Bradford College

Surviving the Holocaust

In a commitment to remember the past and create a better future, Holocaust Survivor, Harry Bibring retold his remarkable and poignant story of survival when he visited Bradford College to mark the 70th anniversary of World War II.

Harry, an extraordinary and humbling man told students and staff about his own experience of the Holocaust - and how it shaped his life and the life of his family.

With the support of Sixth Form Centre Curriculum Team Leader, Veronique Leygue, student Paulina Pejka, invited Holocaust Survivor Harry Bibring to Bradford College. Pauline had visited Auschwitz in Poland during an earlier trip and realised the importance of bringing his story to life - in remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust.

Harry’s childhood before the outbreak of war was full of fond memories of innocence, freedom and fun.  In his opening address, Harry told students and staff at Bradford College: “I was born in Vienna on 26th December 1925. I lived with my parents and my older sister in a block of flats; in what was considered a middleclass district in Vienna.  There was only a small community of Jewish people that lived there… we were certainly a minority group.” 

“My father ran a successful menswear business, which he started before he met my mother.  It was a store that sold: suits, coats, jackets and that kind of thing. As it was a successful business we were fortunate enough to have a privileged upbringing, which included going on vacation every year.”

Speaking of his early childhood memories Harry said: “I developed a couple of really great hobbies during my very early life. From the age of about 5, I learnt to swim. I enjoyed swimming in the lakes and rivers surrounding the areas where we lived.  The second passion I developed was one for ice-skating and speed skating.  I loved nothing more that spending my afternoons after school at the ice rink.”

Harry smiled and said: “Now I have to confess I was a terrible child.  A) I wouldn’t learn.  B) I was late. C) I was the most misbehaved child that you could ever wish to come across. I caused more trouble for my parents than I care to remember.  Harry Bibring was bad news wherever he went!  If I could get away with not doing my homework, I’d be on the ice rink instead. It was as simple as that.  I had a season ticket, which meant I didn’t have to ask for money to go there.”

At the age of 10 for the first time in his life, Harry Bibring did some serious thinking. He had a problem. He’d seen people going to work early in the morning and coming home late at night – when did they find time to skate? Harry explained:  “It struck me that going to work at the age of 14 was a bad idea. So I said to my parents, ‘I’m going to try and pass my exams.’ Well a grin swept across my fathers face, and he said to me, ‘By all means, we’ll give you every encouragement possible.’  Although secretly they thought, ‘Harry is never going to pass that exam’.”  Harry showed them otherwise and passed his exams, which meant he was able to secure his place at grammar school. Harry explained: “It was a privilege to be there. In the first year the marks I brought home were atrocious – but none the less I loved the school.”

On March 12th  1938, Germany invaded and the enthusiasm that followed gave Hitler the cover to annex Austria outright on March 13th, creating a political union between the two counties.  Harry recalls having the doubtful privilege of seeing Hitler.  He said “I remember seeing the troupes coming into the capital city and seeing Hitler from our block of flats.  It pretty much stuck in my mind - seeing him give the Nazi salute as he came into Vienna.”

Harry said:  “As you could imagine I wasn’t interested in politics or anything serious of that nature.  I was only 12 years old and like most kids I was not that well informed about political situations.  Although I did ask my parents if these changes would affect me, because I’d heard that that Jews in Germany were having a rough time.” Harry’s parents were keen to protect Harry and his sister from the severity of the war and the implications of being Jewish in a Nazi regime.  Harry explained: “My parents responded by telling me I had no cause for concern and the only thing I needed to worry about was changing my lifestyle.  I needed to start behaving myself and start doing my homework.”

Harry returned to school after the weekend, only to discover that things had changed for him and the other Jewish children at his grammar school.  “The thing that I found immediately was that the non Jewish children wanted nothing to do with me. The Jewish children of course were quite normal with me, asking me what I’d done over the weekend.”  Harry added:  “So I decided to go home and ask my mum why I was suddenly being treated differently.  My mum explained that there was a lot of propaganda around over the weekend about how bad the Jews were.  The children had probably been instructed by their parents to avoid Jewish children.”

