The following is a synopsis of Kurt Marx’s book which recounts his life before, during and after the Holocaust.
Kurt Marx was born in Cologne, Germany on 31 August 1925. He came from a middle-class background with his father, Siegmund Marx, being the main agent for one of the large raincoat manufacturers in Germany. As the climate changed politically, being Jewish made Kurt feel different, especially when other children of his age joined the Hitler Youth Movement.
After experiencing the shock and devastation of Kristallnacht on 9 November 1938 and seeing his Uncle Max’s butcher shop smashed to pieces, Kurt’s parents sent him at 13 to England, along with 20 or so of his classmates, via the Kindertransport scheme. For Kurt, it was less a dramatic escape from the surge of Nazism and more of an adventure. He didn’t think he’d never see his parents again, but in fact, that is what happened.
His life in England as a young boy alone with no family wasn’t easy but he was incredibly resourceful and resilient – learning a trade in diamond cutting, meeting his beloved wife Ingrid, a camp survivor, and spending time working in West Africa.
It has only been in his latter years that he discovered what really happened to his parents and how they were murdered in Maly Trostenets, one of the largest Nazi extermination camps in Europe. In 2019, Kurt was awarded a British Empire Medal for his services to Holocaust education and two years later he received the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
