Letter: Neglected victims of the Holocaust

Sir: As a child survivor of Belsen concentration camp, I fully endorse the points raised in the letter "Use Nazi gold to ease plight of survivors" (1 October).

The youngest living child survivor of Belsen I know personally will be 54 years old this month, the youngest hidden child survivor of the Holocaust from Holland that I know personally is a mere 53. Both, I am confident, have many more years to live with the trauma of their experiences and the loss of beloved parents, friends and relatives.

We are, indeed, a neglected group. In the immediate postwar years it was felt that we were too young to have suffered, and that we would soon recover from our experiences.

Time has proved this heartless view not to be true. With the process of ageing, and the gradual natural demise of the few surviving relatives we still had after the war, the trauma of our experiences has been reinforced.

Let action be taken now to provide the means by which we might gain the respite so earnestly sought by all of us who still suffer daily from the consequences of the Holocaust.

JACK SANTCROSS

Wembley Park, Middlesex