Leon Greenman
| Leon Greenman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
18 December 1910 Whitechapel, London, United Kingdom 
|
| Died | 7 March 2008 (aged 97) |
| Occupation | Anti-fascism campaigner |
Leon Greenman (18 December 1910 – 7 March 2008) was a British anti-fascism campaigner and survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. He gave regular talks to school children about his experience at Auschwitz, and also wrote a book, An Englishman in Auschwitz.
The Holocaust gallery of the Jewish Museum London is dedicated to Greenman's story.
Greenman was born on 18 December 1910 in Whitechapel in the East End of London, which at the time had many Jewish residents. He had two brothers and three sisters. His mother's family were originally Russian Jews. His mother died when he was two years old, and, aged 5, he went to live in Rotterdam with his father's Dutch parents. He trained as a boxer, and returned to London where he became a barber. He also enjoyed singing, and met his future wife Esther ("Else") van Dam at an amateur operatic society in the 1930s. They married in 1935 at Stepney Green synagogue.
After honeymooning in Rotterdam, where his wife also had family, the couple settled there. Greenman joined his father-in-law's bookselling business, often travelling to London. He considered returning to live in England in the 1930s, but decided to stay in the Netherlands after hearing Neville Chamberlain's promise of "peace for our time" on the radio in 1938. His son, Barnett, known as Barney, was born on 17 March 1940. Less than two months later, on 10 May 1940, the Nazis invaded the Netherlands.
Greenman held a British passport, and had expected that he and his family would be evacuated, but the staff at the British consulate in Rotterdam disappeared and he could not escape. Even so, he expected to remain safe, as the Geneva Convention protected enemy civilians. He gave his money and passport to a non-Jewish friend to keep them safe, But, fearing that Germans may find out that he had helped a Jew, the friend destroyed the passport. Greenman and his family were sent to the Westerbork transit camp on 8 October 1942 to be deported. Despite Greenman's protestations that he was British, and should be released, he and his family joined 700 others on a train out of the Netherlands in January 1943. Proof of his nationality arrived soon after they left.
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