Holocaust survivor Irene Brauner has died at the age of 87

Irene Brauner was born in Krakow, Poland in 1937 to Hela and Willy Hauser, and until the outbreak of war lived a comfortable life in a good part of the city.

As a tiny child she was sent to the ghetto with her mother and grandmother where she dimly remembers the daily roll calls, constant fear, and the rag doll that unknown to her had her mother’s jewels sewn inside it.

Her father had fled east and been deported to Crimea, and when a German officer commented that Hela didn’t look Jewish, her resourceful mother paid a Catholic acquaintance to secure false papers for them all.

Irene with her mother on a farm in Germany where they spent the final years of the war. (Image: Courtesy of the AJR) One day, they left the ghetto on a pass and never returned.

Disguised as Catholics, her grandmother washed up in a local restaurant, Hela worked as a cook for the mistress of a German officer, and Irene was sent to a nursery run by nuns where she wore a crucifix and learned prayers.

In 1943 they got the terrible news of Willy’s death and decided for safety to go to Germany as labourers under their false Catholic identities.

Irene’s mother worked hard on a farm while her grandmother worked in a nearby restaurant and Irene learned German. In 1944, as the Russians advanced, the farmers fled and they joined a group of Polish soldiers who helped guide them on their four month return journey to Krakow.

Irene and Hela on their way back from Germany to Poland. (Image: Courtesy of the AJR) There they stayed under assumed identities, found a two-room flat and Irene went to school where she was called a “Nazi” because she only spoke German.

When Hela discovered her brothers has survived the war in the Polish army and were in Italy, she paid a smuggler to take them on a perilous journey across the border, through Austria, to a land where Irene tasted bananas and ice-cream for the first time.

The British and Polish soldiers and their dependants were evacuated to England where Irene, her mum and gran lived in a room behind Paddington station and she enrolled at a Jewish school.

Irene Brauner who has died at the age of 87. (Image: ADAM SOLLER) They moved to Maida Vale, then a small house in Cricklewood while Irene attended North West London Jewish Day School in Willesden.

When her mother remarried, they lived in a large house in Shoot up Hill and she moved to a girls school in Hendon.

She met her Israeli husband Jacob at the age of 21 and the couple lived in Kingsbury, Brent bringing up sons Jonathan and David.

Irene and her husband lived in Kingsbury and raised their two sons David and Jonathan. (Image: Courtesy of the AJR) In her My Story biography on the Association of Jewish Refugees website Irene wrote: “If we don’t bear witness to what took place, those we loved die twice over.”

Michael Newman OBE, CEO The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) said:
“It is with heavy hearts that we learn of the passing of inspirational AJR member, Irene Brauner.

He added: “Irene’s story is one of courage, resilience, and the will to survive amidst unimaginable peril. Her journey, from ghetto confinement and secret Catholic identities to forced labour, separation, and finally escape, embodies the many paths of survival and resistance during the Holocaust.”