Born Berlin, March 13, 1923. Died Sheffield, October 28, 2008, aged 85.
December 23, 2008 11:29By
Deprived of family and background, Harry Brooke rediscovered Judaism and family unexpectedly in middle age.
Born Heinz Steiner, he was brought up by his grandmother in Berlin as his parents were divorced. She sent him to Britain at 16 on a Kindertransport but he was interned and deported to Australia as an enemy alien.
Released in 1942, he returned to Britain and joined the Pioneer Corps. Volunteering for the Parachute Regiment in 1944, he was dropped as a sergeant in the 8th Para Battalion ahead of the D-Day forces on the Normandy beaches.
He was warned that if captured he would be shot twice — as a German traitor and a Jew. He always retained a strong German accent and his Para friends called him Fritz.
He married the Derbyshire girl he met during Para training. Some 18 years later when they divorced, he was contacted by a half-sister he knew nothing about. His father had remarried in Switzerland and his older daughter traced through the British Army the half-brother she had heard about.
Living in Sheffield, Harry became friendly with two stalwarts of the Jewish community, Armin Krausz and his son, Neville. From them he filled his gap in Jewish knowledge with thorough-going Jewish studies.
While attending a lecture on the Dead Sea scrolls, he met a young widow who became his lifelong friend and partner. With his life rounded out, he joined Sheffield Reform Community. He is survived by a son and by his partner.
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