Tributes have been paid to Rabbi Ernest Levy, who was one of the few survivors of the notorious Belsen camp.

Mr Levy moved to Scotland from Hungary in 1961. He wrote of his experiences and gave educational talks based on his past.

A funeral service will be held today at Giffnock and Newlands Synagogue, where he was once cantor.

While in Belsen he was befriended by a Nazi, narrowly escaped execution by the camp commandant, and was finally liberated by the allies.

He was awarded an OBE in 2002 and told his story in books Just One More Dance and The Single Light.

Mr Levy said it was not easy to speak out about his experiences in Belsen but doing so helped him to live with what he had been through.

Scots secretary Jim Murphy, a friend of Mr Levy for 20 years, paid tribute to him last night. He said: "I have never met someone so inspiring, that I felt honoured just to know him.

"For more than 40 years Glasgow has been home to Ernest. He was loved and revered by generations who have listened and been inspired.

"Ernest Levy was a beautiful man and friend who will be missed by thousands whose lives he touched.

"Scotland is a darker place today because of Ernest Levy passing away."

Mr Levy was born in Bratislava in 1925 but he and his family were force to flee to Hungary in 1938 after being persecuted by Slovak fascists. Following the German invasion of Hungary his family were deported to the concentration camps where many of them died.

He was cattle-trucked to Auschwitz in 1944, describing it as a "vast somersaulted synagogue" that reeked of burnt human flesh.

He said: "I was one of the first Jews to arrive in Auschwitz. I was 19 years old, and alone because I’d left my family in Budapest.

"On arrival I looked out of the small grate at the top of the train cart and saw Auschwitz spelled out in big letters.

"I didn’t know what that meant, but got an idea when the doors opened.

"We poured out like a sack of potatoes, one on top of another. The reality was that we had arrived in hell."

In the 12 months that followed, he was sent to Wustergiersdorf, Belsen -- where "skeletons wrapped in blankets shuffled almost aimlessly in slow motion" -- Hanover-Ahlem, "10 days of sheer hell", and back to Belsen.

He recalled how a group of officers arrived, with Mr Levy selected to live with a flick of a wrist.

Mr Levy was liberated in Belsen, with the allies approaching the camp as he lay ill with typhoid.

He said: "As they drew closer it became apparent that they were not German. ‘My God, it’s the Allies’, somebody whispered."

In 1961, Mr Levy moved to Glasgow where he met his wife, entered the Jewish ministry and went on to have two children. In the years that followed he was a regular speaker at Holocaust memorial events.