PUPILS at a Bexleyheath school were left spellbound by the account of a Holocaust survivor.

Dr Scarlett Epstein visited Oakwood School in Woodside Road on January 30 to talk about her escape to Britain from Nazi Austria.

In honour of Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27, Dr Epstein spoke of witnessing Adolf Hitler's parade through Vienna in an open top car during Austria's annexation by Germany in 1938.

She lived as a refugee in Albania before the invasion of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini’s Italian troops forced her to flee again.

Dr Epstein was stopped at Cologne airport during a stopover on her way to Britain and along with her mother was stripped and tortured by two female Nazi officials.

Their passports, marked with a ‘J’ to show they were Jewish, were then withheld as the plane waited for them for three hours before taking off only when a passenger was able to secure the documents’ release.

Head of humanities Helmut Heib said: "The pupils were engrossed and moved by her talk.

"She is an inspiration and we were all affected by her story."