A MAN who spent time in a Nazi camp during the Second World War returns to Wirral next week to share his story during a special event for Holocaust Memorial day.

Rudi Oppenheimer will talk about his wartime experiences at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton on Monday, February 2.

More than 650 students of history, religious education, and citizenship from secondary schools across Wirral will travel to the venue for the presentation, which will be opened by mayor, Cllr Steve Foulkes.

As well as hearing from Rudi, there will also be a talk from Prenton Girls' School on their recent visit to Auschwitz.

Rudi was born in Berlin, in 1931, and his family moved to Holland in 1936. In 1940 when German troops invaded, his family avoided deportation because his father worked for the Jewish Council.

In 1943, when Rudi was 12 years old, the family was captured and sent to Westerbrook concentration camp, and later Belsen.

After the war Rudi and brother, Paul, moved to England where they lived since 1945. Their parents died in the camp.

Rudi, 84, is now retired and talks regularly to pupils about his wartime experiences.

He was special guest at Wirral Holocaust Memorial Day in 2012.

His brother Paul was a regular speaker at previous commemoration events until his death in 2007 and wrote best-selling book From Belsen to Buckingham Palace.

Holocaust Memorial Day has taken place in the UK since 2001, with a UK event and more than 2,400 local activities taking place.

Recalling his time at Belsen during his last visit to Wirral in 2012, Rudi told the Globe: "We were always hungry, and didn't get very much food to eat. But they didn’t mistreat us or anything like that.

"We were not victimised like those who went to Auschwitz. We were allowed to wear our own clothes, and could keep our luggage, but there was no food.

"They harassed us a lot. Most days we had to stay on the parade ground for nine hours if you didn't work. We never felt fearful of the people in charge."

After the war Mr Oppenheimer returned to England, was educated at a grammar school and went on to study engineering at Imperial College in London. He later became an adviser for Shell Petroleum.

He has since given more than 1100 talks on his experiences in the camp to children across the country.

He continued: "I try to put the emphasis on the fact that we haven't learned our lesson from history, because genocide is still happening all over the world.

"People should learn the lesson, be more intolerant and speak up.

"The main reason it happened in Germany was because most people didn't speak up and were called by-standers.

"Had they spoken up then these Nazis, who were not so powerful, might not have done what they did. They got away with it."

Mayor Steve Foulkes said: "Holocaust Memorial Day’s theme for 2015 is Keep the Memory Alive, emphasising the importance of recalling and keeping alive the memories of survivors such as Rudi, whilst also keeping alive memories of those who perished.

"This is illustrated very poignantly by the story of David Berger, aged 19, who, in his last letter before being murdered by Nazis in Vilnius in 1941 wrote: 'If something happens, I would want there to be somebody who would remember that someone named D. Berger had once lived.

"'This will make things easier for me in difficult moments.'”