The survivors: the story of the Belsen remnant

London: Vallentine, Mitchell, 1958. Presumed first edition/first printing. Hardcover. x, 113, [5] p. ll., 23 cm. Illustration. Foreword by Rt. Hon. Lord Russel of Liverpool. From Wikipedia: Reverend Leslie Henry Hardman MBE HCF (February 18 1913 October 7 2008) was an Orthodox Rabbi and the first Jewish British Army Chaplain to enter Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, an experience "that made him a public figure, both within his community and outside it". Hardman was born in Glynneath, Wales to a Polish father and Russian mother who were both Jewish. The couple lived in the Welsh valleys and worked as small business traders. While he was still young the family moved to Liverpool where he attended the Hope Street Jewish School. Hardman attended a yeshivah and then the University of Leeds, where he took his BA and then an MA. He married his wife Josi (1911 2007) on October 14, 1936, two years after becoming minister of the Jewish community at St. Anne's, where he was also the shochet, or ritual slaughterer. From there he took a ministerial appointment in Leeds. On the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Hardman enlisted in the Army Chaplains' Department, being stationed in Hertfordshire with the East Central District of the Eastern Command. In the autumn of 1944 Hardman served in the Netherlands, where he learned of the atrocities perpetrated against Jews. There he became involved with members of the remaining Jewish community, and celebrated Hanukkah with them. From the Netherlands he was sent to Nazi Germany, where he remained until the end of the war. By April 1945 Captain Hardman was the 32-year-old Senior Jewish Chaplain to the British Forces, attached to the 8th Corps of the British 2nd Army. On 17 April, 1945, Hardman entered Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, two days after it had been liberated by British military forces, under the command of fellow Welshman Brigadier Glyn Hughes. Hardman became the first Jewish Chaplain at the site. On arriving at the camp he tried to bring comfort to the survivors and said the Kaddish, the Jewish memorial prayer, over the dead. He tried to persuade the army bulldozer drivers who were pushing the bodies of the dead into a pit to bury them with some kind of dignity. Hardman supervised the burial of about 20, 000 victims, "giving them the dignity in death of which they had been robbed in life". When Richard Dimbleby made a radio report of the Belsen liberation from the camp itself for the BBC, Hardman could be heard singing a hymn with two women in the background, one of whom died almost immediately after the recording was made. He circumcised Jewish babies who had been born in the camp as well as burying those who died. He conducted the marriage of a survivor and the British sergeant who had liberated her. He was recorded as having said that he had lost his faith at Belsen. However, he later stated, "I didn't lose my faith, but some of the words of the prayers I said at Belsen stuck in my throat. I couldn't understand how the God I worshipped could permit this." Later yearsAfter the war Hardman served as the rabbi at Hendon United Synagogue from 1947 to 1982, and was the Hendon Branch Chaplain of the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women. He also served as chaplain to the psychiatric unit at Edgware Hospital and was a strong supporter of the Holocaust Educational Trust. In 1995 Hardman was invited to conduct the service to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Ravensbrück concentration camp. He was also frequently called on by American groups to speak at Holocaust conferences. At one such event the rabbis presented him with an American rabbinical certificate, a presentation which had been denied him by Jews College, the leading rabbinical seminary in London, "for political reasons", he claimed. Hardman was interviewed by Al Murray at Bergen Belsen for the 2004 documentary Al Murray's Road To Berlin. In the 2007 Channel 4 drama The Relief of Belsen Hardman was portrayed by actor Paul Hilton. Hardman did not watch the programme, but said of it, "One member of my congregation. Condition: Good. No dust jacket. Ex-library. Usual library markings. Cover has some wear and soilng.

Keywords: Jews, Anti-Semitism, Bergen-Belsen, War Crimes, Genocide, YIddish, Displaced Persons, Olefsky, Medical Research Council, Palestine, Refugee, Tzigane, Gypsy, Zionism

[Book #66301]

Price: $75.00