Scottish Auschwitz survivor dies

This video from the BBC is called Auschwitz – Surprising Beginnings.

From British daily The Morning Star:

Auschwitz survivor dies in Scotland

Monday 24 August 2009

One of Scotland’s most prominent Jewish leaders, who survived seven nazi concentration camps, has died at the age of 84.

At the age of 19, Reverend Ernest Levy was taken from his home in Budapest to the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was later transferred to Belsen.

After the war, he moved from Hungary to Scotland in 1961 and was cantor of the Giffnock and Newlands synagogue.

He wrote two books and gave educational talks on his experiences, saying it was important for young people to recognise the level of cruelty inflicted upon the Jewish community and others who incurred the wrath of the nazis.

SNP West of Scotland MSP Stewart Maxwell said: “Ernest Levy was a remarkable and inspiring man held in great affection by all who knew him.

“He will be remembered for his educational work but also as a man of great faith and decency.

“Our thoughts and condolences are with his family and many friends at this sad time.”

Holocaust survivors have commemorated the 65th anniversary of the last deportations from the Lodz ghetto to nazi death camps.

Hanna Lévy-Hass kept a journal while she was imprisoned at the Nazi interment camp Bergen-Belsen. Her writings have been collected in Diary of Bergen-Belsen, which provides a never-read-before view from a Jewish resistance fighter. Chronicling the last year inside the notorious concentration camp, Lévy-Hass tells her Holocaust survivor’s story with clarity and attention to political and social divisions inside Bergen Belsen: here.

Hundreds of people who were moved as children from their homes in war time Britain have gathered to mark the 70th anniversary of the evacuation: here.

The Channel islands under nazi occupation: here.