Memoirs of a Child Holocaust Survivor

A Holocaust survivor recounts his memories from pre-war Poland to liberation, honoring lost family and culture. These are the memories of a man who had been a young Jewish boy in Central Poland. His ninth birthday came in mid-July 1939. Less than two months later they are his memories of the Nazi era, from the very beginning of WW11 until he was liberated by the Russians on the 8 May 1945. This age of death when the Nazis attempted the absolute annihilation of all Jews in Europe regardless of age, character, or gender, is now referred to as the Holocaust. These memories include those of his vibrant family life in Poland before the war. They are his homage and his memorial to his parents, his little sister and numerous uncles, aunts and cousins who were wiped out by the Nazis along with centuries of their culture. Arriving in the UK on 14 August 1945 he was in the first group of Concentration Camp child survivors brought into England at the invitation of King George V1. The story of these children's arrival and initial rehabilitation in the Lake District is also told in the 2020 BBC film: The Windermere Children. His memories conclude with some glimpses of his life immediately after liberation, and later when he made his home in the UK. From dozens of known relatives living in their town when war began, he and his elder brother thought for a long time that they were the only two survivors. Later they discovered there was a third survivor, an even younger cousin. All the material concerning life in Poland, life during the war and vignettes of post war life were checked by the survivor as being true to what he remembered. He also wanted to include something about how the author, his second wife, came to meet him, and this tale begins the book.