Hungarian Holocaust survivor, Tomi Komoly, 81, has shared his experiences with students in West Cumbria.

Energy Coast UTC's years 10 and 12 students at Energus, listened closely to Mr Komoly revealing what he went through.

Tomi relives the horror of the Holocaust in each of his talks so he can share his experiences to try and prevent anything similar happening in the future.

"Now, at last, I can stand up and be counted," he said.

As a seven to eight year old boy living through the Holocaust, Tomi said the worst things that he endured was not having a father, no schooling, losing three years of his life and not having any companionship. He did not have a single friend of his own age.

Tomi was an only child from Budapest, Hungary.

In 1943 forced labour units sent all Jewish men aged 18 to 60 to the front to dig trenches, including Tomi's father.

The star of David was made compulsory to wear for anyone six years and older, Jewish property was stolen, segregation began and signs were erected banning Jewish people from shops, swimming pools, public transport. Warnings were put up saying 'Jews live here' - he said they were made to feel like dangerous animals.

After one year at the front, Tomi's dad was given three days leave to visit his wife and child. The janitor in their housing reported this leave to the authorities and men with guns came and took his father away. That was the last time he saw him.

He suspects that his father was one of those that were lined up on the east bank of the Danube river, told to strip, then shot.

Tomi and his mother moved in with family. She tried to replace income by baking cakes and biscuits, not an easy task as Jewish people had a fraction of the rationing allowed to everyone else.

As a child he recognised the engines making the noise of the bombs that were dropped, British by night and US by day and felt pleased when he heard the engines as it meant someone was coming. He said: "At seven years old you become a lot older in thinking than what you are."

Tomi's mother was one of hundreds rounded up in the street to be put in the ghetto and knew if she was taken her son would be completely on his own. So with four armed guards trying to shoot at her she made a run for it, zigzagging up the street to avoid the shots. The other women stood there, too terrorised to move.

After this her father found a Christian family willing to hide them in a basement. They took their stars off and were eventually liberated by the Soviets.

They discovered that half of his mother's side and two thirds of his father's siblings had died.

Tomi and his mother were grateful to be taken as refugees to Austria and later Britain.

He still visits close cousins in Hungary a couple of times a year.

One of the hardest parts for Tomi was telling his two children about his experiences. Despite being able to eruditely speak to packed audiences and having done 30 similar talks to about 6000 people he finds it incredibly hard to tell his children what he lived through. So he has chosen instead to share the scripts of his talks with his children and wants them to share them with his seven grandchildren.

Mike Fox, head of year 13 at UTC, plans to make the Holocaust talks regular for future students: "I will now be looking at guiding our current and future holocaust ambassadors (two more will be making the trip to Auschwitz next year) into making this a regular occurrence at the UTC and hopefully a wider audience whilst the survivors willing to speak are still available," Mike added.