I found myself recently standing on the platform at City Thameslink in London, watching hordes of passengers coming off an overcrowded train, wondering which of them would have survived were this train terminating at Auschwitz in WWII. 

Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust was launched on ASR on 20th January, and I had been pouring over interviews to find appropriate examples for the press release.  Having just celebrated my 31st birthday, I was particularly haunted by Edith Birkin’s account of arriving at Auschwitz.  On arrival, the young fit ones were separated out for work parties, small children and older prisoners and sent to the gas chambers. 

Birkin says: “I made myself big and tall and strong, soon realised you know it was probably wise to do… I think anybody over twenty had it, you know, because they didn't need that many for work. So, from what I remember, nobody was over thirty; I never met anybody over thirty after that."

We are pleased to announce the winner of the ASR Recording of the Month Competition is Tim Hannah of Swansea College.

Tim nominated a recording featuring the screams of a red fox recorded at Rye Grove, Surrey https://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=022M-W1CDR0001493-0900V0.xml#, saying “I love this recording because it reminds me of when I was a child living in a cottage in Hampshire.  My mother would comfort me whenever I heard this call as it would give me shivers of fright when I was in bed trying to get to sleep.”

To enter the Recording of the Month competition, simply pick your favourite recording from Archival Sound Recordings http://sounds.bl.uk and send 50 words on why you love it to [email protected]