Auschwitz survivors tell their story 70 years later

Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Sam Pivnik, aged 88, poses in his home in London, United Kingdom.

At aged 14 Sam Pivnik and his family were forced marched to Auschwitz by the Nazis, along with his father and mother, sisters Chana and Handel and younger brothers Meir, Wolf and Josef, who were all murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz Birkenau.

Auschwitz was a network of concentration camps built and operated in occupied Poland by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Auschwitz I and nearby Auschwitz II-Birkenau was the extermination camp where an estimated 1.1 million people, mostly Jews from across Europe, were killed in gas chambers or from systematic starvation, forced labor, disease and medical experiments.

Ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the infamous concentration camp took place on January 27, 2015.

Eva Behar

Auschwitz and Belsen concentration camp survivor Eva Behar shows her number tattoo in her home in London, United Kingdom.

As the Russians approached Poland the Nazis saw the end of the war coming and Eva was sent from Auschwitz to Bergen on 1st January 1945 where she was eventually liberated by the British.

Alexander Riseman

Alexander Riseman, aged 88, poses in his home in London, United Kingdom.

Alexander and his family were sent to Aushwitz from his home in Poland as a child and eventually liberated by the Russian forces.

Josef Perl

Josef Perl, aged 84, poses in his home in London, United Kingdom.

Josef Perl was imprisoned in Auschwitz, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Gross-Rosen, Balkenhain, Hirschberg and Buchenwald concentration camps. He has spent twenty years of his life educating people of the horrors and the lessons to be learnt from the holocaust.

Susan Pollock

Susan Pollock, aged 84, poses in her home in London, United Kingdom.

Susan was transported from her home in Hungary to Auschwitz where her mother was immediately taken from her and sent to the gas chambers. Susan was subject to hard slave labor until she was eventually forced to walk to Belsen in the bitterly cold winter and later liberated by British forces.

Jadwiga Bogucka

Auschwitz death camp survivor Jadwiga Bogucka (maiden name Regulska), 89, who was registered with camp number 86356, poses for a portrait in Warsaw, Poland.

During the Warsaw Uprising in August, 1944, when Bogucka was 19, she and her mother were sent from their house to a camp in Pruszkow and then moved on August 12, 1944 by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. They were liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945.

Jadwiga Bogucka

Survivor Jadwiga Bogucka holds a picture of herself from 1944.

Stefan Sot

Auschwitz death camp survivor Stefan Sot, 83, who was registered with camp number 192705, poses for a portrait in Warsaw, Poland

Sot was 13-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, when he was sent from his home to a camp in Pruszkow prior to being sent by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. He was later moved to a labor sub-camp, where he worked in a kitchen for S.S. officers. After the war he worked as a typesetter at a printing house.

Stefan Sot

Auschwitz death camp survivor Stefan Sot, 83, who was registered with camp number 192705, holds a picture of himself taken during the war.

Sot was 13-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, when he was sent from his home to a camp in Pruszkow prior to being transported by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. He was later moved to a labor sub-camp, where he worked in a kitchen for S.S. officers. After the war he worked as a typesetter at a printing house.

Marian Majerowicz

Survivor Marian Majerowicz, 88, poses for a portrait in Warsaw. Originally from Myszkow, Majerowicz was 17 when he was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. At the camp he was briefly reunited with his father, who told him that his mother and younger brother were both killed in the gas chambers. Majerowicz's father didn't survive the war.

About 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, were killed at the Nazi camp which has became a symbol of the horrors of the Holocaust and World War Two, which ravaged Europe. The camp was liberated by Soviet Red Army troops on January 27, 1945 and about 200,000 camp inmates survived.

Elzbieta Sobczynska

Auschwitz death camp survivor Elzbieta Sobczynska (maiden name Gremblicka), 80, who was registered with camp number 85536, gestures as she poses for a portrait in Warsaw.

During the Warsaw Uprising, when Sobczynska was 10-years-old, she was sent with her mother and brother from their home to a camp in Pruszkow and then moved by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. There they were separated into blocks for woman, girls and boys. Sobczynska said that she was robbed of her childhood, and lost the chance to experience a different kind of life.

Elzbieta Sobczynska

Auschwitz death camp survivor Elzbieta Sobczynska (maiden name Gremblicka), 80, holds her father's watch, which was kept by her brother while they were in the camp.

Halina Brzozowska

Auschwitz death camp survivor Halina Brzozowska, 82, who was registered with camp number 86356, poses for a portrait in Warsaw, January 12, 2015.

