Danny was born on 15 September 1935 in Konigsberg, East Prussia, only child to parents Siegfried and Margarete Herrmann.
In 1938, as the Nazis were rounding people up be sent to concentration camps, Danny’s father managed to escape to England just in time. He was granted a place with the Kitchener Camp Scheme, a transit camp set up in Kent, where Jewish male refugees waited for visas for onward journeys.
Meanwhile, Danny’s mother was able to organise visas and passports for herself and Danny from the British Embassy. They arrived in England three days before war was declared – on 31 August 1939. With the help of the Quakers, Danny’s mother was offered a position as a domestic servant with a family in Didsbury and Danny went to live with foster parents near Hyde.
Eventually, Danny’s birth parents both found work in Salford and the three of them were reunited. However, in May 1940, his father Siegfried was interned by government edict on the Isle of Man, as a potential ‘enemy alien’. Danny recalls living through the Blitz in December 1940. He and his mother would seek shelter in the big cellars of the Victorian houses at the end of their road, during air raids.
When Danny’s father was allowed to leave the Isle of Man, the family eventually settled back in Manchester. Danny studied Commerce at The University of Manchester, where he also pursued his love of athletics and rugby. He took part in the national British Universities Championships competitions, finishing fifth in the 100 yards final in 1956. After university, he continued with athletics, with what would become the Manchester Athletics Club. Danny has been a county and north of England champion.
As a sprinting athlete, Danny was asked to run sprint training with Manchester City football players, between 1967 – 1972 broadening the fitness training undertaken by the football players at the time.
Danny later became a qualified accountant. He and his wife Pat have four children, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Most recently, Danny has been involved in Holocaust Education, giving talks about his and his parents experiences as refuges in the Second World War.
