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Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day #HMD2019 Many of my relatives were murdered in the Holocaust solely for being Jews. Some also survived due to the extraordinary actions of people who showed the best of humanity 1/
The following pays testament to a few of those relatives who were victims of the Holocaust & also to my sister-in-law’s family, who were victims of the Cambodian genocide & 18 year old H’s family murdered in the Sudanese genocide #hmd 2/
My dad Len fled Nazi Germany alone aged 13 in 1936, when his father sent him to England. Arrested on his 16th birthday, the British interned him in Canada as an ‘enemy alien’. His school championed Len’s cause & he was sent back to the UK. He's now a lovely 95 yr old #HMD 3/
Elizabeth & Jacob Auerbach, my parental grandparents were integrated in Berlin life in the early '30s but they foresaw what was to come. They sent their children to the UK & went to Holland, where they were hidden during WWII by courageous members of the Dutch resistance #hmd 4/
Rudi Joachimsthal (maternal granddad) was 22 years old when he was rounded up after Kristallnacht & imprisoned at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Eventually he got out in '39 due to a Zionist scheme to go to Palestine. He joined the British army & settled in the UK #hmd 5/ 
Bertha and Herman Joachimsthal, Rudi’s parents (my great grandparents) were born in Germany, rounded up in Berlin and deported to Theresienstadt on 17 June 1943. Herman died there. Bertha was then deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered #hmd 6/
Katie, my maternal grandmother, saw Kristallnacht unfold - a feisty lefty, she tried to hang out a red flag but her sister stopped her! In '38 the Nazis would allow some Jews to leave if another country would take them, she got sponsored as a maid to get to England #hmd 7/
Isaak Wertheim, Katie’s father (my great grandfather) was rounded up into the Kassel ghetto in Germany by the Nazis and was deported to Theresienstadt on 7 Sept 1942 and then deported to Minsk where he was murdered #hmd 8/
My grandfather’s (Jacob Auerbach) brother Max was born in Poland, married Charlotte & they had a son Frank. In '39 they sent Frank on a boat to England. He never saw his parents again. They were murdered at Auschwitz in '43. Frank is now a internationally known artist #hmd 9/
Martha Levy was a maternal cousin. She fled to England as a lone teenager. Her sister Friedel Krieger lived in Amsterdam as an aupair. Friedel was rounded up and her place of death is unknown. Their mother Sophie Krieger lived in Nuremberg and was deported to Treblinka #hmd 10/
Ludwig Levy escaped the Nazis after his father advertised in @spectator pleading for an English sponsor for his 13 yr old son. A Christian bank manager from Cambridgeshire responded & thus saved Ludwig’s life. Ludwig met Martha, the love of his life, when he was 17 #HMD 11/
Helene (my grandfather, Jacob’s sister) & David Reich were sent to the Warsaw Ghetto & then deported 6.9.1942 & murdered at Treblinka. They had 3 children. Son Alexander was shot in Ponlatowa labor camp nr Lublin on 4.11.43. Their daughter Gerda escaped to Britain in '39 #hmd 12/
Their son Marcell Reich-Rinicki met & married Teofila in the Warsaw Ghetto & they managed to escape. They were hidden by Bolek & Genia Gawin, a Polish couple who did so at great risk. Marcell became a famous literary critic in Germany & in 2012 #hmd spoke at the Bundestag 13/
My sister-in-law Sophari was forced to the Killing Fields aged 10 by the Khmer Rouge. Her baby brothers died of starvation. Her 14 yr old sister was executed for taking a coconut. Her dad was also executed. Sophari will be at tomorrow’s #hmd event 14/ hmd.org.uk/resource/sopha…
I met H in Calais & he now lives in the UK due to the Dubs amendt. He fled the Sudanese genocide aged 12 when his mother was murdered in front of him. He doesn’t know if his father & sisters are alive. This Xmas he volunteered @crisis_uk supporting London’s homeless #hmd 15/
