INSPIRATIONAL holocaust survivor Zigi Shipper spoke passionately to over 100 year nine students at Abbeyfield School on Friday.

Mr Shipper, a Polish Jew born in 1930, captivated his young audience for over an hour with his story of life in Poland and Germany during the Second World War.

The 86-year-old, who has previously spoken to Prime Minister David Cameron and the England football team, is part of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

The trust aims to educate young people from every background about the Holocaust and the important lessons to be learned for today.

Mr Shipper said: “Every time I go to a school, people approach me and say, why do you still do it?

“There are many reasons why holocaust survivors still do it, because we want young people like you to know what happened from 1939 to 1945.

“Unfortunately Holocaust survivors, when they first came to this country, we never wanted to talk about it because who was going to believe us? Amongst ourselves we spoke but not even with own families and we should have done.

“You’re the most important people on the Earth, you can change things. We can’t do anything about the past but we can about the future, I want young people to talk about it.”

Mr Shipper told how he was moved to various concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, before being marched to Neustadt when the Nazis were defeated during a British air attack.

He arrived in the UK in 1947, where he married and has two daughters, six grandchildren and a great grandson.

Abbeyfield head teacher, Ian Tucker, said: “My head of humanities organised the visit for year 9 and 10 who are studying holocaust as part of philosophy and ethics and history.

“I hope they are made to think, that we have learned from history. Learning from a real source to get all the context, it brings it alive for them and that it’s still something we are thinking about today.”

Chippenham MP Michelle Donelan, who recently signed the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Book of Commitment, also attended the visit.

She said: “Meeting Zigi Shipper was first and foremost an extreme honour, his words and advice were deeply moving and the efforts he makes to ensure we never forget such an atrocity should be endlessly commended.”