THE HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS’ CLUB
This remarkable image reveals 27 British pensioners who share an incredible bond… they all endured the most terrible atrocity of the 20th century and lived to tell the world about it
AT FIRST glance it could be a reunion of old friends or colleagues. But look closer and you might catch a glimpse of the sorrow behind the smiles, a sign of the horrors they witnessed when youthful innocence was shattered by unspeakable evil. These 27 men and women, aged 78 to 93, bore witness to the 20th century’s most horrifying atrocity, The Holocaust.
Each has a remarkable story of survival to tell. Some were among the lucky ones to arrive in Britain via the so-called Kindertransport. Others hid in secret boltholes across Europe, far from their families, until liberation ended their nightmares.All lost loved ones in Nazi death camps and are still haunted by the memories of their suffering.
However, what binds them together is a need to tell others their stories, which they regularly do under the caring umbrella of the London-based Holocaust Educational Trust. In their own way, this spirited group of survivors speaks for the six million Jewish people who perished under Nazi tyranny. Each year their number dwindles, making the club, seen here last month, more fragile, yet more cherished.
Indeed, 77 years after the Second World War ended, the need to share overcomes the desire many naturally have to forget the horror.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, explains: “Holocaust survivors share their darkest memories in order for young people to learn about the past. They describe the murder of their families and their times in the concentration and death camps of Europe, for the benefit of humanity.They are indomitable, and we are unendingly grateful to them.”
STANDING L-R 1 STEVEN FRANK
Steven was born in Amsterdam in 1935. His father, a lawyer who joined the Dutch Resistance, died in Auschwitz, in 1943. Along with his two brothers and his mother, Steven, now 87, survived the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Czechoslovakia before being liberated by the Red Army and emigrating to Britain.
2 MICHAEL BROWN
Born in Silesia in 1930, Michael, now aged 92, and his younger sister Hannah were among the thousands of Kindertransport children who came to Britain in the 1930s. Tragically, his parents were sent to Riga, in Latvia, and did not survive. He lost other relatives too.
3 ERNEST SIMON
Ernest, 92, was just eight years old when, from his bedroom window in Vienna, he witnessed Kristallnacht, the start of the Nazi pogrom against the Jews. “We lived in a street with a synagogue down the road, and I could see a bonfire of prayer books and items looted from the synagogue,” he recalls. “Jewish people lost their jobs and were excluded from schools.We couldn’t go to the cinema or concerts, gangs would beat up Jewish people in the street, and businesses were taken over without any compensation.” His parents secured his escape and Ernest arrived in Britain by ship, initially living in Leeds before his family was able to join him. He now lives in London.
4 HENRI OBSTFELD
Henri was born in Amsterdam in 1940 a month before German troops occupied Holland.At the age of two, his frightened parents sent him to live with another family under a false name to protect him while they were sheltered by a Dutch family and fed by the resistance. Happily, the family escaped detection and they were reunited after the war. Henri, now 82, moved to London in 1961.
5 JOAN SALTER
Joan was born in Brussels in 1940. Her father escaped from a train bound for Auschwitz, while she, her sister Lilane and her mother fled to Spain, and eventually on to Portugal. The family was reunited in 1947 and moved to London, where Joan, 82, lives today. “History is much more complicated and nuanced than we are led to believe,” she says. “When I became involved with Holocaust education organisations in the 1990s, it was to humanise the past, put names and faces to the statistics, and help dismantle stereotypes.”
6 JACKIE YOUNG
Now aged 81, Jackie Young was born in Vienna in 1941.Aged just nine months old, he was sent to the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Czechoslovakia. His mother died in a different camp and he has no idea who his father was.After liberation in 1945, he was brought to Britain, where he lived in a survivors’ camp nearWindermere in Cumbria. He was adopted at the age of five and later worked as a black-cab driver in London for 40 years.
7 URI WINTERSTEIN
Born in Slovakia in 1943, Uri was only one month old when his fearful parents gave him to a Christian woman to look after. Uri’s father was part of an underground movement known as theWorking Group and was sent to theTheresienstadt Ghetto.The whole family was reunited after the war, although nine members of the wider family died at Auschwitz. Now 79, Uri lives in west London. He is married with two daughters, a son, and five grandchildren.
8 JOHN HAJDU
John was born in Budapest, Hungary.When Nazis occupied the country in 1944, his parents were deported to concentration camps, but John and an aunt were able to hide in a cupboard in the home of a family friend. They were later sent to the Budapest ghetto where people died in their droves.After the war, the family was reunited, his parents having survived the camps.They moved to Britain in 1957. John, now 85, married and lives in London.
9 MARTIN STERN
Martin lost his mother shortly after she gave birth to his sister Erica in 1942, while his father died at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Hidden by a non-Jewish family, they were discovered and the father was sent to a concentration camp where he died for the crime of sheltering them. Reunited in the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Czechoslovakia where starvation and disease killed thousands, they moved to Britain after liberation, living with a family in Manchester. Martin, now 84, studied medicine at Oxford University, later marrying and having a family.
10 BRONIA SNOW
Bronia Snow Ringlerova will never forget the moment the Nazis invaded her home city, Prague. “I still remember the shock in the pit of my stomach,” recalls the 95-year-old today. “We, as Jews, were sitting ducks.That was very, very scary.We watched the German troops marching in.There were some people on the pavements watching this with their arms raised in a Nazi salute, and being happy to see the Germans. It was shocking.” In 1938 Bronia came to Britain via the Kindertransport.Tragically her parents and five-year-old brother Leo died at Auschwitz.
