The Holocaust Educational Trust is saddened to hear of the passing of our friend Eugene Black.
Eugene was born in Munkacs in Czechoslovakia, which in 1938 became part of Hungary (and is now in Ukraine). His town had approximately 25,000 residents, of whom around 11,000 were Jewish.
In March 1944, all of the Munkacs Jews were forced into a ghetto. Soon after being moved to the ghetto, Eugene and his family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, along with the other Jews from the town. Within 15 minutes of arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Eugene was separated from his mother, father and two sisters, all of whom were sent directly to the gas chamber.
Eugene was held at Auschwitz-Birkenau for a short time before being sent by train to Buchenwald concentration camp and from there to Dora-Mittleband, where he was put to work for five months as a slave labourer working on the V1 and V2 rockets. From Dora, Eugene was transferred to yet another camp, where he developed pneumonia and was sent to the camp hospital. While in hospital he was nursed back to health by a Nazi Wehrmacht officer, who saved his life.
As the Allies advanced, Eugene was deported, first by train and then on foot, to Bergen-Belsen, where he was liberated by the British army on 15th April 1945. After he was liberated, Eugene was able to meet up with a friend from whom he had been separated in summer 1944. The two were befriended by a member of the British Medical Corps, who arranged for them to join the British army regiment that had liberated Bergen-Belsen.
Eugene remained in the army for three and a half years. After leaving the army he met his future wife who he married in 1949. They went on to have four children. Eugene and his wife settled in the UK, where he started working for Marks and Spencer, where he remained until he retired.
Eugene regularly shared his testimony in schools through the Trust's Outreach programme, meeting students all across the country.