Auschwitz survivor Leon Greenman has left a £20,000 legacy to Kisharon. The funding, which was awarded recently, will foot the bill for resources and equipment in Adult Day Services for a year.
Leon, possibly the only Englishman to be sent to the death camp, dedicated more than 50 years of his life after the war to Holocaust education and fighting fascism. He never remarried and lived frugally, wanting to use his means to benefit people in need.
Born in Whitechapel, Leon moved to Rotterdam after marrying his Dutch wife, Else. Despite assurances that, as a British passport holder, he would be evacuated in the event of war, the couple and their young son Barney were arrested and taken to Westerbork concentration camp and later forced to go to Auschwitz where Else and Barney were murdered by the Nazis.
Leon was liberated by the Americans in April 1945. He wrote a book about his experiences: An Englishman in Auschwitz, and died aged 97 in 2008. He received an OBE in 1998.
Richard Franklin, Kisharon’s Director of Fundraising and Marketing Communications, said: “We are exceptionally grateful to Mr Greenman, who I had the privilege of knowing personally, for remembering Kisharon in his will. His legacy will have a positive impact on the future of the people we support and help us to continue to provide essential services.”
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