Pupils at an east Belfast school got the chance this week to hear first-hand the experiences of the German concentration camps.

Holocaust survivor Zigi Shipper addressed Grosvenor Grammar School pupils as part of the Holocaust Educational Trust’s education programme.

The Think Equal project lets pupils aged 13 and 14 explore the dangers of prejudice, racism and intolerance through workshops. It targets areas where racial tension is on the increase.

Given recent race attacks in south Belfast, Mr Shipper believes educating young people about the results of the Holocaust is essential in promoting understanding.

“I want to show them what hatred can do. They are the most important people — they are our future,” he said.

Mr Shipper was sent to the Lodz ghetto in Poland in 1940 with his grandparents. After the ghetto's liquidation in 1944, he was sent to Auschwitz and then to Danzig.

After being sent on a death march by the Nazis, he was liberated by the British in the German town of Neustadt in 1945.

Sharing his experiences is important to him. “I feel I owe it to the people who didn't survive to tell the story of what can happen if we become bystanders,” he said.