A Holocaust survivor, who took 50 years to tell the story of his and his family’s suffering at the hands of the Nazis, has published his memoirs at the age of 91.
Ivor Perl, from Golders Green, has written about how his happy childhood in Hungary was ripped apart when his family was deported to the ghetto and then Auschwitz in his book, Chicken Soup Under the Tree.
The author has received praise from TV personality and campaigner against antisemitism Rachel Riley MBE, who said that readers will “become his witness”, while Lord Pickles, UK envoy for post-Holocaust studies, said: “Ivor Perl changed my life and the way I thought about things. He had a profound and lasting effect on how I see the Holocaust.”
Ivor’s book was launched at Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivors’ Centre in north-west London, which Ivor attends, and £1 of every book sold will go to Jewish Care.
Ivor singing his book at the launch (Credit:Jewish Care)
At the launch, his granddaughter Lia Bratt said: “My pappa is my forever hero and anyone who knows me knows how much I love and adore him.
“But I know that he won’t always be with me to share his story, and it scares me to my core knowing that there are Holocaust deniers today and people who aren’t aware of the Holocaust and antisemitism. I feel it is my duty to ensure that the lessons in history and his story are never forgotten.”
The book, which Ivor wrote so his descendants would know about his experiences, charts his early years, growing up in a loving Orthodox home in Makó, south-eastern Hungary, before the family was deported to the ghetto and later to Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, where Ivor was prisoner 112021.
Enduring starvation, forced labour and cruelty, Ivor was separated from his parents and all his siblings except for his older brother Alec. His parents and his seven brothers and sisters were all murdered by the Nazis.
Ivor and Alec were forced to go on a notorious 500-mile death march. They seized the opportunity to escape in early May 1945 when the Allies started to bomb the camps. In his book, Ivor writes that Alec "was not only my best friend but also the man who saved me from certain death many times. I owe everything to him because without him, I would not be here today.”
The brothers were part of a group of around 700 young Holocaust survivors known as The Boys, who came to the UK after the war. There, Ivor met his late wife Rhoda, moved to north-east London and went on to have four children, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Ivor dedicates his book, which will be used in schools, to Rhoda, “who gave me a family in England and whose love nurtured me from a scared boy into a resilient man”.
Ivor with four generations of his family at his book launch (Credit: Jewish Care)
Ivor started to share his experience of the Holocaust only 50 years after coming to the UK, when the shul where he was a warden asked him to speak at a remembrance event. Since then, he has given hundreds of talks to schools, football clubs and other organisations. He has also returned to Makó and to Auschwitz with his family. In 2016, Ivor received the honour of a British Empire Medal in recognition of his services to Holocaust education.
Speaking at the launch event, Lord Pickles said that the theme of International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance conference, which the UK is hosting next year, will be “in Ivor’s words, ‘in plain sight’ because, as he told me, standing together when we visited the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz: ‘The Holocaust did not happen in dark corners hidden away. The Holocaust happened in broad daylight, in plain sight – with the world watching.’”
Chicken Soup Under the Tree
£8
Lemon Soul Publishing
Copies of Ivor’s book can be pre-ordered here
