FOR 60 years survivor Leslie Kleinman held his silence about the horrors of Auschwitz.

But now, at the age of 85, he has ensured tens of thousands of schoolchildren have heard his harrowing story – and most importantly his message of love, not hate.

In 1944, Mr Kleinman was just 14 years old when he boarded one of the death trains to the Auschwitz- Birkenau Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland.

As a teenager, who had spent his young life growing up in the village of Ombod in Romania, he was judged strong enough to work by the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele – who was known as the Angel of Death.

He had pretended he was 17 years old after being warned by other workers and was told to stand in the queue on the right – a lie which saved his life.

He was separated from his 35-year-old mother Rachel, his sisters Gitta, 15, Olga nine, Shandi, seven and Sarah, five, along with his brothers Herman, 12, Abraham four, and, lastly, little Moses, two.

Out of 60 members of his extended familywho were sent to Auschwitz, Mr Kleinman and only two others survived.

Mr Kleinman, who has pledged to tell the truth to the schoolchildren he meets, explains to the youngsters how his family were pleased to be having a shower after getting out of the filthy train carriage, where they were packed in with 100 other people.

They had no idea the shower block was in reality a gas chamber and they would all be dead before the sun set.

Nor did they know the fate of his 35-year-old father Martin, a rabbi, who had been taken three weeks earlier after being beaten and had his beard shaved off in front of his terrified family.

As he was dragged away, he shouted, “God be with me. I’ll be back.”

He is believed to have died within weeks of being taken.

Somehow Mr Kleinman survived the coming months, but by January 1945, and with the Russian troops on the way, the Nazis were killing 20,000 women and children each day.

As the Russian forces drew closer the remaining survivors were taken on a “death march” through snow-covered forests wearing only pyjamas.

Most, as intended, died along the way, but somehow Mr Kleinman managed to survive by digging beneath the snow for roots and grass. After arriving at Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp near Berlin, and close to death he begged God to save him.

He said: “I closed my eyes and prayed that God would let me live and in return I would go to Jewish college. When I opened them there stood a guard with coffee and bread.”

From there he was sent to Dachau where he was liberated.

The war had ended.

He came to England that same year and was determined to keep his promise.

Seven years ago, Mr Kleinman, of Hamlet Court Road, Westcliff, decided it was time to share his story and since then he has visited 6,000 schools, including some in Germany.

Speaking after a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony, he said: “We should never, never forget the Holocaust.

“I know certain people say it never existed and it is for Hollywood, I heard one of them talk about it on the radio today. I say I wish that were true, believe me, because I would have all my family, but unfortunately the Holocaust was true.

“I tell the truth when I speak. I do everything possible to try to teach these youngsters to be tolerant. We are all the same in the end.”

He celebrates the anniversary of his liberation on April 23, 1945 as his second birthday.

He added: “It is unbelievable that I am still here. They tried to destroy me, they destroyed my whole family.

“We should love and not hate, because hate is not going to get you anywhere.”