Holocaust survivor, 95, reveals heartache at leaving family behind at just nine years old The atrocities of the Holocaust still live on for Vera Schaufeld MBE, 95, but not for the reasons you’d imagine.
Born in Prague in 1930, Vera had what she called a “happy childhood” growing up in a small town named Klatovy, just south of Prague, and laughed as she remembered “being spoiled” as an only child by her mum and dad.
Stories of concentration camp horrors and unimaginable versions of hell are sadly commonplace for the few remaining survivors in the UK, but Vera faced a different type of pain - saying goodbye to her parents at just nine years old.
Her father was the head of the Jewish community in town, and her mother, of German origin, was also a well-respected female in the community who studied medicine - a rare accomplishment in a pre-World War II era.
They had to send her to the boys' high school in order to study because the girls' high school didn't do sciences at that time, but she proudly finished her medical studies and got her degree.
