Auschwitz survivor dies leaving Scot who rescued her a widower

● 92-year-old passes away with husband of 71 years by her side

An Auschwitz survivor who married the soldier who rescued her has died aged 92.

Edith “Eci” Mackay died in Balcarres Care Home in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, with her husband of more than seven decades, Second World War veteran John, by her side.

The Holocaust survivor died on Monday 26 June, following a bout of pneumonia.

A commando in the London Scottish 1st Battalion, John Mackay helped rescue a group of Jewish prisoners from Auschwitz as they marched with Nazi guards to another concentration camp. His future wife Eci was among them.

Born Edith Steiner in the Székesfehérvár region of Hungary, she lost 39 members of her family during the Holocaust.

At a dance organised in a village hall following the rescue by the British troops, Mr Mackay was too nervous to ask her for a dance, sending a friend across to ask in his stead.

Not impressed, she sent the friend back with orders that Mr Mackay should ask her to dance himself – which he did.

The couple fell in love and “doted” on each other throughout their 71-year marriage.

They married in Scotland on 17 July 1946 and referred

0 John and Edith Mackay married in 1946 and referred to each other as sweetheart every day to each other as “sweetheart” every day.

John, now 96, was born in Glasgow and raised in Brighton.

The couple lived in Edinburgh, Liverpool and Gleneagles before settling in Pitlochry, where they ran the Atholl Arms Hotel.

He also served as a local councillor for many years. In 1997 they moved to Broughty Ferry.

They have two children, Sharon Mackay and Peter Mackay, and seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Sharon said her mother “never spoke about” her time in Auschwitz, but that the story of her parents meeting each other was “amazing”.

“I think she had post-traumatic stress disorder and really struggled. She really had a lot of nightmares.

“It was 39 members of their immediate family they lost [during the Holocaust], aunties and uncles.”

However she added that her father was “lost” without his beloved wife.

Mrs Mackay only found out about one of her cousins, who had also survived the Holocaust and fled to Brazil, in February this year, after longlost family members got in touch.

Balcarres Care Home’s deputy manager Vera Scrimgoer said: “All her family was with her, John was with her as well. It was sad for them. He totally doted on her and she doted on him, it was so sad.” Eci will be laid to rest at Dundee Crematorium on Wednesday.