A HOLOCAUST survivor who spent his childhood in a succession of Nazi labour camps has died at the age of 83.

Mark Goldfinger, who lived on Bournemouth’s East Cliff, made it his mission to “ensure people don’t forget”.

It has emerged that he died earlier this year and was buried in London.

Born Marek Goldfinger, he was nine years old when German tanks rolled into his home town of Rabka in Poland.

He and members of his family spent the early part of the war moving around occupied Poland to evade the Germans. His mother, aunt and one-year-old cousin were among a group 60-70 Jews rounded up and shot. It took him 25 years to find out what had happened to her.

The young Marek came close to death in a labour camp at Plaszow in Krakow but survived to be sent to a brutal munitions factory in Skarzysko. He was later sent by goods train to Buchenwald, where he remained until the war ended.

"I desperately wanted to live long enough to see the Germans beaten – and I made it,” he told the Echo in 1999.

After the war, he travelled to London, where he was reunited with his father and the two set up an engineering business.

He married Sylvia, a German Jew who escaped on a coal carrier from Dunkirk, in 1953. They had twins, Jerrald and Michelle, now 60.

Mr Goldfinger later used his knowledge of Polish, German and English to work as a police interpreter.

He and Sylvia moved to Bournemouth around 20 years ago. Mr Goldfinger served on an international committee responsible for the maintenance of Jewish cemeteries. In retirement, he was busy "translating books and trial transcripts, ensuring that people don't forget”.

Mr Goldfinger’s brother George was killed in combat at the age of 20. His sister Lusia escaped the Nazis with the aid of false papers and later settled in Israel.

Mark and Sylvia adored their five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Mr Goldfinger once told the Echo: “"I get very sentimental with children, probably because between the ages of eight and 18 my own life was in turmoil. I lost my family, my home, my education. It will take several generations for the pain to go away.”