Holocaust survivor witnesses Nazi terror as Putin’s war rages in the heart of Europe

When the first Russian missiles hit Ukraine, Steven Frank BEM was reminded of the harrowing events he witnessed when the Nazis invaded his neighborhood 82 years ago.

The Holocaust survivor said he was “deeply shocked” when Vladimir Putin launched the unprovoked attack, which brought back childhood memories of seeing Hitler’s troops on the streets of Amsterdam.

Ahead of this week’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, 87-year-old Steven told Metro.co.uk it was “incredibly important” to hold those responsible for alleged war crimes in Ukraine accountable.

He is one of the few surviving witnesses who can speak of the horrors in Europe that destroyed his family life in the city after the invasion of the Netherlands in 1940.

The Nazis arrested his father and took the rest of his family to the Theresienstadt camp in occupied Czechoslovakia, where he survived as one of only 93 children out of 15,000 sent there.

“The world seems to have learned nothing from the horrors of the Holocaust,” Steven said.

“When you look at the number of genocides that have taken place since World War II and what is happening in Ukraine now, there is a similar parallel between what Putin is doing and what Hitler was doing.

“I can remember when we were attacked, it is a terrible feeling when you are attacked by a foreign power. You are told that you cannot and that you cannot and are restricted in your movements.

“Even though I was only five years old, I can remember what happened and it was very exciting. I remember seeing the soldiers in rubber boots and gray coats and their guns in the street.

“As a child, I didn’t know what their sinister intentions were.”

The reality soon became clear as the secular Jewish family, who had refused opportunities to flee to England, was crushed by the occupying forces. Steven’s father, Leonard Frank, a highly respected lawyer who engaged in illegal resistance activities, including helping people flee to Switzerland, was arrested, imprisoned and tortured.

His wife Beatrix and their three sons were transported one after the other to two camps before ending up in appalling conditions in Theresienstadt, where thousands of people died from disease alone.

Beatrix and the children survived the end of the war, the liberation of the camp by the Red Army, and were flown by the RAF to England, where they gradually rebuilt their lives.

She was never reunited with her father after his arrest; He was deported from Dutch prison to Auschwitz-Birkenau in occupied Poland, where he was gassed at the age of 39.

Seventy-eight years after the liberation of the concentration and extermination camp, there are aspects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that evoke parallels with World War II, such as the reported forced deportations of children from occupied territories and the uncovering of mass graves in Irpin and Bucha.

Speaking in the House of Lords on Thursday, Baroness Sal Brinton described the alleged moves as a “startling echo” of how the Nazis placed Polish children in German families.

“When the invasion of Ukraine started last February, I was very upset,” said Steven.

“I thought, ‘Gosh, this is like the 1930s.’

“Where will this all end? When you see the brutality that is going on in this war it is absolutely appalling and I feel so sorry for all the Ukrainian refugees who have had to flee their homes and their country, one lives next door to us .

Steven, who lives in Hertfordshire, is an influential speaker devoted to telling children about the Holocaust, in which the Nazis murdered six million Jewish men, women and children.

Some of the most notorious Nazis responsible for war crimes were tried in Nuremberg after the German surrender in 1945.

Western leaders have repeatedly called for the creation of a special international tribunal to try Russian leaders for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, which Kyiv estimates at 62,000, including the deaths of more than 450 children.

“I think it is extremely important that they are brought to justice, but the question is whether the perpetrators can be brought to justice,” said Steven.

You are safely behind thousands of miles of Russian territory. What I find terrible is that people in Russia cannot or do not want to protest against this.”

Founded in 2000, the anniversary marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 1945.

The theme of this year’s commemoration, overseen by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, is ‘Ordinary People’. The idea is to go beyond the industrial scale of murders and see the persecuted as individuals living beyond the images of death and war.

It is also a reminder that genocide was made possible through the participation and consent of people from all walks of life.

On that day, Steven, who has three children, three stepchildren and 14 grandchildren, will give a lecture at a girls’ school in London as part of his mission to harness the power of the first-person account to end one of history’s darkest days. to remember. to remind .

He said, “It’s amazing how the 9th graders are taking it all in with all sorts of other things on their minds.

“I keep getting feedback from schools that of all the outsiders who came to talk about anything and everything, the Holocaust survivor is the one who remembers the most.

“Hopefully, by remembering, they will begin to think critically about what is going on around them.

“The theme of this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day is ‘Ordinary People’ and it is important to remember that the Holocaust has been perpetrated by a wide range of people, from garbage collectors to churches. Everyone joined in, that’s the danger and the horror of this hell.”

The international day commemorates the victims of the Holocaust and those who died in the more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

At 4 p.m. on Friday, participants light candles in their windows as iconic buildings and landmarks are illuminated in purple.

“These things are very, very important,” Steven said. “People are starting to understand the importance of Holocaust Remembrance Day and maybe learning the Ukrainian background behind all the news that comes out.

“People are starting to realize that democracy is very fragile.”

The day also aims to take a broader stand against hate and prejudice and to encourage people to speak out against the Nazis, as Steven’s father did.

Karen Pollock CBE, Executive Director of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “On Holocaust Remembrance Day, we also pay tribute to the incredible survivors, many of whom give their testimony every day to ensure future generations relive the horrors of the past .

“This year, tens of thousands of people across the country will hear from a survivor as part of their memorial services.

“Listening to a witness gives them a great responsibility to share what they have learned and to speak out against the anti-Semitism and hatred that made the Holocaust possible.”

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