Today is National Holocaust Memorial Day and this brought to mind my late Parents-in Law’s neighbour. Her name was Helen Lewis. She was born to a German-speaking Jewish family in Trutnov in Bohemia (Czech). She married Paul Hermann in 1938. During the second World War they were deported to Terezin in 1942 and to Auschwitz in 1944.
On arriving at Auschwitz they were separated and Helen realised very quickly that this was “Not a place to live, but a place to die.” She survived two so-called selections by the notorious Angel of Death, Josef Mengele. Her husband, Paul died there.
After the war Helen remarried and moved to Belfast in 1947. They had two sons, one of whom was in the same school year as my husband. Helen made her name as an Author and Choreographer and became a pioneer of Modern Dance in N. Ireland. She was awarded an MBE for this work.
I remember Helen as an elegant petite lady who held her head high. During a film about her life, made when she was an elderly lady, she recounted with clarity and in detail, her time during the war. The terrible memories never left her.
Thank You Lord for helping us to cope with the bad times and then to enjoy the good. Help us to support our neighbours and to be there in their hours of need.