Rob Rinder: My bond with Holocaust survivors who became Windermere kids
hell and arrived in heaven”. Since 2018, when he retraced Morris’ footsteps, the barrister and TV judge, 45, has immersed himself in documentary work about the Holocaust and his rich Jewish heritage.
In 2022, he and his mother, Angela Cohen, were awarded MBES for their work in Holocaust education.
The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day – the fragility of freedom – feels especially relevant against the backdrop of atrocities in Israel, Gaza and Ukraine.
Rob says his grandad had a real love of Britain, adding: “This idea of democracy under the rule of law really mattered to him.”
Yet Joanna still worries her freedom might be, once again, snatched away.
She admits: “I’ve had my bag packed all the time, mentally. I always carry my passport with me.”
Born in Berlin, Germany, in 1942, her father died in Auschwitz the following year and her mother in Theresienstadt in March 1944.
Of her life in the concentration camp, Joanna says: “We siblings were very close. If one of us got in trouble, we’d all stand at the wall with them.
STARVED
“We didn’t know how to eat with a knife and fork. We’d never seen green vegetables. My limbs were weak. I had kidney disease.”
Their experiences of being starved by the Nazis left Joanna and Morris with a lifelong habit of hoarding food.
As Rob explains: “If you know what it is to experience hunger and you know what it is to be cold, that never leaves you. It sits and it imprints, like a dark handprint on your heart.”
Arriving in Windermere in August 1945, Joanna and her siblings were soon dispatched to separate families.
Despite arriving with only two words of English – dog and soup – she later became a magistrate, serving for 33 years. In 1964, she married engineer Harvey, a British Jew, and they had children Daniel, now 58, Mandy, 57, and Wendy, 56.
Joanna admits: “I was absolutely clueless when they were born. I’d never felt that maternal love myself, so that connection took time to grow.”
Harvey encouraged Joanna to investigate her past, which led to her discovering more family and cousins across the world.
“It’s hard to keep up with them all,” she smiles. “But I’m now part of a community of relatives who belong and they have all welcomed me with open arms.”
When she was 50 and with the help of writer Sarah Moskovitz, who wrote a book about Holocaust child survivors, she reconnected with four of her siblings. She said: “We met in California for a child survivor conference and it felt very natural being together.”
Sadly, this April marks 22 years since Harvey died of cancer, aged 66.
“It’s a bit of a cliché but I always say don’t put off what you can do today,” says Joanna.
“I knew Harvey wasn’t going to live for a long time, so we did all the long-hauls and birthdays while we could.
“We took every opportunity and I think I’ve done pretty much everything I want to do in life.
“But I’ll still always stand up for what I believe in. We all have to.”
Joanna still takes pleasure in simple things, like the peaceful view of the countryside outside her living room window. “I’d never seen trees before England,” she says. And one of the first survivors to speak in schools about the Holocaust, Joanna is part of the Association of Jewish Refugees. Its chief executive Michael Newman says: “Rob and Joanna’s accounts capture in the rawest sense how quickly humanity can crumble.
“Their testimonies underscore the vital importance of commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day, both to honour those whose lives were ripped apart by anti-semitism and to stand in solidarity, ensuring the experiences of the survivors and refugees, and their families, are never forgotten.”