Gena Turgel

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Gena Turgel (1987)

Gena Turgel MBE (born February 1, 1923 as Gena Goldfinger in Krakow ; † June 7, 2018 ) was a Polish - British author and Holocaust survivor .

Life

Gena Goldfinger grew up as the youngest of nine children in a wealthy family in central Krakow. Her father Samuel died when she was seven years old. Her mother Estera was involved in the Women's Society , the forerunner of the Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO). Gena himself was a member of the Zionist youth organization HaNoar HaTzioni . By attending a Protestant school from the age of 14, she acquired German language skills.

She was 16 years old when the German Wehrmacht on 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland, the Second World War unleashed. She came to the Kraków ghetto with her family . One of her brothers was shot dead by an SS man in the ghetto , another brother fled and has since been considered missing . A sister and her husband were shot while trying to smuggle food into the Plaszow concentration camp , where Gena Goldfinger was later deported herself .

In the winter of 1944 Gena Goldfinger and her mother had to march from there to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp ; they had to leave one more sister behind whom they never saw again. In January 1945 there was a death march to the Buchenwald concentration camp until she was transported to Bergen-Belsen by cattle wagon . There Gena Goldfinger worked in the infirmary, where she cared for the fifteen-year-old fatally ill Anne Frank .

The British soldier Norman Turgel, whom she married six months later in Lübeck , was involved in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in April 1945 . She went to England with her husband, who was also a Jewish believer, and settled in Hendon in north-west London. The British press then named her the "Bride of Belsen". Her wedding dress, sewn from a British Army parachute, is on display in London's Imperial War Museum . The couple had three children. After the death of her husband, she lived in Stanmore, a district of the London Borough of Harrow, until her death .

In 1987 Turgel published the autobiographical book I Light a Candle with journalist Veronica Groocock , which was recorded on cassette in 1992 . She went to schools and universities as a contemporary witness . For her efforts to educate adolescents about the genocide of the Jews, she was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elisabeth II in 2000 . Her grave is in the Jewish Cemetery in Bushey , Hertfordshire .

Works

Web links

Commons : Gena Turgel  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Harriet Sherwood: Gena Turgel, Holocaust survivor known as Bride of Belsen, dies. In: theguardian.com. June 8, 2018, accessed June 12, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Bride of Belsen Holocaust survivor Gena Turgel dies aged 95. BBC News. June 9, 2018, accessed June 10, 2018.
  3. ↑ a b United Synagogue Women: Lifestory of Holocaust Survivor Gena Turgel MBE. April 24, 2015, accessed September 14, 2018.
  4. ↑ a b : Nearly a thousand attend Holocaust survivor Gena Turgel's funeral . June 13, 2018, accessed September 14, 2018.
  5. ↑ Patrick Sawer: 'Bride of Belsen' who survived four death camps dies aged 95. In: telegraph.co.uk. June 9, 2018, accessed June 12, 2018 .
  6. ^ Penny Marshall: The Bride of Belsen: A love story born amidst the horror. In: itv.com. April 21, 2015, accessed June 11, 2018.
  7. ↑ dress, wedding, parachute silk, Belsen. At Imperial War Museums .
  8. ↑ James Morris: Holocaust memorial: Gena Turgel tells Islington pupils 'it's my duty to tell survival story'. In: Islington Gazette. January 30, 2017, accessed on June 11, 2018 (English, with portrait photo).
  9. ↑ Gas chamber survivor found love . In: The Telegraph . January 26, 2005, accessed June 11, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Turgel, Gena
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goldfinger, Gena (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish-British author and Holocaust survivor
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Krakow
DATE OF DEATH 7th June 2018