‘We thought we had entered hell’: Holocaust survivor Mindu Hornick gives talk to Warwick students

Holocaust survivor Mindu Hornick MBE returned to Warwick University on Tuesday for a talk and Q&A attended by over 400 students.

The talk, organised by the University’s Jewish Society (JSoc), took place in the Ramphal Building (unlike last year’s Arts Centre-set event), and saw the 95-year-old retrace her memories of the Holocaust and the post-war years.

Introducing the talk, University Vice-Chancellor Stuart Croft reflected on his own memories of visiting the Nazi camps. When you set foot there, he said, “you see, you feel, you absolutely understand where uncontrolled hatred can take humanity.”

He also told students: “We all need to stand for the change.”

Listening to Hornick’s words, The Boar gained a similarly shocking understanding of the horrors experienced by the Jews of Europe and other persecuted groups.

I believe that education […] is the key to denouncing hatred wherever we encounter it. You must become the generation to carry this [lesson] into the future

Mindu Hornick MBE, Holocaust survivor

Hornick, supported by Ruth Jacobs, the founder of West Midlands Friends of Israel, began by highlighting the theme of Holocaust Memorial Day 2025: “to strive for a better future”. 

“I believe that education”, she said, “especially for children, is the key to denouncing hatred wherever we encounter it. You must become the generation to carry this [lesson] into the future.”

Hornick called on Warwick students to “challenge those who distort or deny the past” and to condemn antisemitism wherever it arises. “We all see what is happening, and we fail to spot it.”

Recounting her experiences, Hornick told students how she and her family were torn from their small Jewish community in Czechoslovakia, “rounded up like cattle”, and sent to a ghetto. Of her eventual arrival at Auschwitz–Birkenau, she recalled how “flames were bellowing from the chimneys, but, above all, there was a very strange smell”.

There is no language that can adequately expound Auschwitz

Mindu Hornick MBE

She further described seeing “corpses everywhere” and “watchtowers with soldiers armed with machine guns”. 

“There is no language that can adequately expound Auschwitz,” Hornick said. “There was not a blade of grass in sight, and we thought we had entered hell. The sight will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

Once in the death camp, Hornick and her sister, Eva, were among 500 girls and women selected for slave labour.

“At the end there were only 340 of us,” she recalled. 

Her memories of camp life were vivid, with 4am mornings followed by gruelling labour, all whilst living off 200 calories a day. Consuming turnip soup and bread left her “always hungry and cold”. 

She would later find that the food contained chemicals intended to progressively slow the prisoners’ bodily functions.

I am always asked, ‘how did you survive?’ […] And my answer is always the same – sheer luck and a hundred miracles

Mindu Hornick MBE

Turning to her encounters with the infamous Dr Josef Mengele – the SS physician nicknamed the ‘Angel of Death’ – Hornick remembered seeing him walk up and down the lines of prisoners. If he waved his white glove at an individual, that prisoner would “have to step out and we would never see these people again”. 

Other notable incidents in her story involved being sent to work in a munitions factory after eight months in Auschwitz, and later boarding another train when the Nazis began their retreat: “As per usual, we did not know our destination.” 

Not long after, she was liberated, with the “British medical corps […] absolutely shocked as to the state of us”.

“I am always asked, ‘how did you survive?’,” Hornick remarked. “And my answer is always the same – sheer luck and a hundred miracles.” 

What you see before you is a very resilient woman, somebody of such strength who is full of the most indomitable courage

Ruth Jacobs, founder, West Midlands Friends of Israel

Hornick and her sister were the two youngest survivors of their family. They spent three years in Prague but would later be separated on moving to England – a moment she described as “very hard”. 

But despite her liberation, Hornick told students that “liberation goes on for years and years”.

Talking about her changed post-war life, Hornick became visibly upset and was for a few moments unable to speak.

Her companion, Ruth Jacobs, stepped in, telling the audience: “What you see before you is a very resilient woman, somebody of such strength who is full of the most indomitable courage.” 

Jacobs also emphasised the sheer number of Holocaust talks Hornick has given in the past few weeks, as one of the West Midlands’ last living survivors.

We survivors have come forward in our advanced years as credible witnesses to the atrocities of the Nazi regime. We came forward because people just did not believe

Mindu Hornick MBE

After relocating to the West Midlands, Hornick stayed with family members in Birmingham. However, she was unable to talk about her experiences for 40 years. 

Following the deaths of many other Holocaust survivors in the area, she was persuaded by those around her to speak out about what she witnessed and endured.

Explaining why she broke her silence, Hornick said: “We survivors have come forward in our advanced years as credible witnesses to the atrocities of the Nazi regime. We came forward because people just did not believe.”

Another difficult decision Hornick made was to finally revisit Auschwitz decades later. She remembered it being “very, very traumatic”, reminding her “how lucky I was to come out of it”. 

The Boar was able to ask Hornick about the importance of having a community of fellow survivors in the years since the war.

Responding, she touched on her involvement with the Association of Jewish Refugees, through which she is able to “keep in touch all the time with survivors”. They meet up every six weeks, she said, multiple generations all convening as part of an extended survivor family.

With the Q&A finished, an extremely moved audience gave Hornick a long standing ovation, although not before Hornick delivered a crucial parting message to Warwick students, asking for “tolerance, acceptance and [not to] be a bystander”. Above all, she said, “don’t hate, because hatred has catastrophic consequences”.

In a context of rising Holocaust denial, distortion and simple ignorance, the necessity of Holocaust education only grows. We are glad that so many students experienced the privilege of hearing from Mindu, and thank her for her tireless and courageous work

Warwick JSoc

In a statement to The Boar, Warwick JSoc said: “It was an honour to host Mindu Hornick MBE this week to speak to 400 students to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. This year is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz–Birkenau concentration camp, making Mindu’s visit all the more important.

“In a context of rising Holocaust denial, distortion and simple ignorance, the necessity of Holocaust education only grows. We are glad that so many students experienced the privilege of hearing from Mindu, and thank her for her tireless and courageous work.”

Alongside Hornick’s talk, JSoc also commemorated Holocaust Memorial Week with a candle lighting vigil on Monday, and collaborated with Warwick Student Cinema to screen the film Son of Saul on Wednesday.