photography
St ry behind the
picture Holocaust survivor Leon Greenman By Bill Batchelor
As a photographer with the Manchester Evening News, I was covering a lecture in 1994 at Manchester’s town hall attended by 500 teachers and students. The speaker was a Jewish man who had been a prisoner in Auschwitz. Holocaust survivor Leon Greenman spoke for more than one hour. Greenman was born in Whitechapel, London, in 1910 and believed he was
the only Englishman sent to Auschwitz. He was English but his wife Esther (Else) was of Dutch-Jewish descent. Later, they went to Holland where she looked after her grandmother. Greenman commuted between Britain and Holland for his father-in-law’s book business. In 1938, he went to bring his wife to England but, after hearing a speech
by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, they stayed – a fatal decision. Greenman hoped to be evacuated by the British Embassy but was late. In March 1940, their son Barnett (Barney) was born. Two months later, the Germans invaded. Greenman and his family were sent to Auschwitz. He’d trained as a boxer
and looked quite fit and was selected as a worker and separated from his family. He never saw them again. He survived the camp and a march through Poland to Buchenwald camp. In 1945, he was liberated. Greenman never remarried and became a market trader in London. He
gave talks about Auschwitz. I photographed him showing his concentration camp number – 98288 –
tattooed on his left arm. I sent him my photograph and he sent me a leaflet written by him, which I’ve used for reference. During some additional research, I learned Barney was born on 17 March 1940, just 12 days after my own birth. I was the lucky one. Barney was not. Leon Greenman died on 6 March 2008. He was 97.
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