Holocaust survivor and educator Sabina Miller passed away on Sunday, aged 95.
Born in 1922 in Warsaw, Ms Miller survived the Warsaw ghetto, and spent most of the rest of the war on the run from the Nazis.
In June last year she was awarded a BEM in the Queen's Birthday Honours for her work with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT), telling her story and sharing her experiences across the UK.
As a teenager in the Warsaw ghetto she suffered from typhus and was unconscious for 18 days. When she woke up her parents had died from the same disease. She escaped the camp,and spent the rest of the war on the run from the Nazis.
She spent one winter hiding in a hole in the Polish woods: “Some farmers knew of a hole left by partisan fighters. We lived in that hole. You had to slide into it,” she said. The frostbite she suffered as a result of this time led to her having her foot amputated later in life.
She also suffered through slave labour on a farm, denying her Judaism to slip past Nazi officals and interrogations by the Gestapo.
After the war Ms Miller married Arthur, a Polish soldier who, because he was attached to the British army, had the right to resettle in the UK. Starting with a market stall, they built a fashion business, had two children, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
After moving to the UK she lived in West Hampstead, London for 50 years, working closely with the HMDT and playing a key role in the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in HMDT’s Memory Makers project, for which she received the Freedom of the City of London in recognition of her work to raise awareness of the Holocaust.
She said at the time: “After surviving the Holocaust and coming to the UK, I was apprehensive, but I fell in love with this country because what I got was kindness and acceptance.To become a Freeman of the City of London is a wonderful privilege. I hope this will help raise awareness of Holocaust Memorial Day, when everyone should reflect on the horrors of the Holocaust and genocide.”
Her collegues at the HMDT remember her as "remarkably kind, warm and generous, inspiring affection in everyone she met".
"Her legacy will continue through the powerful impact she had on so many people," said Olivia Marks-Woldman, Chief Executive of HMDT.
"We are mourning a true friend. We send our deepest sympathies to her family and hope they can take comfort in knowing that Sabina inspired and educated people across the UK."
