As the world pauses to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on Thursday January 27, Northern Ireland will pay its respects with a fascinating look at how it helped to rehabilitate survivors of the Nazi death camps.
The Linen Hall Library in Belfast is to host From Auschwitz to Ulster: One Day That Changed And Saved Lives With Scott Edgar on Thursday at 3pm. The event takes place in the Performance Area plus a live online Zoom stream.
During the lecture, Scott will look at "one day" in history that changed the lives of young Jews from across Europe following the liberation of one of the most notorious concentration camps, Auschwitz.
The story goes that on February 24, 1946, military planes landed in Sydenham in the east of the city bringing dozens of teens to a new life of safety and freedom. From there, they went to rural Co Down and on to achieve great things across the globe.
The road to a safe haven via Sydenham and recovery in Co Down started in 1939 when the Refugee Aid Committee in Belfast leased approximately 70 acres of land in Millisle.
Their aim was to provide a temporary home for Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution, and to provide them with skills in farm work.
The first Jewish inhabitants of the farm found themselves sleeping in leaky tents and a disused cowshed. The farm was slowly updated and by 1940 they had acquired two Clydesdale workhorses, 2,000 chickens and seven cows.
It's residents then were Adolf Mundheim, a German engineer, and Samuel Spielvogel, a Viennese engineering student, they managed the construction of a twin-gabled two-storey barn which remained on the property until its demolition in 2006.
The farm hosted around 300 people between the late 1930s and its closure in 1948. Many of the inhabitants were Jewish children brought to Northern Ireland on the Kindertransport.
Robert Sugar, who resided there for nine years, had arrived in the late 1930s with 30 other children.
Holocaust survivor Walter Kammerling, who died last year at the age of 97, came from Vienna and stayed at the farm for three years.
Many, like Walter, were left orphans due to the death camps Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen.
But it was the plane full of more children that sparked much attention when it touched down on that cold February in 1946.
A total of 25 Jewish children saved from the horrors of the Nazis climbed down from their Douglas Dakota aeroplane.
They had travelled for seven-and-a-half-hours on a turbulent flight causing most of them to feel sick.
They were aged between 12 and 17.
Most had been inmates of the camps, often lying about their age to stay alive, others had been found wandering in Europe.
The Newsletter described them as "parentless, homeless and Stateless" while the Northern Whig commented on their "frail" appearance and "nervous" temperament.
The children had very few personal belongings and one account tells of a little girl returning to the plane to retrieve a hand mirror she had left.
One of the teenagers brought to the farm in 1946 was Rachel Levy. This year, now aged 91, Rachel’s portrait was painted and will join that of six other Holocaust survivors in an exhibition in Buckingham Palace.
Scott Edgar, Editor of Wartime NI, spoke to Belfast Live about Rachel who will appear in a pre-recorded interview with Edgar as part of the Linen Hall Library Holocaust Memorial Day event.
He said: "It was really moving even as someone who has studied and researched this and looked at the statistics, to hear those stories from a person who was there and was really affected by this.
"All of Rachel’s family perished during the war except her brother who travelled to Millisle with her. She spoke quite emotionally about her time in Auschwitz and Belsen.
"Then to hear the change in her tone and to watch how her face relaxed as she talked about coming to Northern Ireland and the warm welcome and care and attention of the people there in Millisle.
"She had a real fondness for the people here and an appreciation for what they did for her."
Scott emphasised a takeaway from his talk is that "we often look back at the Holocaust and other events through the prism of history". But we need to remember these events and to continue to challenge injustice where we see it. There are events in contemporary history that it is sometimes uncomfortable but necessary to think about.
For more information visit the Linen Hall Library website
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