A vivid account of the horrors faced during the Second World War was the subject of a gripping talk at Monifieth High School by Holocaust survivor Harry Bibring.
The Austrian national, who now lives in Hertfordshire, gave a candid recollection of the harrowing brutality and oppression he, his family and millions of others were subjected to under the Nazi regime.
A large crowd turned out at the school hall, among them were family members of pupils eager to hear a first-hand account of one of the darkest periods in human history.
Mr Bibring (85) was born in 1925 in the Austrian capital, Vienna only eight years before Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. In 1938, after the annexation of his homeland, the teenager was forced to leave his grammar school and attend a school for Jewish children.
As the Nazi grip on mainland Europe tightened, the family planned to flee to Shanghai but this was thwarted after Mr Bibring’s father was robbed on his way to buy the tickets.
Fearing for the safety of their children, Mr Bibring’s parents decided he and his sister Gerta should leave for the UK and stay with a family friend who would be their sponsor.
But tragedy followed towards the end of 1940 when Mr Bibring’s father died of a heart attack. Then, in 1942, his mother was deported to the Sobibor death camp.
Mr Bibring and his sister arrived in England where their sponsor, Mr Landsman, greeted and offered to shelter them. But there was no room for Harry and the siblings were separated.
History teacher Laura McLean, one of the organisers behind the event, said it was a great opportunity for pupils to hear a first-hand account of the Second World War.