A HOLOCAUST survivor visited a Clacks school this week to meet pupils and give an emotional talk about her horrendous experience at the hands of Nazis.

Mala Tribich MBE attended Lornshill Academy on Monday where she met with pupils who have started studying World War II in their history class.

The 88-year-old arrived in Edinburgh on Sunday from London ready to share her experiences with dozens of second year students who were fortunate to have a rare opportunity to meet a Holocaust survivor.

For Mala, these talks are hugely important so that the horrific atrocities are not forgotten by the next generation.

She told the Advertiser: “It means I am perpetuating the memory of the voices of the people who have been silenced. It means that hopefully they will not be forgotten.”

Mala has been sharing her experience in this form for a number of years, although it took a while for it to get off the ground.

She said: “It was a gradual process. Originally, just after the war, there wasn’t that much interest, and there wasn’t that much time, people were trying to reorganise their own life after the war.

“That wasn’t the time to talk, but eventually when the right time came, and the interest was awakened in people, then when it went on to the curriculum in schools, that’s when the demand became really large.

“Now it is difficult to keep it up because there aren’t many survivors around and people want to know.”

With so few survivors remaining, Mala feels an obligation to continue her work, especially as there will soon be a time when she is unable to deliver talks.

The Polish woman continued: “It is more important [now] because otherwise we won’t reach a lot of people, the less survivors means the less people we reach. It means more effort on the ones who are around, but I think it is very important and also to learn from it.

“It’s an illustration of what can happen when a society breaks down and there is racism and discrimination. It is very important for people to know about.”

Although the well-travelled and hugely respected survivor has been sharing her story for years, she says that it is still as hard to talk about.

“No, it doesn’t [get easier]," she admitted. "It is very emotional.

"There are two aspects really. First of all, the survivor population is very aged now and this requires a lot of physical effort on top of the mental effort and the emotional effort. So, it doesn’t get any easier, but I am lucky in that I can still do it physically.

“And secondly, for emotions, I can control my emotions because otherwise I just wouldn’t do it.”

Mala was born in Piotrkow, Poland, in 1930, but fled when she was just nine-years-old when the Nazis invaded.

Her family moved into the first ever ghetto in Poland.