When she was 20 years old and the war had just ended, Helen Bamber went into Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany to help with the rehabilitation of survivors who had been seriously traumatised by torture, hunger and the murders of their spouses, friends and children.

More than six decades later she is still doing much the same thing, but now in Britain, helping asylum seekers and refugees to recover from torture and other rights abuses.

Mrs Bamber, an 83-year-old mother of two, has been awarded the first £10,000 Times/Sternberg Active Life Award, which celebrates the achievements of older people. It is sponsored by Sir Sigmund Sternberg, co-founder of the Three Faiths Forum, an organisation that attempts to form bridges between the three religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

Times readers were invited to nominate someone over the age of 70 who defied their years to “assert the questing spirit of humanity”.

Mrs Bamber has dedicated her entire life to human rights. After she returned from Germany, she was one of the early members of Amnesty International, driven by the need to expose the practices of torture worldwide and document the injuries of survivors. From this work she set up the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. After she stepped down in her late seventies in 2002, she did not go quietly into retirement but instead established the Helen Bamber Foundation in premises near the British Museum in Central London. She continues to help survivors of genocide, torture, “ethnic cleansing”, sex trafficking and domestic violence.

She told The Times that she felt unable to retire while there were still victims of torture and other human rights abuses needing her help. The group that she works hardest to help is women trafficked into sex slavery. She works most weekends and appears in court weekly to describe the psychological and physical effects of torture and persecution on her clients.

She said that her experience of working in Belsen and other camps as the youngest member of the Jewish Relief Unit had persuaded her to commit her life to such work. “I wanted to try to repair some of the lives that had been so terribly damaged with so much physical and psychological harm and so many family members lost in such grotesque circumstances.” She said: “It was not a brave or heroic decision not to retire. It just seemed logical to continue the work for as long as I could and to hand over to others the knowledge that has been accumulated over many, many years.”

She still hears stories from survivors of atrocities that are barely imaginable to those who grow up in the West. Even if the victims survive into old age, she believes that the effects of their trauma remain.

She says that someone’s body may recover physically, but there is an “inner life” that continues to suffer. “I do not think we have really begun to understand what happens to people and how it affects them for the rest of their lives,” she said.

Sir Geoffrey Bindman, a lawyer and specialist in human rights, said: “Helen Bamber is probably one of a handful of the most important human rights workers in the world. Her devotion to her clients and her work can only be described as inspirational and admirable. She has defied the bounds of age and expectation with an unstoppable spirit and passion for life.”

Sir Sigmund said: “I am delighted that Helen Bamber was chosen as the first prize-winner. She is a remarkable person and an outstanding example of how age doesn’t come into it; that an older person can make an outstanding contribution to society.”

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