Ivor Perl BEM

Ivor Perl was born Yitzchak Perlmutter in February 1932, in a Hungarian town called Makó. He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family with eight siblings. Antisemitism was rife across Hungary. Ivor remembers being called ‘dirty Jew’’ and getting his sidelocks pulled.

When Jews were forced into ghettos –Ivor and his family moved in with an aunt, who already lived in the area which was made into a ghetto. His father was taken away for forced labour along with his eldest brother, who Ivor would never see again. The family was soon deported to a bigger ghetto in Szeged for two days, where the family was forced onto a train- destination Auschwitz- Birkenau.

On arrival in Auschwitz, all he could see from the cracks in the cattle truck were some Polish Jews in striped uniforms. And they kept on shouting in Yiddish: ‘The children must say they are at least 16 years old.’

As they were forced off the train, people were divided into two lines. Ivor wanted to join the line that his mother, sisters and younger brothers were told to stand in, but his mother stopped him and told him to get into the line with his older brother Alec – a decision that saved his life. Upon reaching the front of the line, the infamous Dr Josef Mengele demanded to know his age. Remembering what the prisoners had told him, 12-year-old Ivor – who was tall for his age- lied and was chosen for work. It was the last time they saw their mother and siblings.

Ivor was put into a barrack, which served as a holding camp for prisoners awaiting orders to begin forced labour. He was given a number – 112021, but it was not tattooed on his arm, as they had run out of ink. At the beginning, his days consisted of wandering around between roll calls and queuing for meagre meals.

In January 1945, Ivor and Alec were sent by train to the Kaufering concentration camp near Munich in Germany. The conditions in this smaller camp were terrible; 13-year-old Ivor was forced to do hard work, digging underground bases for military equipment using only the most rudimentary tools.

His brother Alec saved his live several times. When Ivor contracted typhus and was sent to the hospital barracks, Alec managed help to carry Ivor out, as he knew that inmates of the hospital barracks usually didn’t survive for a long time.

After a few months at Kaufering, the Nazis moved the prisoners on again, marching them for seven days to Dachau in the spring of 1945. The camp was so overcrowded that they were ordered to be taken to the Tyrol-Mountains to be killed, but their General refused; he knew that the Allies were approaching and was afraid of the consequences of carrying out the order.

After liberation, the brothers stayed in a displaced persons’ camp near Munich, attempting to find out what had happened to their family. Months later, they were told by the Red Cross that neither their parents nor any of their siblings had survived. Both brothers were keen to emigrate to Palestine. In November 1945, Ivor and Alec managed to be included in group of unaccompanied children given refuge in the UK. Upon arrival, they were hosted in a hostel in Southampton. Rabbi Weingarten from Liège, started running a hostel for boys from religious families, to preserve their religious upbringing and Ivor and Alec joined him.

Finally, the brothers settled in London. Alec as a watchmaker and Ivor started producing buttons and later dresses. When he was 18, Ivor met his future wife Rhoda and they married in 1953. Together they have four children. Today Ivor dedicates his time to sharing his story. Though it pains him to tell it, Ivor feels it is important no one forgets what happened to millions of people during the Holocaust.

That's why he did not shy away from going to Germany in 2015 to be a witness during the trial of Oskar Gröning 'the bookkeeper of Auschwitz'. Mr. Gröning was accused as an accomplice in the murder of 300,000 Hungarian Jews sent to Auschwitz in 1944.

Ivor was honoured by the Queen with a BEM (British Empire Medal) for services to Holocaust education.

Key words: Perlmutter. Hasidic. Belz. Makó, Hungary. Rosenberg. Hárshfalva. Auschwitz. Dachau. Allach. Feldafing. The Boys. Southampton. Lièger Rabbi (Weingarten). ORT. Auschwitz trial Oskar Gröning. „Chicken soup under a tree – a journey to hell and back “