As a ten year old boy growing up in a small western New York town in the 1960’s, Marc Terrance didn’t even know what a Jew was. The significance of the archival footage of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, whilst mesmerising to the small child, didn’t fully register with him.

The fact that the people whose bodies were being thrown around were different would strike a very resonant chord with Marc in his teenage years – a parallel that has underpinned much of his work. Coming out to his friends and family in the late 1960’s, he found himself a victim of the intolerance of the time. 1978 would prove to be something of an epiphany for Marc, A chance conversation whilst travelling in Europe would lead to a visit to Dachau – and the reality of what he had seen as a child hit home – and hard. The link between the intolerance he had experienced, and the persecution of minorities in National Socialist Germany was not one he could ignore.

In the years that followed, Marc visited Europe on numerous occasions, often visiting concentration camps. With the increasing communications taking place over the internet, a pattern emerged – many of his correspondents would ask him where the camps were, could they get travel directions etc.

In 1998 Marc returned to Europe to research material for his book: “Concentration Camps, a Traveller’s Guide to World War II Sites”. He would visit some 39 sites within 25 days. The same people who helped him compile information and translate road signs still keep him posted in order that the necessary updates can be made to the book which is now in its third revised edition (http://www.concentrationcampguide.com/)

Now retired, Marc lives in Florida. He has spoken at the local Holocaust Survivors’ Club and local schools and is a volunteer at the local Holocaust Museum, transcribing survivor testimonies from recorded interviews and assisting with the museum’s “Student Awareness” days.

In his own words:

“My sincere hope is that with the help of websites, television documentaries, student awareness education and people actually travelling to the memorials, the story of the Holocaust will not be forgotten, the Holocaust deniers can be refuted, and those atrocities occurring today in other countries won’t be ignored.”