Each time Ben Helfgott revisits Piotrkow, a town in Poland 26 miles away from Lodz, where he grew up, he notices how little the physical features of the town have changed even though the community he lived in was cruelly and systematically destroyed. As he walks through familiar streets he carries with him memories of special people – his parents, youngest sister, other members of his extended family and childhood playmates, all murdered by the Nazis. In Piotrkow, he feels especially close to those unjustly robbed of life. Today he works hard to ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten and its lessons learned.

Ben was almost ten at the start of the Second World War. Growing up in a happy home, with his parents and two sisters and with other members of his family in the neighbourhood, he was aware war was looming. A perceptive and intelligent child, he could sense that adults were worried about the future and he felt apprehensive too as people listened to and spoke about news coming through on the radio. Jewish people, who had left Poland for a new life in Germany, returned to the town telling of how Jews were being driven out as the power of the Nazis took hold. As early as 1935 Ben’s parents were worried about the future of their family and prepared to leave Poland. They obtained permits to travel to Palestine to begin a new life. However Ben’s grandmother did not want them to go. She thought they should stay in Poland rather than face an uncertain future in a distant land…

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