The Guardian obituary of singer Pete Burns revealed his mother had Jewish ancestry and was forced to flee Vienna because of her background.
The Dead or Alive frontman, who died of a heart attack this week, was the child of a German aristocrat, Evelina Maria Bettina Quittner von Hudec, whose father was Jewish. She fled Nazi persecution and escaped to Germany, where she met a British soldier, Francis Burns, whom she married.
Despite her addictions to alcohol and tranquillisers, Mr Burns had said he was very close to her and was "brought up with an incredible amount of freedom and creativity".
