The Holocaust Educational Trust is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of our dear friend Mirjam Finkelstein.
Mirjam was born in Berlin on 10th June 1933. In 1934 her father, Alfred Wiener, an early objector against the Nazis, moved his family to Amsterdam in the hope that it would be safer there. However, after the German invasion of the Netherlands, Mirjam, her mother and sisters were taken to Westerbork transit camp in June 1943 and then to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp later that year. Thanks to false Paraguayan passports that their father had managed to obtain in London - where he had managed to find safe haven in 1939 - she was included in a prisoner exchange at the Swiss border in January 1945, months before the camp was liberated. Her mother, who had become very ill during the journey, sadly died just hours after the exchange was made.
Mirjam later settled in London with husband Ludwik and had children Daniel, Tamara and Anthony.
Karen Pollock, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said:
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Mirjam Finkelstein. Mirjam’s remarkable story reminds us of both the profound courage, but also the crucial luck, that was needed to survive the Holocaust. She will be remembered, not only by her family who I know loved her dearly, but also by all of us at the Holocaust Educational Trust.”