Brzozowska was 12-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising when her family were sent to a camp in Pruszkow, she and her 6-year-old sister were then moved by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Brzozowska said that it was hard to say what had happened to them, that they were taken from their homes, family and lost their childhood.

Halina Brzozowska

Auschwitz death camp survivor Halina Brzozowska, 82, holds a picture of herself which was taken during the war.

Brzozowska was 12-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising when her family were sent to a camp in Pruszkow. She and her 6-year-old sister were then moved by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Brzozowska said that it was hard to say what had happened to them, that they were taken from their homes, family and lost their childhood.

Bogdan Bartnikowski

Bogdan Bartnikowski, 82, who was registered with camp number 192731, poses for a portrait in Warsaw.

Bartnikowski was 12-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising, when he and his mother were sent to Auschwitz Birkenau camp. They were moved between camps several times. After the war Bartnikowski worked as a pilot and then became a journalist and writer.

Bogdan Bartnikowski

Auschwitz death camp survivor Bogdan Bartnikowski, 82, who was registered with camp number 192731, holds a family photograph.

Bartnikowski was 12-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising, when he and his mother were sent to Auschwitz Birkenau camp.

Henryk Duszyk

Auschwitz death camp survivor Henryk Duszyk, 80, poses for a portrait in Warsaw, January 12, 2015.

Duszyk was 10-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising in August, 1944. He was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau with his father, brother and stepmother. The family were separated and Duszyk only saw his father once more before he was killed at the camp.

Duszyk, his brother and stepmother were kept at Auschwitz-Birkenau until the camp was liberated.

Janina Reklajtis

Auschwitz death camp survivor Janina Reklajtis, 80, who was registered with camp number 83043, holds a photo of herself taken during the war.

Reklajtis was 12-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising when she and her mother were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. They were sent to a labor camp in Berlin in January 1945 and were kept there until they were liberated.

Danuta Bogdaniuk-Bogucka

Auschwitz death camp survivor Danuta Bogdaniuk-Bogucka (maiden name Kaminska), 80, poses for a portrait in Warsaw January 5, 2015.

Bogdaniuk-Bogucka was 10-years-old when she was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp with her mother. Bogdaniuk-Bogucka was part of Josef Mengele's experiments when she was in Auschwitz. After the war she met her mother again and they discovered they had both been at Ravensbruck camp at the same time, but they had not realized this.

Jacek Nadolny

Auschwitz death Camp survivor Jacek Nadolny, 77, poses for a portrait in Warsaw January 7, 2015.

Nadolny was seven during the Warsaw Uprising, when he was sent with his family to Auschwitz-Birkenau by train. In January 1945 the family was moved to a labor camp in Berlin.

Jacek Nadolny

Auschwitz death camp survivor Jacek Nadolny, 77, who was registered with camp number 192685, holds up a wartime photo of his family.

Jerzy Ulatowski

Auschwitz death camp survivor Jerzy Ulatowski, 83, who was registered with camp number 192823, poses for a photo in Warsaw, January 12, 2015.

Ulatowski was taken by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau when he was 13-years-old. In January 1945 he managed to escape with his family through an un-electrified barbed wire fence surrounding the camp.

Zofia Wareluk

Auschwitz death camp survivor Zofia Wareluk, 70, poses for a portrait in Warsaw January 12, 2015.

Wareluk was born in Auschwitz two weeks before the camp was liberated. Her mother was sent to Auschwitz when she was four months pregnant.

Barbara Doniecka

Auschwitz death camp survivor Barbara Doniecka, 80, who was registered with camp number 86341, poses for a photo in Warsaw.

Doniecka was 12-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising when she was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau with her mother.

Barbara Doniecka

Auschwitz death camp survivor Barbara Doniecka, 80, who was registered with camp number 86341, holds up wartime photo of herself, as she poses for a photograph in Warsaw, Poland, January 12, 2015.

Doniecka was 12-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising when she was sent to Pruszkow camp. She was then sent by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Maria Stroinska

Auschwitz death camp survivor Maria Stroinska, 82, gestures as she poses for a portrait in Warsaw, Poland, January 12, 2015.

Stroinska was 12-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising when she and her sister were sent from their house to a camp in Pruszkow before she was moved alone by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Maria Stroinska

Auschwitz death camp survivor Maria Stroinska, 82, holds a family photo taken before the war.

Stroinska was 12-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising when she and her sister were sent from their house to a camp in Pruszkow before she was moved alone by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau.