Fred Austin, who escaped the horrors of the Holocaust as a young boy of 10 and went on to become an educator who received an MBE for his charity work, has died at the age of 90.
Mr Austin was born Fredi Stiller in 1928 to a Jewish family in Ostrava, a city in the north east of what was then Czechoslovakia. His father, a former officer in the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War, died when he was a baby. His mother ran a haberdashery shop in the city, where he lived
In March 1939, the young boy was woken by a noise in the street outside. Peering out of the window, he saw German soldiers marching into the town square. Hitler had completed his invasion of the country, having occupied the Sudetenland region six months earlier.
Four days later, he was put on a train by his mother and two older sisters, Ilse and Trude.
The young boy had been incredibly fortunate; a private arrangement had been made for a man in England, named Philip Austin, to sponsor a 14-year-old Jewish boy from Vienna to come to Britain.
However, at the last minute the Nazis reduced the age limit of Jewish children allowed to exit areas under their control. The 14-year old’s mother asked Fredi’s mother if she wanted to send him instead.
He would never see his mother of sisters again. The Nazis forced them into a ghetto, after which they were sent to Theresienstadt, and then to Treblinka, where they were murdered on 5 October 1942.
Despite only knowing three words of English when he arrived in the UK – “hot”, “cross” and “bun” – just a few years later the young man - now known as Fred Austin - managed to get into Leicester University. He was subsequently to become the youngest grammar school headmaster in the country.
While in his first position as headteacher, he would meet Margaret Colam, an English teacher from Grismby. Their marriage would last for more than 70 years, until her death last November.
Unable to conceive, they would adopt four children. David, now the chief executive of the British Board of Film Classification; Ian, who serves as an MP for Dudley North; Helen, who is a nutritional therapist and former teacher and Becky, one of the country’s leading midwives.
A strong supporter and fundraiser for the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET), he was also involved in the Association of Jewish Refugees in the West Midlands.
HET described how “our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends”, calling Mr Austin “an avid supporter of Holocaust education and remembrance. He wanted young people to learn about the Holocaust, and what happened when the Nazis and their collaborators tried to murder the Jews of Europe.
“Up until the very end, Fred determinedly supported this cause. In September last year, Fred joined His Royal Highness Prince William as he unveiled a memorial close to Fred’s hometown in the West Midlands to remember Major Frank Foley, a former British MI6 agent and Hero of the Holocaust, who saved over 10,000 Jewish lives.”
Ian Austin has previously spoken about how his father’s experiences had a deep effect on him, writing in the Guardian last year about how he “grew up listening to my dad telling me about the Holocaust and about the evils of racism. That motivated me to join the Labour party when I was a teenager, and the first thing I did when I became an MP was to lead a campaign to drive out the BNP from Dudley.”
In February of this year, when Ian Austin announced his decision to leave Labour and sit as an independent MP after a significant period of the party being embroiled in an antisemitism scandal, he described how “I don’t think I could look my dad in the eye if I stayed in the Labour party.”
When asked what his father’s reaction had been to him leaving the party, the MP said it had been “you’re doing the right thing. I thought you would do this and I completely understand why you’ve done this.”
Fred Austin is survived by his four children, David, Ian, Helen and Becky, and ten grandchildren.
