Thursday 26 January 2023

Imperial War Museums - Holocaust Survivor: Sir Ben Helfgott, MBE

 

‘I despaired but I did not let cruelty and injustice break my spirit.’
27 January is Holocaust Memorial Day - the international day to remember the millions murdered under Nazi persecution. It also commemorates all those killed during more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place every year on the anniversary of the liberation of the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. On this day, people across the world come together to learn about the past and take action for a safer future. 

At IWM, we are marking Holocaust Memorial Day with the opening of Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors, a free photography exhibition at IWM North. 

The portraits in this exhibition highlight the experiences of survivors who made the UK their home after beginnings marked by unimaginable loss and trauma. They are a celebration of the rich lives these survivors have lived and the legacy which their descendants will carry into the future.

Among those featured in the exhibition is Sir Ben Helfgott, MBE. Born in Piotrków, Poland, in 1929, Ben was nine years old at the outbreak of the Second World War. His family were forced to move into the Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto shortly after the German occupation of Poland in 1939. 

Ben endured appalling conditions in the ghetto, which was overcrowded and unsanitary. In October 1942, Ben’s grandfather was sent to the Treblinka death camp, along with 22,000 of the ghetto’s 24,000 Jewish inhabitants.

Having escaped the deportations, Ben’s mother and youngest sister Luisa were later among 520 Jews taken to the woods and shot. They had voluntarily come out of hiding after the Nazis declared an amnesty for those that did so. 

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Sir Ben Helfott MBE with his grandson Sam at his home in London. © Frederic Aranda.
Following the liquidation of the ghetto in August 1944, Ben and his father were sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. Ben’s sister Mala was deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Ben was then separated from his father and sent to Schlieben, before finally being transported to Theresienstadt. Three weeks after his arrival, Theresienstadt was liberated by Soviet troops.

A few days before the end of the war, Ben’s father was shot while trying to escape a death march. Death marches were forced long distance marches in extremely harsh conditions. Prisoners were brutally mistreated by SS guards and those unable to continue were murdered or left to die. 

After the war, Ben emigrated to the UK with a group of young survivors known as ‘The Boys’. He initially settled in Calgarth, Cumbria, on the shores of Lake Windermere. In 1947, he was reunited with Mala.

Despite everything he had been through, Ben was imbued with an extraordinary dedication to help those in need. As chairman of the ’45 Aid Society, he helped raise funds to further Holocaust education and support other survivors. Ben says of his ordeal:
 
‘My Holocaust experience may have hardened me, made me more realistic about human nature but I was repelled by the evil I witnessed. I despaired but I did not let cruelty and injustice break my spirit.’

Ben has dedicated his life to ensuring that the youngsters who arrived with him in the UK would stay in touch and continue to support each other. They have done so for over seventy years.

Ben also competed in two Olympic Games, representing Britain as captain of the weightlifting team in Melbourne in 1956 and in Rome in 1960. He also captained the team at the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff. 

In the Generations exhibition, Ben is pictured in several portraits. One of the most powerful, captured by Frederic Aranda, also features his grandson Sam. The composition alludes to both Ben’s sporting career and the connection between him as a survivor and the younger generations of his family.

Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors is now open at IWM North until summer 2023. Free entry. Find out more.