154: Ivor Perl: Auschwitz and Dachau survivor, "I paid a terrible price for being Jewish, but how can I break the chain?"

Jonny Gould's Jewish State

Find the rest of Jonny's podcasts right here.

This is Ivor Perl, survivor of Auschwitz and Dachau.

Born Yitzchak Perlmutter, in a family of 11 in Mako, Hungary in 1932, Ivor’s youth and education was taken away from him in 1944.

His orthodox childhood was stable, there were antisemites who slapped him on the way to school and the return home - but then the Nazi regime began targeting Jews in Hungary. In 1944, when he was just 12, Ivor, along with his family, were abducted to Auschwitz.

Out of his family, only he and his brother Alec survived the camp, a fact that Ivor attributes to his brother's quick thinking and the luck of being placed in a line that spared him from immediate death.P

After surviving Auschwitz, Ivor and his brother were taken to Dachau, where they were liberated by American troops in 1945. Ivor, who turned 13 during his time at Dachau, recalls marking his bar mitzvah day alone behind barbed wire, a poignant moment in his life because as you’ll hear as a religious child, he’d prepared what he would say on his barmitzvah day - but never got the chance.

He came to England at 13 in 1945, lucky to be alive - but an orphan. All but his brother Alec were murdered.

He lives in North London, but he lives with a visceral mourning for the parents, sisters and brothers that never made it here withhim.

Ivor spent many years quietly building a life for himself and his family, working in the textile industry. He didn't openly share his experiences of the Holocaust for nearly 50 years, only beginning to speak about it to help others understand the horrors of the past.

Even his transfer to England was cloak and dagger after the Nazis had been vanquished, as you’ll hear how the early Zionist pioneers wanted to take him and other children to Mandate Palestine instead.

Forgive me if some of my questions are a little direct on his most haunted and delicate of memories - but this like other Holocaust interviews on Jonny Goulds Jewish State is a testimony for the ages.

It’s a privilege to have known men and women even in my own family as well as Ivor.

What a privilege to meet and speak one-to-one with Ivor Perl. Chicken Soup Under The Tree, his life memoir is available via the Lemon Soul website.

Jonny Gould's Jewish State is proudly supported by Dangoor Education.

Find the rest of Jonny's podcasts right here.

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