And Zdenka Fantlová's story certainly ranks high in the heartbreak stakes.

Her whole family perished in the Shoah, yet she doesn't feel resentful.

"You should not replace hate with hate," Czech-born Zdenka told the Jewish Telegraph.

The London-based 88-year-old, said in Newcastle upon Tyne, where she was taking part in Holocaust Memorial Day: "I do a lot of Holocaust education in Germany and people ask how I feel now walking on German streets with German people.

"But justice belongs to God."

Born in Rokycany - between Prague and Pilsen - Zdenka was brought up in an assimilated Jewish family, together with father Arnost, mother Ella, brother Jiri and sister Lydia.

She recalled: "There were only around 15 Jewish families, but we never experienced any antisemitism.

"We were Czechs, the same as them, and we took part in the local activities, we went to the same schools and we ate the same food."

Her shattering story is told in her book The Tin Ring, which was released last week.

The title alludes to a ring that was given to her by boyfriend Arno. They had been separated when she was sent to Terezin concentration camp, but they were reunited there.

Zdenka recalled: "He ended up in Terezin and he managed to smuggle himself into our block.

"He put a tin ring on my finger which had his name and the date, June 13, 1942, engraved on it.

"He called it our engagement ring and he kissed me, saying that it would protect us.

"When I was later sent to Auschwitz, a Nazi guard nearly caught me with it when we were going through inspection, but I hid it under my tongue and he never noticed.

"It was a feeling of victory, even more than winning millions of pounds."

That was the last she ever saw Arno.

Zdenka was just 17 when the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia. She remembered: "My father was a steel broker, but his business was taken away from him, as was our dog.

"His bank account was also closed and there was a curfew placed on the town's Jews.

"We were not allowed to go to the shops until after 4pm - when there was no food left.

The last she saw of her father was when SS men came to the door and told him to go with them.

Zdenka explained: "He went to get his coat and hat and he put them on - if this was the last time we were to see him, he wanted to leave that image on our minds.

"He told us to stay calm, because 'calmness is strength' and I still think that today."

Zdenka and her family were sent to Terezin.

Together with her mother and sister - her brother Jiri was taken from Terezin earlier - she was then sent to Auschwitz.

Zdenka continued: "We were not prepared for it and it was a nightmare. The Nazis told people to go left and go right - my mother went left and I never saw her again. I grabbed my sister when I was told to go right.

"A couple of days later a man took me to the gas chambers and showed me the black smoke coming out of the chimneys - he said, 'That is where your mother has gone'.

"I didn't believe him and I thought he had lost his mind.

"I had no idea that this is what the Nazis were doing until after the war."

Three weeks after arriving in Auschwitz, Zdenka and sister Lydia were sent on one of the infamous death marches east, with 1,000 other women.

Four hundred of them died on the perilous journey to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Zdenka said: "I did not even think about death, I just thought about the moment.

"I did not feel like a victim - I felt more like an observer."

Her salvation came in the shape of the British army, when they liberated the camp in April, 1945.

Zdenka was barely more than a living skeleton and was lying on a concrete floor with hundreds of other women - most of whom were dead.

She went on: "A woman ran in shouting, 'the British are here'.

"I thought it was too late for me, but I had learned English at the Prague Institute in 1940.

"I wanted to learn it because I heard Fred Astaire singing My Lucky Star one day on the radio, although I never thought it would come in useful."

Zdenka begged a member of the British army for help and he heard her, coming back with an ambulance for her.

Her sister Lydia died a week after the camp was liberated and Zdenka went to Sweden, where she worked for the Czech embassy in Stockholm.

She continued: "A lot of Czechs were being repatriated, but being sent to Sweden saved my life too, because Czechoslovakia was soon taken over by the communists.

"I could not say thank you to the man who rescued me - I was dying and too weak.

"But he saved my life and he will never know."

She later moved to Melbourne, Australia, where she met her husband, German Jew Charles Ehrlich and the couple had a daughter, Kate.

Zdenka, Charles and Kate came to Britain in 1970 due to his work.

Charles died 10 years ago.

Zdenka went on: "I went back to the Czech Republic a couple of years ago and met up with my old friends.

"They asked me how I survived and I thought I should write everything down. After the Holocaust I felt I had died and suddenly I was reborn.

"I am a happy person and I think that my experiences enriched me. I questioned why God let this happen and, even though there is no answer, I am still looking for one.

"I have learned what matters in life is very little - life and human relationships and that is about it.

"But I am still grateful for every single day."