Paul Oppenheimer: in tribute

11 Mar 07 - Paul Oppenheimer, a survivor of the Holocaust and one of the most frequent speakers at the Holocaust Centre from its inception, passed away on Thursday 8 March following a short illness. He was 78.  

"It is with great sorrow that we mourn the passing of a courageous Holocaust survivor, a staunch colleague and a beloved friend," says Dr James Smith, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Centre and Aegis Trust. "We will miss him as we would a member of our own family. His loss will also be sorely felt by the team at the Holocaust Centre. Our thoughts are with his family at this sad time. In due course we will find a way to remember and celebrate Paul’s life, work and contribution at the Centre, which was considerable."

Surviving Belsen

Paul, together with his brother Rudi and sister Eve, survived the Nazi concentration camp at Belsen in which his parents died. Born in Berlin on 20 September 1928, Paul,  with Rudi and their mother Friederike (Rita) moved to England in March 1936, where Eve was born three months later. In September 1936, the four of them left for Holland to rejoin their father, Johann (Hans). On 20 June 1943, the family was deported from Amsterdam to the prison camp at Westerbork; for most, a staging-post en route to death camps such as Sobibor or Auschwitz . Because of Eve's British nationality, however, in February 1944 the five of them were sent to the so-called 'star camp' at Bergen-Belsen , to be held as potential exchange prisoners. Paul's mother Rita died on 17 January 1945. His father, Hans, died two months later on 20 March. On 10 April 1945, five days before Belsen 's liberation by the British Army, the siblings were put on the last prisoner transport train out of the camp, which travelled in circles for the next two weeks as Allied Forces closed in on remaining Nazi territory. On 23 April, they were liberated at Tröbitz by the Red Army.

Recognised by the Queen

In November 1945, the Oppenheimers arrived in the UK, where they would try to build new lives.  In January 1947, Paul moved to Birmingham . After seven years of evening study, in 1954 he gained a first-class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering, followed in 1955 by a Masters in Thermodynamics. He became a chartered automobile engineer, and in 1990 was awarded an MBE for services to the motor industry and his work on international road vehicle safety standards. Local media interest in the MBE rapidly turned to interest in the contrast between Paul's professional success and his tragic past, as a survivor of Belsen .

Part of the Holocaust Centre’s team

Well before the opening of the Holocaust Centre in 1995, Paul and his family had met the Centre's founders, Stephen and James Smith, as they planned its creation. In his book 'Making Memory', Stephen - now Chairman of the UK's Holocaust Memorial Day Trust - credited Paul as one of the survivors 'who gave enormous encouragement to our efforts prior to opening.'In 1996, Stephen worked with Paul to edit and publish his memoirs, 'From Belsen to Buckingham Palace ', which have now sold well over 10,000 copies and are in their seventh print run.Since then, Paul and his brother Rudi have travelled the country and regularly visited the Holocaust Centre to share their story with a new generation and offer insights into the consequences of prejudice and exclusion. Paul himself addressed audiences about his experience on more than 600 occasions.

Belsen revisited

In 2005, the Holocaust Centre arranged for Paul and his family, with Rudi, Eve and fellow survivors of Belsen , to revisit the camp for the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of liberation. The trip was organised by Dr Stephen Smith."I think the most important thing for me on this visit was that I had my three children with me, the youngest grandchild, my wife, and my brother and sister who survived in Belsen ," Paul reflected at the end of the visit. "One of the big gaps that I find in my story is that there are many things I would like to know, and it’s too late, we didn’t ask any questions. I wanted to give my children the opportunity to ask the questions. Why did you do this Dad? What was it like here? And maybe questions that they wouldn’t like to ask in public. So that was the main reason why I came to Belsen this time."The visit saw an emotional reunion between Paul, Rudi, Eve and their friend of 60 years earlier, Sonia Birnbaum, whose mother, Hennie, had taken Eve under her wing in Belsen after the death of the Oppenheimers' parents. Having lost contact after liberation, they had never been able to track down the Birnbaums to thank them again, until by chance they sat down at the same table at the British Army reception following the anniversary commemorations.

Paul’s legacy

Dr Thomas Rahe, Director of the Bergen-Belsen Documentation Centre, says of Paul Oppenheimer's memoirs:"They are a valuable historical document - especially concerning the fate of children in Bergen-Belsen . They are also a fascinating life-history of a Jewish family before, during and after the Holocaust. This unsentimental and very readable book does not enable us to understand the Holocaust as a whole, but it at least acquaints us with some of its victims, their hopes and fears, their lives and fates, as individuals like you and me. Oppenheimer's book reminds us just how much history consists of stories."The last word goes to Paul himself. At the close of his testimony, he states:"Nothing is left of the stench of rotting corpses. Now only the memory remains, and we who bear it. We can only say what we saw, and hope that it means something to you. One cannot imagine the filth, the fear, or the horror of those years which are, thankfully, behind us. It is a world in which, though we hope it will never be witnessed again, we must nevertheless try to understand."Paul is survived by his wife, three children and seven grandchildren. His funeral was held in Birmingham on Friday 9 March.

A short film of the 60th Anniversary visit to Belsen will be posted to this site in the next few days.