HAVING hidden from the SS for months and being told she wouldn’t live to be ten years old, Dorit Oliver had a nightmare childhood.

But despite being taken away by the Nazis in occupied Hungary she escaped, survived and went on to become a famous jazz singer.

Now she is looking for love on hit Channel 4 show First Dates Hotel.

A HOLOCAUST survivor who escaped from the Nazis and hid in a cellar for nine months is looking for love on a television dating show.

Dorit Oliver appears on the Channel 4 show First Dates Hotel tonight and has told The Argus how she was recued from a concentration camp by her mother more than 70 years ago.

The 83-year-old was just seven years old when she was taken away from her family by Nazi officers.

She had been living in the Yugoslavia capital Belgrade when their home was bombed by the Germans in the Second World War.

Little Dorit’s parents had separated and her mother Zita, who was Hungarian, walked the family to Budapest where they planned to start a new life.

Dorit said: “It was the time when the Nazis had a lot of power.

“Every Jewish person had to wear the yellow Star of David on their clothing to identify them.

“If you got caught by the SS [Nazi police force] without wearing one you would be shot or put into a concentration camp.

“One day I was out with my mother and a woman spat in my face.

“I didn’t even know we were Jewish because before the Nazis took over it wasn’t something that needed to be mentioned.”

Aged just seven she spent three months in a concentration camp.

She said: “My mother decided to rent a room and the landlady said she would look after me when my mother wasn’t here.

“Then one day there was a knock on the door and these two giant SS soldiers dressed all in black were standing there.

“Suddenly the landlady pointed at me and said ‘this is a stinking little Jew who is hiding here, she spoils the air in my house, take her away’.

“I don’t even remember where they took me.

“Auschwitz was the most famous camp but there were a lot of others too.

“I was in one for three months until my mother thought of a plan to break me out.

“My mother arranged a plan to smuggle me out. I hid under dirty sheets that were due to be burned.”

But Dorit’s ordeal did not end there.

She added: “Once we were out of the camp we went back into hiding. We were in a cellar for nine months.

“By the time the war ended I was nine and I was told I wouldn’t live six months. I couldn’t even walk because I’d been down there for so long.

“I never understood what was happening. All I knew was constant fear.

“I had no toys, no friends, very little food. I was robbed of my childhood.”

Dorit added that upon the war ending she and her mother discovered that her father had been worked to death in a Nazi work camp.

Tonight Dorit appears on First Dates Hotel, which takes places in Naples, Italy, where she will be matched up with 82-year-old John.

The Eastbourne resident lost her husband Frank last year from pancreatic cancer.

The couple had been together for 57 years, and Frank had convinced Dorit to move to England with him where they started a family.

Dorit now has two children, a son and a daughter, and five grandchildren.

But she was set up on the date by a friend she made while doing public speaking at St Paul’s Catholic College in Burgess Hill.

Dorit said: “I do a lot of public speaking to students and the college’s headmaster Rob Carter had been there for me after my husband’s death.

“He said that I shouldn’t be spending the rest of my life alone.

“I miss my husband very much, he was my best friend and soul mate.

“But when you lose someone it does leave a void in your life.

“One day I got a call saying I was on the show, out of 25,000 people they chose me. I was very surprised.”

In tonight’s show the public will get to see what happens when Dorit and John meet for the first time.

Dorit said she enjoyed her experience on the TV show. She said: “It was strange to go on a date again but I was flattered to be asked on one.

“It felt very comfortable and the hotel was lovely.

“The show producers were amazing too, they really looked after me.

“Unfortunately, even though it was Italy, it wasn’t warm enough for me to jump in the pool.”

And while she cannot give out any spoilers, Dorit did say the date was a refreshing change for her.

She said; “He was very polite, he even brought me chocolates.

“You never know where things will go, but I wouldn’t mind if people watch the show and want to compete with John for me.”

Despite her ordeals in her youth Dorit was determined to make the most of her life.

At the age of 16 she started singing professionally and even made a successful career out of it - touring around Europe.

Dorit said: “Music was my first love, it is what got me through the toughest moments of my childhood.

“After the war I studied law at university but the opportunity to record music came up and that was much more inviting.”

Dorit has also released a bestselling book, From Yellow Star to Pop Star, detailing the highs and lows of her life.

First Dates Hotel is on Channel 4 at 9pm tonight.