Olga Horak

Olga was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia in 1926. She and her family went into hiding, but were betrayed and herded into cattle cars to Auschwitz. Olga’s father and grandmother were sent to the gas chambers to die. Olga, 17 and her mother were stripped, shaven and tattooed, beginning many years of suffering. They were on the death march to Dresden, and then Bergen-Belsen. Suffering from typhus and diphtheria, they miraculously survived and were liberated on 15 April 1945. The day after liberation, Olga’s mother collapsed and died, leaving Olga alone in the world. Olga’s book is entitled From Auschwitz to Australia.