A Holocaust survivor and two-time Olympic competitor has been named as one of five runners-up for the Times/ Sternberg Active Life Award. This year's winner was psychiatrist Colin Murray Parkes.

Ben Helfgott and his sister Mala Tribich were honoured for their contributions to Holocaust education.

The siblings, who were born in Poland, were the only members of their immediate family to survive the Holocaust.

Mr Helfgott, a former British weightlifting champion, is the only survivor to have competed in two Olympic Games. He was sent to Buchenwald and then to Teresienstadt during the war. Now 82, he is the chairman of the 45 Aid Society, an association formed to support the 732 young people who arrived in the UK in 1945 from Nazi Europe.

Mrs Tribich survived time in two death camps and was only reunited with her brother several years after the war.

She studied for a degree in sociology after arriving in Britain and has since dedicated her life to educating children about the Nazis, working in particular with the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire and on programmes for the London Jewish Cultural Centre.

The award was first given four years ago, when it was won by human rights champion Helen Bamber. It was set up by Sir Sigmund Sternberg, who founded the Three Faiths Forum.