Holocaust survivor's son speaks of mum's remarkable escape

On Holocaust Memorial Day, former Brent councillor Paul Lorber revealed how his mother, Berta Lowinger, survived three Nazi concentation camps before fleeing Communism and starting a new life in London.

But it was only when he discovered a book written about the time that he was able to piece together the story of her remarkable life.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Berta lived in Bratislava with her husband Adolf Lorber when war broke out in 1939.

As Jews, their family was subject to fierce persecution under the Slovakian puppet regime and during the later stages of the war were told they would be deported to Auschwitz concentration camp.

Paul’s parents managed to avoid deportation at first, but three of his grandparents were murdered on arrival in the camp in 1942.

Berta was sent to Auschwitz two years later. But as a German speaker she was selected to work and convincing the camp guards she was fit enough to do so despite suffering from arthritis since childhood.

What followed was months of brutal working conditions before she was transferred to a German armaments factory at Flossenbürg camp near the Czech border and then put on a train to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.

Paul said: “The accommodation was in enormous huts, with no windows and three-tiered bunks shared by up to 12 women, with just one thin blanket per bunk.

“The food was a thin soup made from rotting vegetables and a small chunk of stale bread.

“There were regular roll calls and inspections, [prisoners] standing naked in the muddy open ground.

“Anyone looking unwell or unfit for work was pulled out of the ranks and marched to the gas chambers.

“‘Lucky’ ones were chosen to be sent as slave-labourers for the German war effort.”

In 1945, Mauthausen was liberated by American troops and Berta returned to her homeland where, amazingly, she was reunited with Adolf who had survived the camp at Sachsenhausen.

Paul said: “It’s a remarkable story. And without it, I wouldn’t be here. There must have been about ten times where it could have gone the other way for my mother.

“She was picked to work when others were killed, she managed to just get on a train when a guard noticed she was hobbling, she survived long, cold train journeys between camps.”

Paul explained his parents, who moved to Brent in 1968 after Soviet forces invaded Czechoslovakia to quell protesters calling for reform, rarely spoke of their wartime experiences.

He knew his mother had been in Auschwitz and had worked in the factory, but he knew little more.

He said: “I think, like lots of survivors, they didn’t want to think about something traumatic. And they wanted to protect my brother [Juraj] and I, which you can understand.”

Things changed when he came across Wendy Holden’s book Born Survivors, which had been donated to Barham Park Library.

Berta and Adolf Lorber (Image: Lorber family)

It catalogues the experiences of three women who left Auschwitz in 1944 and ultimately survived the Holocaust.

Using the book, and camp records, Paul was able to piece together his mother’s journey, which mirrored those of the women in Holden’s work.

As well as adding more detail to his own family history, it showed him that new, almost always tragic, stories associated with the Holocaust will continue to emerge.

He said: “It was obviously a very tough time for my parents. We were already a small family and then my surviving grandparents perished at Auschwitz.

“I read the book and did the research and I thought today [January 27, Holocaust Memorial Day] would be a good time to share what they went through.”