The following is a synopsis of Ann Cohen’s book which recounts her life before, during and after the Holocaust.
Ann was born Hannelore Horn in Cologne, Germany in 1924. She moved to Chemnitz in Saxony when she was three. She first experienced antisemitism when she was ten, when she was no longer allowed to play with children who were not Jewish, or visit local parks, swimming pools or tennis courts.
Ann’s parents arranged for Ann and her brother David to be sent to England on the Kindertransport. They left Chemnitz in January 1939 when she was 14 and he was 11. Ann was placed with the Needoffs – a Jewish foster family who owned a bakery in Manchester. They treated her like family, and she lived with them for seven years until she got married.
Ann met her husband Joe at a bus stop in 1945 and they got married six months later. She had already changed her name to Ann because she found that people struggled to pronounce Hannelore.
Ann and Joe bought a house with a sweet shop in Higher Broughton and Ann was suddenly responsible for keeping a home and running a shop. Everybody knew her as ‘Ann from the sweet shop’.
Ann and Joe were married for over 50 years. They had two children, Barry and Susan, and three granddaughters from Susan. Ann passed away in 2016.
