Aged four he watched as his family's grocery store was taken from them and his father Zoltan was rounded up into forced labour.

Two weeks after his sixth birthday on March 26, 1942 his father was ordered to pack a suitcase and was sent to Majdanek - one of Poland's most vicious extermination camps.

Tipped off that the spouses and family of the deported men would be next, Thomas and his mother Terezia went into hiding and spent three years out of sight.

The 79-year-old Canberran will recount the remarkable story of his survival at the world premiere of the Anne Frank travelling exhibition Let Me Be Myself - The Life Story of Anne Frank at the National Jewish Memorial Centre in Forrest on Wednesday.

Life in hiding was hazardous.

Unable to flee Jewish people hid in barns, cellars, attics and wherever they could and many relied on the bravery of gentiles who faced the threat of harsh punishment for aiding Jews.

Never staying in one place too long, Thomas recalls the near misses vividly and how his mother taught him to keep quiet, even motionless, for hours.

His natural inclination to want to play outside and find out where his friends and family were was stifled by fear, a fear that has never truly left him.

"A child is adaptable to anything," he said.

"I was used to it. It was ingrained in my mind that I am Jewish and I can't do this or that. It lasted even after liberation because you feel like you are somebody who is in danger."

When liberation came on April 1, 1945 Thomas was nine but still wearing the same button-down shirt and shorts he had on three years and two months prior.

Creating a semblance of "normal' childhood" after the war was difficult.

"Anne Frank was 13 years old when she wrote her diary but when I went into hiding I was six and hadn't started school," he said.

"It was very hard."

Canberra will host the world premiere of latest travelling exhibition from Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

The international collections will offer visitors an insight into how the story of the Frank family connects with the important historical events of that time.

Thomas considers himself one of the lucky ones.

He said Anne Frank's story and his too were shared by millions of others.

"In my speech I want to emphasise Anne Frank's story is incredible but she is not the only one," he said.

"Thousands of Jewish children went through something similar. Either they were hiding or sent to concentration camps and killed."

He said he often considers all the potential that died with the 1½million Jewish children killed during the Holocaust.

"The world lost a lot," he said. "Imagine how many of them would have achieved in the world as scientists, doctors, professors or musicians."

While living under Communist rule, Thomas studied chemistry, married, and had two children, Igor and Karin.

The young family fled in 1968 after the Soviet invasion of what was then Czechoslovakia, first to Vienna and then Australia.

"When I came to Australia I read books about the Holocaust, which were censored under the communist dictatorship," he said.

"It was only here that I could open my eyes and find out about what actually happened and in context where my story fits."

Thomas worked as a specialist in mass spectrometry at the University of Adelaide for 38 years before retiring to be closer to family in Canberra.

He said he felt compelled to share his story for as long as he could.