Holocaust survivor says state of the world ‘terrifying’ after memorial service

A Holocaust survivor has said the state of the world is “terrifying” and called for people to stand up to violence and bullying.

Joanna Millan, born Bela Rosenthal, was deported with her mother to the Theresienstadt ghetto in German-occupied northern Bohemia (now in Czechia) in 1943.

The pair were taken from Berlin in June just months after Mrs Millan’s father was sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp where he was murdered on arrival.

Reflecting on violence around the world after a Holocaust memorial service in north London on Tuesday, the 83-year-old survivor said: “I think it’s terrifying, I mean, why wouldn’t one be terrified?

“Not just across the pond but everywhere, there doesn’t seem to be a decent state person leading any country in the world, and it’s a mayhem.

“I’m frightened myself. I’ve had my life but, you know, I worry for my children and my grandchildren.

“I think history is repeating itself.”

Hosted by the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), which represents Holocaust refugees and their descendants across the UK, the memorial service focused on intergenerational dialogue and remembrance.

Asked about the importance of such dialogue amid rising violence and antisemitism across the world, Mrs Millan said: “My message has always been to stand up to this sort of behaviour, that coercive behaviour.

“And we see what’s happening in the world today, and then you see governments caving, just appeasing, and you think ‘what good did the appeasers do in the 1930s’ and I do despair that people are not responding.”

Asked about what should be done about it, Mrs Millan said: “I think reminding people about what happened in the 1930s, that appeasement isn’t the answer, and that we have to stand up, you know, to bullying and so on.”

Mrs Millan said she does not remember being in the ghetto, where her mother died in 1944 when she was just 18-months-old, and only has memories of leaving when it was liberated in May 1945.

She was then flown to the Lake District with other children known as the Windermere Children, before moving to the Bulldogs Bank home, in West Sussex, and then to another house in Lingfield, Surrey.

She was adopted aged five by a couple who changed her name from Bela to Joanna.

Mrs Millan said her adoptive parents “did not know” what had happened to her.

She added: “They didn’t want to know, they weren’t curious.

“I was their child as soon as I was renamed. I was their daughter so what was there to find out.

“I think they were afraid I might go looking. I can only suppose because they never talked about it.”

Also present at the service at the Belsize Square Synagogue were Holocaust survivors Jackie Young and Ivor Perl.

Mr Perl, who was born and grew up in Mako in Hungary, was taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp as a 12-year-old boy.

Asked about why it is important to talk about the Holocaust, especially with younger generations, the 93-year-old said: “Because unless you do talk about it, the chance of it happening again is very, very high.

“And even talking about it, it’s not certain that it won’t happen again.”