AN EMOTIONAL tale of survival was heard by students at Sherfield School as they learnt what life was like during World War Two.

Holocaust survivor Walter Kammerling visited the school to tell his account of what it was like to be forced out of Germany by the Nazis.

Mr Kammerling told his silent audience how when he was just 14-years-old he was chased down the street by members of the SS as he was on his way to school.

He said: “Going to school was like running a gauntlet.

“We needed to be as invisible as possible. “As the months went on the Jewish and non-Jewish children were separated in the classes, and by the summer we were told our school would no longer be educating the Jewish children.”

The 94-year-old told how in 1946 he returned to his childhood home and was frightened to enter the room he once called his.

After discovering that his mother, father and one of his sisters had all died in Auschwitz, Mr Kammerling visited the concentration camp.

He added: “I knew what had happened to them, but to see the reality of it, it gives you a very different feeling being there.

“I felt like I had to go there because I know that is where my family ended up.”

This incredible insight for the students was made possible at the independent school thanks to students Jasper Morgan and Caitlin Noble of the school’s Lessons from Auschwitz project.

The two 16-year-olds both visited Auschwitz and felt compelled to share their experience and that of those who witnessed the holocaust first hand.

Caitlin told The Gazette: “I found it quite hard to deal with what I experienced at Auschwitz, but I realised we need to keep what happened relevant and continue to tell people Walter’s story."

Jasper added: “It is now our role as ambassadors to spread the word and make sure something like this never happens again.”

At the end of the talk Mr Kammerling was presented with a badge from the Jewish committee for her majesty’s forces for his dedication of spreading his experience of the holocaust.