Leon Greenman Books

Greenman was born in 1910 in London to a Jewish family; in 1913 he and his widowed father settled in Rotterdam. Greenman failed to escape to England when the war began, and in 1940 was caught by the German occupation. He lost his British identity papers and, because of bureaucratic procrastination on the part of Dutch officials and of the Swiss consulate that represented British interests, could not prove his British nationality. He was deported to Westerbork in October 1942, with his wife and son. In January 1943 the family was sent to Birkenau, where Greenman's wife and child were killed immediately, and he was used for slave labor. He was also a victim of "medical experiments" in the camp. In September 1943 he was transferred to the Monowitz camp, and in January 1945, after a death march to Gleiwitz, he was transported to Buchenwald, where he was liberated. After the war he settled in Britain. His father survived, since he was married to a non-Jew. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism)

Pp. 1-7 contain the story of Greenman, told in his own words. A Jew born in London, he lived with his wife and small son in Rotterdam. In 1942, disregarding his British nationality, the Nazis sent him and his family to Westerbork and then to Auschwitz, where his wife and son were killed. In January 1945 Greenman was sent on a death march and transport to Buchenwald, where he was liberated by the American army. After the war he returned to England. Startled by British ignorance of the Holocaust, he began to recount his experiences to students. Pp. 8-13 contain guidelines for teachers using Greenman's story for Holocaust education. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism)