‘I owe my life to England!’ Exhibition pays tribute to Britons who helped Jews escape Holocaust in World War II

An exhibition which celebrates the everyday Britons who helped those fleeing the Holocaust during the Second World War has opened in London.

Swiss Cottage Library, in North West London, opened its Between Life and Death exhibition to retell the stories of ordinary people who supported Jewish people fleeing the Nazis across Germany and the occupied nations.

Among the stories were children who were saved by the Kindertransport, a humanitarian mission which brought nearly 10,000 young Jews from Nazi-controlled territories to Britain between 1938 to 1940.

One of those children, 91-year-old Ruth Barnett MBE, told GB News she “owed” her life to England for saving her from the Holocaust.

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Mrs Barnett (then Michaelis) was transported from Germany to Britain in 1939.

She was just four years old at the time, with her seven-year-old brother Martin also being rescued.

The exhibition retold the story of Eva Paddock, who, like Mrs Barnett, was taken to Britain via the Kindertransport in 1939.

Fleeing Czechoslovakia, Mrs Paddock's (then Fleischmannova) escape was orchestrated by British stockbroker, Sir Nicholas Winton.

She and her older sister Milena, arrived safely in the UK, thanks to Sir Nicholas's efforts.

They were taken in by the Radcliffe family, who were from Ashton-under-Lyne in Manchester.

A year later, the sisters were reunited with their mother, who managed to flee to England via Norway.

Mrs Paddock said: “It wasn’t until I was older that I realised how dramatic it could be and what a huge sacrifice it was for my mother to put us both on a train without knowing if she would ever see us again.”

Staying in Britain with her family, it was only in 1988 that Mrs Paddock realised who was behind her rescue from the Nazis.

Sir Nicholas was a British stockbroker who organised the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia just before WWII.

His actions went unrecognised for nearly 50 years until a 1988 BBC appearance reunited him with those he'd saved.

He was knighted in 2003 and died in 2015, at the age of 106.

Both Mrs Paddock and her sister were able to meet Sir Nicholas, discovering him via the documentary.

Barbara Walshe, one of the organisers behind the exhibition, told GB News Mrs Paddock's story and their foster family’s selflessness left a lasting impression on her.

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She said: “The Radcliffe’s were going to take one child but when they saw them both together, they took them both and sent their 16-year-old daughter to live with her grandmother around the corner.”

However, Mrs Barnett had a different experience, encountering an abusive member of her foster family.

Despite feeling “absolutely safe” with the vicar she and her brother had been matched with, the four-year-old Mrs Barnett was “whipped” by his wife.

She said: “She whipped me on my back until I had to sleep on my front with nothing covering me because my back was all welts.”

Mrs Barnett recalled realising as a four-year-old that “the world was forever changing”.

Speaking to The People’s Channel, she said: “I realised very early on what an unstable world it was. I couldn't count on things being the same for very long. That's what I remember vividly.

“But I was fully aware that I was brought to England because they'd prepared to wipe out not only my life but my ever having existed.

“That's the bit that always got me. The Nazis were determined to wipe out the Jews ever having existed — it wasn't just an attack in anger, it was a deliberate plan to wipe out my existence.

“And I was going to exist, and no one was going to stop me existing. I remember deciding that, at age four years one month, when I came to England, 'I'm going to survive, nobody's going to kill me off.'"

Despite facing persecution at such a young age, the now 91-year-old Mrs Barnett remains positive about the world.

"Most people are good. Most people are kind and helpful... you only have to have one or two bad apples to cause chaos,” she said.

On why it is important Britain continues to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, Ms Walshe said there is a “responsibility to teach and remember”.

She said: “It is important to remember that 6 million Jews were exterminated just because they belonged to an ethnic group, their citizenship was revoked, they were made stateless, scapegoated, and stereotyped, a process of dehumanisation which started decades before.

“Therefore, education has a responsibility to teach and remember through the younger generation, through the use of technology to share survivors' stories and to teach how a process of dehumanisation of ‘the other’ is still alive and well today in many conflicts around the world.”

The exhibition, which is put together by the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, also retells the stories of ordinary people from Estonia, Italy, Hungary, Ukraine, Lithuania, Croatia, Romania, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Slovakia and Germany who helped Jewish people during the Holocaust.

It has already been shown at Southend, Worcester, Redditch, Loughborough, Sutton and Salford.

The exhibition will remain at Swiss Cottage Library until July 31, before moving on to Newark and Huddersfield.

Ms Washle concluded: “The one thing I would take away from the exhibition is the importance of the power of one, we are called to be more than bystanders.

“Those profiled in the exhibition made a decision to help, often at risk of death, deportation or imprisonment.

“The question is: ‘What would I do in similar circumstances?’”

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