At the age of 103, Richard Roberts has a few stories to tell.
The only child of Austrian-Jewish parents, he was sent to one of the first Nazi concentration camps in Germany when he was 25 years old.
"We were put on a train on the way to Dachau - that's the first concentration camp," he says.
"We were not treated very nicely in the train we had to be on our knees, which was very hurtful to be for hours kneeling in a rolling train."
His friends were overworked and shot in front of him but he remained calm.
He says he survived by making strategic alliances.
"We made an arrangement with the chief of the hut so every day at four o'clock we get a cup of coffee and some cake," he says. "And we were the only ones who got it."
Mr Roberts even managed to convince camp guards to give him paper so he could write letters to his parents reassuring them he would be okay.
A few months later, he was moved to another concentration camp - Buchenwald.
To his surprise, he was released within months.
With the help of an old friend, he obtained a permit to leave Europe and boarded a flight bound for Australia - narrowly missing the beginning of World War II.
He travelled to Darwin and then to Brisbane, before settling in Sydney in March 1939. When he arrived, he received some advice from a friend.
"She said, 'Your name is Richard Raubitschek? A name like this, you can't live in Australia. You have to change it'," he says.
"I said, 'Alright I change it, into what? Let's have a look at the phone book.' Richard is good enough as a first name and instead of Raubitschek I had a look and the nearest was Roberts so I said, 'Richard Roberts, good enough! That's my name.'"
He quickly established himself; finding a safe place to stay and, with the advantage of being fluent in English, a job at a nearby factory.
His girlfriend and parents eventually joined him.
Today, Mr Roberts lives in Sydney's eastern suburbs where he receives around-the-clock care.
He says he is grateful to for the opportunities Australia has given him and is proud to call this country home.
"I didn't want to have anything to do with Austria, a country that I have been thrown out," he says.
"I came to Australia. I have been accepted as an Australian. Within a few days I became naturalised and that was good enough for me."
This story was produced as part of the SBS series, First Day, airing on SBS World News throughout January.
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