have a different skin colour to you? No! If you cut yourself it’s the same colour of blood as anyone else. “That is why I have never given up speaking to children and adults across Britain.” I meet Zigi at the home he shares with wife Jeanette, whom he met in London in 1949. Forced to be prisoner 84303 when he was sent to Auschwitz as a 14-year-old, Zigi possesses amazing energy for a man of his age. This spirit can be traced back to the war, and his experiences at Auschwitz and another concentration camp, Stutthof. He remembers his experiences so vividly that When Prince William and Kate visited the latter in 2017 during a tour of Poland and Germany, Zigi was one of their guides. Today he is on the list of plaintiffs in the trial of a 93-year-old former concentration camp guard accused of complicity in at least 5,230 murders in his time as a watchman at Stutthof. It is another battle that he has no intention of giving up on. As a child Zigi lived with his father and paternal grandparents. His parents were divorced. The childhood he describes as “comfortable” was turned upside down when the Second World War broke out in 1939. Three days later he awoke to see his father standing over his bed to tell him the Germans were coming and that he had to leave. Like many Jews, his father mistakenly believed the Nazis would not harm women and children. Zigi would nev
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