They who survived the Holocaust - The Jewish Chronicle

Photographer Matt Writtle set out to capture and preserve images of those who lived through the Holocaust and went on to settle in Britain. Below is a selection of their photos - and remarkable stories of endurance

These pictures show the faces of Holocaust survivors living in London. Their images have been captured by photographer Matt Writtle for a project called Portraits For Posterity, which aims to create memorable photographs of people who lived through Nazi persecution and went on to make new lives in Britain.
Editor Jacki Reason and Jan Marsh, a writer, had the idea of approaching London-based survivors after making friends with their neighbour, 81-year-old Roman Halter, who escaped the Shoah. Halter survived the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Stutthof concentration camps, and slave labour in a factory in Dresden, before going on to become a successful architect.

Reason, who lives in Crouch End, North London, as does Writtle and Marsh, says: "We were inspired by Roman and his story and his attitude, and we felt it was important to record survivors to make sure that they're not forgotten, especially as they're getting older."

Writtle says he sought to avoid photographic flourishes and keep the focus entirely on the faces, which is why he opted for a black background and strong, simple lighting. "It's easy for a photographer to want to stamp their style on a project to get some kind of validation," he says. "I thought that was totally inappropriate for this. It's about them so I wanted to keep the style of photography as simple as possible."
The project has been funded by the Pears Foundation and individual donors so far, and Writtle and his colleagues hope that, depending on the success of further fundraising, there will be sufficient money to create more portraits and exhibit them across the country next year.

For details, email portraits4posterity@yahoo.co.uk or call 07963 700 862

Barbara Stimler (nee Krakonsi) lived happily in the town of Aleksandrow in northern Poland before the Nazis invaded. With thousands of other Jews, she was herded into crowded ghettoes. She spent time in both Kutno and Lodz, where she worked in the orphanage. Soon Barbara was an orphan herself. Her father was taken for forced labour and disappeared; her mother died in the ghetto. In 1944 Barbara was deported to Auschwitz. As the Russians advanced she was put on a forced march towards Germany. The confusion caused by Allied air-raids meant she was one of very few to escape. In summer 1946 she travelled to Britain, where she settled with her husband, Leonard. The black-and-white photo shows her as a child before the war.

Gena Turgel (neé Goldfinger) survived not one death camp but three. Born in Krakow, she and her family were confined to the Plaszow ghetto, where four of her siblings were murdered. Gena herself was forced to march through the ice and snow to Auschwitz and then again, in January 1945, to Buchenwald and to Bergen Belsen where she and her mother were liberated. In one of the most poignant love stories of the war, she married Norman Turgel (pictured with Gena above), a sergeant working for British military intelligence who was one of the first to enter Belsen. She was later awarded an OBE for services to the Holocaust Foundation.

Roman Halter, born in Chodecz, Poland in 1927 (and pictured there as a child), was one of only four Jews from his town to live through the Holocaust. In doing so, he survived Auschwitz and Stutthof death camps and slave labour in the German city of Dresden. When he came to Britain after the war, Roman qualified as an architect and started to paint - several of his artworks are displayed in the Imperial War Museum. He is married to Susie, another survivor, with whom he has three children and seven grandchildren.

Victor Greenberg grew up in the village of Majdan, now in Slovakia. In 1941 he and his family were among very few to escape when almost the entire Jewish population of the town was massacred. Their reward was to be transported to Auschwitz in 1944. Victor's family were murdered but somehow he survived to be transported to Matthausen and Gunkirchen, where he was liberated by the Americans. Victor arrived in Britain in 1946 (he is pictured above just after the war) where he manufactured costume jewellery. He has two sons, a daughter and eight grandchildren.

Trudi Levi, born Gertrud Mosonyi in Hungary in 1924, worked as an infant teacher before she and her parents were deported to Auschwitz. Her parents died there but Trudi was deported to Germany where she was a slave worker at a camp outside Buchenwald. She survived a death march towards Dresden and narrowly escaped execution before eventually being liberated by the Americans. Since arriving in Britain in 1957, Trudi has written of her experiences in two books, A Cat Called Adolf and Did You Ever Meet Hitler Miss?