20 July, 2017
When Lily was a young child in Hungary, her mother gave her this small gold pendant.
In July 1944, when Lily was 14 the Nazis deported her from her town of Bonyhad with her mother, brother and three sisters. They were taken by train to Auschwitz. The small pendant went with them hidden inside the heel of her mother’s shoe. As they arrived at the camp her mother asked Lily to swap shoes with her. She never saw her again.
The guards ordered valuables to be handed over but her pendant stayed in the heel of her shoe. When the shoes wore out she placed the pendant in her daily ration of bread. After about four months in Auschwitz, the sisters were transferred to an ammunition factory near Leipzig. The pendant went with them.
Allied forces liberated Leipzig in 1945 and the sisters sought refuge in Switzerland. Lily tried to rebuild her life. She wore the pendant every day in memory of her murdered family. In 1967 she came to London with her husband and three children.
Lily still wears the gold pendant and shares its remarkable story with all those who have time to listen. Any gold arriving in Auschwitz was stolen by the Nazis so Lily believes that her pendant is unique, the only gold to enter and leave the camp with its rightful owner. Like Lily herself, it survived against the odds.
17 October, 2017
I lived in the Oval/Vauxhall/Stockwell area for a long time and was often in South Lambeth Road, which is wall to wall Portuguese cafes and shops.
All the Portuguese community were out on the streets so I went out with my camera to get these shots.
17 October, 2017
The theme for 2007 was the contribution of Sikh culture to British society, including fighting in the two world wars.
19 July, 2017
In 2008 I discovered that 17,000 Guernsey evacuees had fled to England, just before the Nazis occupied the Channel Islands. Most were sent to the industrial towns of northern England, and several thousand arrived in my home town of Stockport, Cheshire. They had to adjust to the unfamiliar landscape of industrial England and make new lives for themselves for five years until their island was liberated. Amongst the 17,000 evacuees were 5,000 school children who were evacuated with their teachers.
This photograph depicts some of the children who attended an ‘evacuee party’ organised by Stockport Council and the WRVS. A newspaper report of the time stated “The party was organised for 140 children, most of whom were from the Channel Islands. These evacuees, mostly aged 3 to 7, were greeted by the Mayor of Stockport, and the Mayoress presented gifts and toys to the children. They played games and competitions, then had tea in the Unitarian Schoolroom which consisted of a liberal array of sandwiches, jellies and cakes.”
Guernsey was liberated on 9 May 1945 and although thousands of evacuees returned home over the coming months, many chose to remain in the English towns which had welcomed them during the war.
