Holocaust survivor Rudi Oppenheimer to speak at Wirral’s annual commemoration of National Holocaust Memorial Day

Feb 1 2012 Birkenhead News

HOLOCAUST survivor Rudi Oppenheimer was speaking at Wirral’s annual commemoration of National Holocaust Memorial Day today (Wednesday).

Rudi, who is retired and regularly speaks to students around the country about his wartime experiences, is the brother of the late Paul Oppenheimer – a regular visitor to Wirral and speaker at previous commemoration events until his death in 2007.

Born in Berlin in 1931, Rudi’s family moved to Holland in 1936. In 1940 when German troops invaded, his family avoided deportation because his father worked for the Jewish Council.

In 1943, when Rudi was 12 years old, the family were captured and sent to Westerbrook concentration camp, and later Belsen.

After the war Rudi and his brother moved to England where they lived since 1945.

The event at the Floral Pavilon Theatre in New Brighton, will begin with ‘Music from the Holocaust’ featuring the works of Pavel Haas, Karel Berman, Gideon Klein and Viktor Ullman, who all died in the camps.