Holocaust Educational Trust

With thanks to the Holocuast Ediucational Trust, we are honored to welcome Andrew White to speak at the University
Andrew White is the son of Lucy White, a Holocaust survivor from Hungary. He was raised in London in a close-knit Jewish community together with his siblings. Growing up, Andrew knew very little about his mother’s wartime experiences. Like many survivors, Lucy chose not to speak openly about her past, focusing instead on rebuilding her life and raising her family.

Lucy White was born in 1926 in Szombathely, Hungary, into a traditional Jewish family. In 1944, at the age of 18, following the German invasion of Hungary, she was deported with her family to Auschwitz-Birkenau. On arrival, she was separated from her parents, sister and baby nephew, all of whom were murdered shortly after arrival. Lucy survived imprisonment in Auschwitz, followed by slave labour camps in Germany, and later Bergen-Belsen. She was liberated by British forces in April 1945.

After the war, Lucy spent a year working with the British Army in Germany as an interpreter. In 1946 she came alone to Britain, where she rebuilt her life. In 1950 she married Gabriel Weiss, later changing the family surname to White. Lucy settled in London, where she worked within the Jewish community and became known for her warmth, kindness and quiet commitment to helping others.

Lucy White passed away in 2004 at the age of 78. It was only many years later, in 2020, that Andrew decided to watch her recorded testimony, including a video interview she had given to the Shoah Foundation in 1998. Through this process, he came to understand the scale of her experiences and the depth of her resilience.

Andrew White has since taken on the responsibility of sharing his mother’s experiences with people across the UK. He sees this as a way of honouring her memory and that of her murdered family, and of helping others understand the Holocaust on a human level.

Through telling Lucy’s story, Andrew emphasises the importance of resisting hatred, upholding human dignity, and recognising how compassion and moral courage can endure even after profound injustice

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Host or Publisher University of Chester