Auschwitz Survivor: "I’d Rather Shake Hands with an SS Guard Than a Holocaust Denier"
As the world marks the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation, Holocaust survivor Ivor Perl has shared a powerful and emotional reflection on his harrowing past and the lessons he carries with him today.


In an interview with Metro News, Perl revealed that he would rather "shake the hand of an SS man who was my guard at Auschwitz" than engage with a Holocaust denier. His words shed light on the enduring trauma of the Holocaust and the deep-seated hatred that continues to impact the world.
Perl's story began in the late 1930s in Mako, a small town in southeastern Hungary, where, as a young child, he was already subjected to antisemitic abuse. Jewish children like him were routinely taunted, pelted with rocks, and called slurs such as “Dirty Jew” by their peers. However, these early experiences would pale in comparison to the horrors he would face as a teenager.
At just 12 years old, Perl was taken from his home and forced into Hungary’s ghettos, and later transported to the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Of his nine siblings, he and one brother were the only survivors after enduring the horrors of the gas chambers.
Perl vividly recalls one life-altering moment when he was selected by an SS officer while at Auschwitz. “You could see a German officer with white gloves pointing left and right,” Perl recounts. When the officer approached him, Perl, fearing for his life, lied about his age, claiming to be 16, even though he was much younger. The officer’s brief hesitation and sharp gaze were enough to reveal that he knew Perl wasn’t telling the truth, but he allowed him to survive, directing him to the right – the side that meant life rather than death.
That officer, Perl would later learn, was none other than the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele, infamous for his cruel experiments on prisoners.
For over five decades, Perl kept his traumatic experiences locked away, only revealing his story to his wife and children. It wasn’t until 1995, during a VE Day commemoration, that he began sharing his memories publicly. Despite the horrific events he lived through, Perl remains resolute in his belief that hatred only perpetuates suffering.
"Hatred is a vicious cycle," Perl says. "It damages both the hater and the hated equally." As the world faces growing political and social tensions, he warns that while the Holocaust may not repeat itself in the same way, the seeds of hatred remain, always threatening to surface under a new guise.
At 93 years old, Ivor Perl remains one of the last living witnesses to the atrocities of the Holocaust, carrying with him a message of hope, resilience, and the importance of preventing future generations from forgetting the lessons of history.
Jewish breaking news contributed to this article.