After the Anschluss in 1938, Harry was forced to leave his German grammar school and was transferred to a secondary school. Harry said:  “I couldn’t believe this was really happening.  I’d earned the right to be there.  I’d remembered the blood and sweat I’d put into my exam revision to secure a place at the grammar school.”  When Harry arrived at his new school he found school life increasingly difficult.  Harry explained: “If you can imagine because of the propaganda that was started about Jewish people, when we arrived at the school everyone hated us… they didn’t see us a human – even the teachers hated us too. How could these teachers ever hope to get other jobs, when on their CV it would say they had taught Jewish children? As you can imagine I was a very unhappy child.”

Things also changed for Harry when he went to his beloved ice rink to skate using his season ticket. Harry said:  “I used to walk past the ticket barrier flashing my ticket to the lady sitting behind the ticket office.  She’d known me since the age of 5. Suddenly she shouted out ‘Harry Bibring!’ I said ‘Yes?’ She said ‘Can’t you read?’ ‘Read… read what?’ What am I supposed to read?’ I said.  She replied ‘That notice over there!’  She pointed in the direction of the notice, which clearly said: This ice rink is closed to Jews.  ‘Oh really, sorry I didn’t notice it. It can’t apply to me though as I’ve got a season ticket.’ ‘You are Jewish aren’t you.’ She said.   She knew I was Jewish, she didn’t need to ask the question.  ‘Yes I’m Jewish.’ I replied ‘Well it’s closed to you’, she said. ‘Go home!’  ‘Well it can’t be?  This is my second home.  What about my skates and my things in my locker?’ I said.”

Harry couldn’t get home quickly enough speak to his mother about what had just happened at the ice skating rink. “It was disaster as far as I was concerned.”  My mother said ‘Well I did tell you that things are going to change a bit and you may have some difficulties.’  ‘Some difficulties… some difficulties – you’re not talking about anything small. It’s my life – I skate, that’s what I do.  That’s me.’ Harry added: “The cinema was another area of entertainment that was off limits to Jewish people.  My sister Gerta loved going to the cinema so she disobeyed the order and had one of her non Jewish friends buy tickets for her, so she could continue to watch films at the cinema.  I’ll never forget the day my parents found out that she was flouting this order.  Only my parents knew the severity of her actions – and that it could have lead to her been thrown into a concentration camp, just like that, if she’d been found out.”

Harry continued: “On November 10th 1938 my father's menswear business was looted and destroyed during Kristallnacht. My father was arrested and my family and I were forced to leave our flat.  We walked out of the flat and the Nazi officers put a seal across the door with a big swastika sign on that stipulated that the seal was not to be broken by any unauthorised person.  Outside I was to meet another disturbing sight.  The Nazi soldiers had rounded up Orthodox Jewish men and were making them scrub the streets, while men, women and children gathered around them to beat, punch and kick them. I said to my mum as we walked behind the Nazi officers, ‘What is going on?  What have they done?’ My mother responded by saying it was terrible, but was unable to answer my question.  It was beyond her comprehension why this was occurring – she simply didn’t have an answer. To this day, the image of those men been beaten and abused still disturbs me.”

We were then taken to the Nazi headquarters and told to wait with other women and children. As we waited, the room filled with more women and children. When the room was full, we were rounded up and told to march behind the officers.  We didn’t know where we were going – I was terrified and clung onto my mum like a three year old.  We finally arrived at a house and we were thrown in, together with 50 other Jewish women and children. We were put under house arrest.  The problem arose immediately – what were we going to do for food?  The lady who’s house it was, lived there on her own. We’re talking about a period when freezers didn’t exist.  She had enough food to feed herself, but not enough food to feed the rest of us.  The ladies tipped out their handbags to see what money they could get together to buy food.  But how would they get out?  My sister volunteered to sneak out.  She said no one would pay attention to a small child going out.  My sister went out and turned the money into food and brought it back as bread, margarine and whatever else she could buy.” 

“We were there for about ten days. We were just about coming to the end of the food, when there was knock on the door from a Nazi officer telling us we could return home.  Not everyone was a lucky as us, with people sadly ending up in concentration camps.”

“We arrived home to find my father had also been released.  By this point we knew we had to leave Vienna. The intention was for my family to flee to Shanghai, but my father was robbed on his way to buy the tickets.” Fearing for the safety of their children, Harry’s parents decided that Harry and his sister should leave for the United Kingdom on a Kindertransport train.  The plan was for them to be sponsored by a family friend and for Harry’s parents to join them as soon as they could.  Harry said: “I could not possibly describe to you the scene at the railway station.  If you could imagine seeing 600 children saying goodbye to their parents and going on a journey where their parents knew better than their children, that they would probably never see each other again.”

