Holocaust survivor recalls ‘best day of her life’ on 75th anniversary of Bergen-Belsen liberation

Mady Gerrard was saved in 1945 when Lieutenant John Randall discovered the concentration camp during a reconnaissance mission

A holocaust survivor recalled “the best day of her life” 75 years on after a British soldier helped to liberate the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Mady Gerrard, 90, described the “impossible to imagine” conditions in the camp, where more than 50,000 prisoners suffered from disease, starvation, neglect and torture.

Lieutenant John Randall on 15 April discovered the camp during a reconnaissance mission.

Initially taken to Auschwitz from her home country of Hungary in July 1944 as a 14-year-old, Mrs Gerrard would later become friends with Lt Randall and now keeps a picture of him at her home.

“I saw a man in uniform, he came to our door and opened it. It was full of girls like me, the same age and size – skeletons, most sat on the floor unable to stand,” Ms Gerrard told the Press Association.

She said she had arrived at Bergen-Belsen in January after being forced to walk in freezing conditions for 10 days.

Holocaust survivor Mady Gerrard with her picture of Lieutenant John Randall (PA)

“I later found out it was John Randall. He couldn’t believe what he saw. We spoke to him in German, saying we couldn’t speak English but we were terribly grateful.

“We knew it was liberation, and we thought it was wonderful, because we knew we only had a few days left to live.

“It must’ve been the best day of my life. The conditions were impossible to imagine, to be there, I don’t wish it on anybody.”

Ms Gerrard was then transferred to the town of Belsen, before later recovering in Sweden. After returning to Hungary as a 16-year-old, she got married and had a daughter before divorcing and illegally fleeing the country with her child once the revolution broke out.

It was then that she made Cardiff her home, gaining British citizenship five years later while gaining acclaim as a fashion designer, specialising in crocheted and painted silk garments. Her career led to a period living in New York before returning to settle in Wales, which she refers to as “the most decent country in the world.”

It was 60 years after their chance encounter that Ms Gerrard noticed Lt Randall in a Sunday Telegraph article, which prompted her to contact the newspaper and hastily organise a meeting in London.

The pair would become “very good friends for 11 years” until Lt Randall died in 2016.

“He was a friend, but he was also my hero,” she added. ”I was lucky it was him and not anyone else who walked through the gates, and the fact I found him all those years later makes the story even more remarkable.

“If he hadn’t have come in, more of us would’ve died. I think about him. I miss him terribly.”​