A Polish Jew will relive the horrors of surviving for three years in five different concentration camps today, Holocaust Memorial Day.

This year, the event remembers the people who offered help or humanity to others, despite the terrible conditions of the times.

Alfred Huberman, 79, a Polish Jew from Hove, believes he owes his life to one woman who helped him.

In 1942, aged 14, he was sent to Skarzysko Kamienna camp where prisoners worked with deadly chemicals, making weapons in 12-hour shifts. The average lifespan was three to four months. He never saw his family again, apart from one sister, who he was reunited with after the war.

In the camp, the Jews worked alongside non-Jewish Poles who only had to do four-hour shifts.

One day, a Polish worker called Mr Huberman over and told him to wait by a certain window. From then on, the woman, who was in charge of distributing milk to the Poles, would hand over scraps to him through the window.

Mr Huberman said: "She would give me either something she brought from her own home or scrapings from the bottom of the churn.

"I never knew her name but I am sure that, had I not had that help, I would not have survived that camp."

A Polish man also helped treat Mr Huberman after he broke his toe when a shell fell on his foot and smashed it. People who took even small actions to help Jews put themselves at risk of death.

Mr Huberman was part of the infamous death march to Theresienstadt camp in Germany. Out of 4,000 people who made the trip, only 800 arrived alive.

As they approached the Sudetenland, a Czech area, people would leave food for them on the grass verges or in the snow.

While only a few were brave enough to offer help, Mr Huberman said that he could understand why most did not take the risk.

He said: "There was fear and everybody was suspicious of everybody else so it's not really surprising that people were reluctant to help.

"If you were helping Jews, you were vulnerable and the Nazis could have done anything to you. But there were some people who helped, regardless of what the consequences might have been."

He added: "Looking back, I can't believe what happened myself. I'm just lucky to be here.

"It is something I am constantly reminded of. If you go to the doctor they ask for your family's medical history and you can't tell them. At weddings there are very few relatives. But we have risen again, like the phoenix."

Mr Huberman and his son Brian will speak at a memorial ceremony at the Richmond Room by the Assembly Hall in Stoke Abbott Road, Worthing, today at 4.30pm.

For more information on Holocaust Memorial Day, visit the web site at www.hmd.org.uk