Decades after he lost his entire family in Auschwitz, an 86-year-old Toronto man continues to honour his father's dying wish to "tell the world what happened here."
Max Eisen was just 15-years-old when he was deported from Hungary and taken to the Nazi death camp. He says memories from that horrible place where his family was sent to the gas chambers still haunt him.
"You were no longer a human being. You were only a number. Their aim was to grind us away, body and soul," Eisen told CTV Toronto Tuesday, on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. "I live with this and I can never forget."
More than a million people were killed in Auschwitz, which later became a symbol of the horrors committed by the Nazis during the Second World War. Six million Jews were systematically killed in the Holocaust.
Eisen, who is now a father, grandfather and great-grandfather, has since returned to Auschwitz. During a March of the Living educational trip 10 years ago, Eisen walked past the place he once said goodbye to his father.
"My father gave me a blessing and told me that if I ever survive I must tell the world what happened here," he said.
Eisen has honoured his father's dying wish. He continues to share his story, hoping to end hatred and anti-Semitism.
"It was truly a miracle that any one of us survived."
With a report from CTV Toronto's Naomi Parness
