Woman who lost father in Holocaust 'will always remember goodbye'
"To this day I remember the hug I got from my father when he said goodbye."Born in 1924, Marianne Philipps grew up in a Jewish family in the German capital, Berlin. But at 14 and with war in Europe looming, she became one of about 10,000 children who escaped the Nazis in the Kindertransport scheme, not knowing if she would ever see her family again. Interviewed for Holocaust Memorial Day, the 100-year-old told the BBC: "I now realise that wasn't a hug you give a child, that was a hug of farewell."
Marianne has chronicled her life story in My Voice, produced by Manchester-based Jewish charity The Fed.Hers is one of many survivors' stories featured in the book.With this year's Holocaust Memorial Day marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, Marianne said she felt it essential to continue telling her story.
"I think what happened during the Holocaust was something so horrific that future generations need to know about it," she said.Marianne was nine when Adolf Hitler first rose to power."All of a sudden I was ostracised," she said. "My friends wouldn't play with me and I was called the 'Jewish girl'."By the time the war ended in 1945, six million Jewish men, women and children had been murdered by the Nazi regime.
With life becoming increasingly dangerous for Jewish people in Germany, Marianne's family made a huge decision.As a result, in 1939, she travelled from Berlin to the UK.Her father, Martin, and brother, Herbert, would later die at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
What was the Holocaust?BBC to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2025Kindertransport: A fantastic act of love
Marianne lived in London during the Blitz and was reunited with her childhood sweetheart, Harry, who had also left Berlin on the Kindertransport. "Having ended up in England together we were a great support for each other," she remembered. "He already made up his mind that he was going to marry me then, and we did eventually marry."Now a mother and grandmother, Marianne, spends her time knitting, going on walks daily and keeping in touch on email and Zoom.
She said she hoped that contributing to the book would help future generations greater understand her experiences.Louise Senderowich, leader of the My Voice project, said 45 books have been produced, detailing the stories of Holocaust survivors from across Greater Manchester and the north-west of England.She said: "We have had such incredible feedback, especially when survivors like Marianne have gone into schools and told her story and the children have managed to read the book as well."Marianne added: "I have to give and one of the things I can give is my personal experience."People tell me that meeting somebody who was there seems to make an impression, and as long as I can do that, I will."
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