11 IVAN SHAW
Separated from his parents at the age of five, Ivan, now 83, was cared for by his aunt after his parents were sent to the camps. Betrayed by a neighbour, aged five he was taken away by the Gestapo.Waiting to be transported to a prison camp, another aunt managed to snatch him from the line and hide him in her home. After the war ended, Ivan learnt that both his parents had died – his father in Buchenwald and his mother in Bergen Belsen just days after liberation. In 1947, he came to Britain and lived in Buckinghamshire. He
worked for Marks & Spencer for 30 years and went on to have his own family.
12 MARCEL LADENHEIM
Marcel was born in Paris, in 1939, to Austrian parents. In 1941 his father was arrested by French police and sent to Auschwitz, where he later died. Hidden during the war, Marcel and his brother survived and were later able to move to Manchester to live with an aunt. Today aged 83, he lives in south London with his wife.They have three children and five grandchildren.
13 EVE KUGLER
Eve was born in the German city of Halle, where her father owned a department store. During Kristallnacht, the family home was wrecked, terrifying Eve and her sisters Ruth and Lea. Using a forged visa, the family initially fled to France, from where Eve and Ruth later travelled to NewYork.The family was reunited after the war, and Eve, 91, eventually moved to London in 1990.
14 JOHN FIELDSEND
Born in Czechoslovakia, John and his older brother Gert were placed on a Kindertransport train to Britain in 1939. His parents died in Polish concentration camps. John, now 91, married, brought up a family, and lives in Oxford.
15 ANNICK LEVER
Annick Lever was born in France in 1943 to a Jewish mother and Catholic father. Her mother is believed to have been murdered during transportation to Auschwitz, while her father joined the French Resistance, at one point rescuing his baby daughter and her cousin from prison.Annick, now 79, moved to Britain in 1963, where she married and brought up a family.This year she was awarded the British Empire Medal for her work sharing the story of the Holocaust. “I have always felt it was my duty,” she said. “I do not want anybody in this century to go through anything like it.”
FRONT ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT
16 HEDI ARGENT
Hedi was born in Vienna in 1929, where her father worked as a lawyer. Nazis took over the family home and jailed her father.The family was later ordered to leave or risk being sent to a concentration camp, so they escaped to Britain. Hedi’s parents worked as domestic servants in the Midlands. Later, Hedi, now 93, worked as a social worker, married and brought up children.
17 FREDDY BERDACH
Born in Vienna in 1930, Freddy remembers the terrifying invasion of German soldiers when Austria was annexed. Jewish shops were looted and Jewish men and women were ordered to scrub the city streets on their hands and knees in front of the occupying forces.The family ended up in Britain, where Freddy’s father joined the British army. Freddy, now 92, later married, brought up a family, and now lives in London.
18 MARIANNE SUMMERFIELD
Marianne was born in Poland in 1938. Her father, a lawyer, was initially taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp, but her mother managed to negotiate his release before the family fled to Britain. Marianne, 84, later became a teacher.
19 PETER SUMMERFIELD
Marianne’s husband Peter, now aged 89, and his identical twin brother George were born in Berlin in 1933. In August 1939, they took the last train out of Germany for the UK before war was declared. Peter later studied law at the University of Oxford and worked as a solicitor. He has been married to Marianne for more than 45 years. Together they have a large family.
20 CIRLA LEWIS
Cirla was born in Antwerp and was just five years old when the Nazis invaded Belgium. Her father and grandparents died in Auschwitz, while she and her mother hid with a family in Ghent until the end of the war. Cirla, 87, came to Britain in 1957.
21 SUSAN POLLACK
Born Zsuzsanna Blau, in Hungary in 1930, Susan Pollack was sent by cattle truck to Auschwitz in May 1944 with her family. Her parents died but incredibly she and her brother Laci survived. She was later sent to work as a slave labourer in an armaments factory. Following the war she moved to Canada, where she married and had three children. Now 92, she lives in London.
22 JANINE WEBBER
JanineWebber was born in what is now Lviv in Ukraine. Both her parents died – her father shot by the Germans and her mother succumbing to typhus. Janine, now 90, later moved to Poland, working as a maid in Krakow until liberation. In 1956 she moved to Britain.
23 HARRY OLMER
Born in Poland, Harry, now 94, was forced to work under terrible conditions as a child labourer, at one point toiling in a chemical factory. He survived appalling conditions at the Buchenwald concentration camp, moving to Britain after liberation. He later became a dentist in the British Army.
24 RUTH BARNETT
Ruth and her seven-year-old brother fled from Berlin to Britain on Kindertransport in 1939. For 10 years they lived with foster families and in hostels. Her Jewish father fled to China, while her mother, who was not Jewish, bravely protested against Gestapo internment. Ruth, now 87, later worked as a teacher.
25 RENEE SALT
Now aged 93, Renee is one of the eldest members of the group. Deported to Auschwitz, and later to Bergen-Belsen, she was clinging to life when Allied forces liberated the camp in 1945.Tragically, her mother died just 12 days later. In Paris, after the war, she met and fell in love with British soldier Charles Salt, one of the men who had helped liberate Bergen-Belsen. The couple married in 1949, settled in London and brought up two children.
26 SUSIE BARNETT
Susie was born in Hamburg. Her older brother and sisters came to Britain on Kindertransport. She later followed, as a baby, accompanied by her mother. Now aged 84, Susie worked as a French teacher, marrying and bringing up two children.
27 TOM KEVE
Tom was born in Budapest in 1944 and, aged just eight months, almost died in a ghetto, suffering from pneumonia, tuberculosis and malnutrition. After the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, he moved to London and worked as a research scientist. Now aged 78, he lives in London with his wife Gillian.