Harry explained:  “When my sister and I arrived in the United Kingdom we were greeted by Mr. Landsman.  My father had arranged for Mr. Landsman to act as our sponsor and shelter us.  Unfortunately there was no room to house the two of us, so we had to be separated.”

Harry and his sister Gerta looked forward to receiving news from home.  Their mother wrote to them assuring them that the family would soon be together again.  In a letter to her children, Harry’s mother said: ‘Dearest Children, Since January this is the fifth letter I have replied to. I’m pleased that you are in good health.  Live well. Much love for your whole life.  I press you against my heart. Mother.’

Harry said:  “These words, were words of despair. My mother knew exactly what was going to happen to her, just like all the other Jewish people that had been taken to concentration camps.”

Harry and his sister replied to the letter and sent many more but never received a response.  Harry said:  “We concluded that my mother must have been taken to a concentration camp.”

Sadly and tragically Harry and his sister never saw their parents again. In November 1940 Harry’s father died of a heart attack on his way to the concentration camp.
His mother was also deported to the death camp at Sobibor in Poland in 1942.  Harry discovered this sad and shocking news post war.  Harry said: “I prayed all my life that my mother wasn’t at the death camp very long, because from there people were dispatched to an extermination camp.” Adding:  “People gasp when I say this, but my father was a lucky man.  If you think about it, he died a natural death and was buried in a proper grave, which I can visit and do visit.  He escaped the horrors that my mother had to befall.”

“When war broke out on September 3rd 1939, the school I attended in Hackney was evacuated to Fletton, near Peterborough. I was billeted with the Headmaster of the local grammar school who offered me tremendous support and was instrumental in helping me with my education.”

“After my 14th birthday, I left school and returned to London, only to find my sister was no longer in the city, having been evacuated with Mr Landsman`s family. Now the house stood empty, there was room for me to live with Mr Landsman.
I began working as an errand boy for him in one of his shops. But feeling uncomfortable with the situation, I moved in with my sister, Gerta, who was now living in London in different lodgings.”

On his 18th birthday, Harry applied to join the RAF. Harry explained: “I passed all the physical and educational requirements but because my mother was believed to be alive and living in enemy territory, I was turned down on the grounds that, if captured, this would be a tool the enemy could use to get information from me.  They offered to enroll me in the Pioneer Corps but I did not fancy digging latrines.”
 
In May 1945 Harry met his wife-to-be-Muriel.  Two years later they were married.
Following his marriage to Muriel, Harry decided to realise his ambition and study to become a Chartered Engineer. Harry enrolled on evening classes at a variety of colleges, whilst continuing to work full time to support his family.   Harry explained: “After 14 years of study I qualified as a Chartered Engineer with management qualifications. After working for 20 years as a Manufacturing Engineer in industry, I went on to become a lecturer at Middlesex University.”

Harry continues to live in the United Kingdom.  He has one son, Michael and two grandchildren, Lee and Nikki. Harry’s testimony is featured on the interactive DVD-ROM teaching resource Recollections: Eyewitnesses Remember the Holocaust.

In conclusion Harry said: “Some of you may wonder why I talk about my experiences of the Holocaust?  I’m trying to get over to people what discrimination for the purposes of doing harm to sections of people can lead to. The Holocaust was undoubtedly the worst example of all.  In the Holocaust 6 million people died.  They weren’t all Jews. There were quite a number of gypsies, which the Nazi’s regarded as subhuman, any disabled person was considered subhuman and they would be exterminated simply because they were disabled. There were also some strong communists that came into the same category, but that was more for political reasons.”

Harry continued: “You would think that this kind of discrimination would have died with the Holocaust – but it hasn’t. It goes on this very day.  There are places around the world where people are killed because they belong to the wrong tribe or they have a different religion, or they are not following the religion that they ought to be following or because of the colour of their skin.  This has got to stop. We need to educate people.  I’m very passionate about this.  If we don’t stop doing this, we have no hope. Somewhere we have to draw the line. If I can get the message across to even one person and it can make a difference – then I have achieved my goal.”

Harry’s message will undoubtedly resonate in the lives of the students and staff at Bradford College, whose good fortune it was to have met him –truly a remarkable, extraordinary and humbling man.

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