A Holocaust Survivor

Sent by email (no recording)

Dear Judith, a brief insight into my father's story.

My father was born in 1928 into a Jewish family in a place called Mucachevo near to the Carparhanian mountains at this time part of Czechoslovakia. The Hungarians took over the territory in 1938 and made everyone speak Hungarian.

My father's mother was an Orthodox Jew but my grandfather was not so. His family consisted of sisters Blanca, Jolanka and Blanka. It is thought that at the age 31yrs Blanca took her own life due to her partner being taken into a labour battalion.

In March 1941 the Germans created a ghetto in Mucachevo which encompassed the area where my father's family lived. Families were housed together.

In May 1941 my father aged 16 years was returning home to be met by his Mother and Father and sisters on a military lorry. The family with others were then transported to a brickyard and were eventually boarded onto cattle trucks. The weather was hot, a barrel for water and one for human waste. The start of a journey took place to Auschwhitz. Every so often the train would stop and dead bodies would be pushed off the train. After two days my father arrived at his destination with his family. mother and father were murdered and sisters were placed into the Hungarian women’s camp which I will follow up.

My father was in Auschwhitz for ten days and then transported to a concentration camp called Buchenwald. From there he was transferred to a camp called Dora Mittlebau where the V2 rocket was manufactured underground in a mountain. He spent five months here and was saved by a German Wehrmacht Doctor who gave him medication. That doctor also helped other prisoners. My father was liberated from Bergen Belsen on the 15th April 1945 by the British army and became a military interpreter for the military Police due to being multi-lingual.

In 1948 my father met my mother a miner's daughter who had joined the NAAFI in Germany and were later married and brought four children up. My father worked for Marks and Spencer and when I was younger attend Menston Methodist Church with both parents.

Now to go back to my father's sisters. Jolanka 22yrs Paula 25yrs. Both sisters were transferred in August 1944 to a petro refinery plant at Gelsen Kirchen the Ruhr in Germany. The girls were billeted in tents. On the 11.9.1944 the Allies bombed the refinery and one hundred and fifty women were killed. Death certificates were issued by the Nazis. In 2009 my father contacted the International tracing service in Bad Arolsen Germany. With my sister Lilian the travelled to Germany and were able to confirm that this was their fate.

In later years my father would attend schools to educate. To preach tolerance and respect for others whatever race or religion or sexual orientation.

After a further email:

Thank you Judith for your kind words. My father worked for Marks and Spencer and we lived in Guiseley near to Bob and Kathleen Normandale who were members of Menston Methodist Church which my mother and father became members of. Due to my father's work we lived in different places. For example, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, Huddersfield.

In 2020 my sister Lilian was awarded an OBE for services to Holocaust Education. She was a founding member with other women of the Northern Holocaust centre based at Huddersfield University. Sadly Lilian passed away with Covid in October 2020 before she could be awarded the honour.