This week, Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh will be visiting Bergen-Belsen as part of theit state visit to Germany. Holocaust survivors Rudi Oppenheimer and Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and British liberators Bernard Levy and Captain Eric Brown will meet Her Majesty the Queen during her visit. Ahead of this, read their brief biographies.
Rudi Oppenheimer
Rudi was born in 1931 in Berlin and lived there with his parents and his older brother Paul. His sister Eve was born in Britain and was a British citizen.
In May 1940 German troops invaded Holland, and by October 1942 Jews in Amsterdam were being rounded up and deported from the city. Rudi and his family, who had lived in Amsterdam since May 1942, managed to avoid deportation for the time being because his father was working for the Jewish Council. This gave them temporary exemption from deportation.
In June 1943, Rudi and his family were rounded up and sent to the transit camp Westerbork, situated in the north-east of Holland, not far from the German border.
Because Rudi’s sister Eve has been born in the UK, Rudi's family were now classified as “Exchange” Jews which meant that they might be exchanged for Germans interned by the Allies and were to be exempt from measures taken against other Jews.
This status allowed Rudi and his family to remain in Westerbork until February 1944, when, after spending 7 months in the camp, the Oppenheimer family were deported to Bergen-Belsen in Germany. Rudi was just 12 years old. In January 1945, Rudi's mother fell severely ill and died. Just two months later Rudi’s father also fell ill and died.
On 10 April 1945 Rudi and Paul left on the last train to leave Bergen-Belsen. After travelling for 14 days they awoke on the train to find that the SS guards had gone; Rudi, Paul and Eve, recognised soldiers from the Red Army and realised that they had been liberated. They managed to get to Leipzig with the help of the Russians, and from here they began their return journey to Holland. In June 1945, almost exactly two years after their deportation from Amsterdam, they arrived in Maastricht.
The Oppenheimers had a relative in England, so it was here that they headed to join their uncle and aunt, in London. Eve arrived in the United Kingdom in September 1945, followed by Rudi and Paul in November.
Rudi is now 83 continues to share his testimony in schools and colleges across the UK as part of the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Outreach programme and has spoken in over 1,500 schools.
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was born in Breslau which was then part of Germany and is now in Poland. She was part of an assimilated Jewish family and lived with her parents and two sisters. All three children played an instrument from a young age. Anita played the cello.
By the time Anita was 12 years old it had become impossible for her to continue to have cello lessons in Breslau. Her parents were able to arrange for her to go to Berlin where she had private tuition in school subjects and continue her cello lessons with the only remaining Jewish cello teacher in the city. However, this ended soon after Kristallnacht when Anita left Berlin to return to her family in Breslau.
Following Kristallnacht, Anita’s family, as with many other Jewish families, decided it was no longer safe to stay in Germany. However, it was incredibly difficult to emigrate and the family were not able to leave. Anita was re-enrolled at a school in Breslau and by this time Jewish students could only attend Jewish schools. It was not long before the Jewish school was closed down and Anita was conscripted to work in a paper factory. Around this time, Anita’s family were also forced to leave their home and move in with Anita’s aunt.
On 9th April 1942, Anita’s parents were deported to Isbiza near Lublin. Anita and her sisters had wanted to go with them but their father refused. Anita learnt after the war that they had been killed on arrival. Anita continued to work in the paper factory and became involved in clandestine activities, mainly forging paperwork for French Prisoners of War, who were also forced to work at the factory. As Jewish workers were not allowed to make contact with the PoWs, Anita used to pass the forged papers through a hole in the bathroom wall. One day the hole was sealed and she realised that Nazis had been watching her. Anita forged some papers for herself and attempted to escape but as she had been under Gestapo surveillance for some time she was quickly caught and arrested and imprisoned for forgery, helping the enemy and attempted escape.
After a year in prison, Anita was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. However, because of her record as a criminal she did not have to take part in the Selektion on arrival. She credits her survival at Auschwitz to the fact that she was able to join the camp orchestra. The prisoners who were part of the orchestra played by the gates of the camp as the other prisoners left for work in the morning and arrived back in the evening. The music was intended to keep their marching in time. The orchestra was also expected to be on call to play whenever a member of the SS wanted to hear music.
From Auschwitz, Anita was sent to Bergen-Belsen. On 15th April 1945, Belsen was liberated by British troops.
You can read more biographies of Holocaust survivors here.
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated by the 11th Armoured Division of the British Army on 15th April 1945. Bernard & Eric were among the members of the British forces who entered the camp in the following days and weeks.
Bernard Levy
Bernard Levy was a 19 year old corporal in the British Military Government when he arrived at the camp and immediately began supporting the relief operation. Due to the typhus epidemic in the camp, everyone going in and out had to be sprayed with DDT pesticide to try to reduce the risk of spreading the disease – this became one of Bernard’s key roles. The camp was so horrifically overcrowded and disease in the camp so rife that by the time the Army arrived, many of the survivors were barely alive, laying on the ground alongside corpses. Sorting the living from the dead became another key responsibility for Bernard.
The experience at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen was such a shock to Bernard that he was unable to speak about it for almost 70 years. In April 2015, he joined teachers and young people from across the UK as they joined the international commemorations to mark the 70th anniversary at the site of the former camp.
Captain Eric Melrose ‘Winkle’ Brown
Captain Eric Melrose ‘Winkle’ Brown is one of the greatest pilots this country has ever seen. He has flown 487 different types of aircraft and also holds the record for most aircraft carrier landings.
In April 1945, he found himself at Fassbender airfield in Northern Germany. Eric’s mission was to take charge of two German jets but while there he was overheard speaking to German ground staff by Brigadier Glyn Hughes, Medical Officer of the British 2nd Army. Realising that Eric had better German than his interpreter, the Brigadier asked him along to assist with translation.
This chance encounter would lead Eric to Bergen-Belsen and the horrors contained within its barbed wire fences. He has never forgotten the sights he encountered.
Eric was asked to help interrogate the former camp commandant, Josef Kramer, and the warden of the women’s section, Irma Grese. This was not in an official capacity; as a medical man, Hughes just wanted to know what made them tick.
After this horrifying experience, Eric left Bergen-Belsen and returned to his mission to secure the Luftwaffe jets but the memories of that horrific day are not diminished by time.