Holocaust survivor calls for tolerance as ‘we all come from the same family’
Holocaust survivor calls for tolerance as ‘we all come from the same family’
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A Holocaust survivor has stressed the importance of being tolerant towards minority groups, saying all people “come from the same family”. Janine Webber, 92, hid under a wardrobe with her family before working as a shepherdess and living in a convent under a false identity to avoid Nazi persecution during the Second World War.
She also lost both of her parents within months of each other by the age of nine. Now an experienced public speaker, Ms Webber, who lives in north-east London, said she was unable to talk about her story for 50 years and only decided to share her experience after encouragement from her own children.
She told the PA news agency: “In 1996, my son said my story ought to be known. I was interviewed and filmed for a foundation. “When I was interviewed for the first time I told my story in total. I could not stop crying.”. Born in Lviv, Poland, now in modern-day Ukraine, in 1932, Ms Webber was living in the city when Germany invaded the region, then occupied by the USSR, in June 1941.
Thousands of people were murdered within weeks of the invasion as Jewish communities in the city were immediately targeted. Ms Webber said: “My first experience seeing the Nazis, what we used to call the Gestapo, was when I was in our flat with my mother and brother.
