A HOLOCAUST survivor who was part of the Windermere Children has died aged 93.

Sir Ben Helfgott grew up in Poland and spent his formative years as a slave labourer in a ghetto and in several concentration camps. He lost almost his entire family in the Holocaust.

Sir Ben was one of 732 child survivors who came to the UK after the Second World War after being liberated from Theresienstadt in 1945.

He formed part of the Windermere Children, who were sent to Troutbeck Bridge on arrival.

Just 11 years after he was freed from the Nazi concentration camps, he captained the British weightlifting team at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

He represented Britain again at the 1960 Rome Olympics and the 1958 Commonwealth Games where he won a bronze medal.

He also became the honorary president of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and an honorary patron for the Holocaust Educational Trust. He was knighted in 2018.

Trevor Avery, of the Lake District Holocaust Project, said he had a very close friendship with Sir Ben.

He said: "We had a very personal relationship - it was Ben and Trevor. 

"His attachments to the Lake District were just immense. This was where he was freed. When he visited us, he was always smiling and very grateful. 

"Without him there wouldn't be Holocaust Memorial Day in this country, and there wouldn't be Holocaust Education Trust.

"He loved people and had time for them no matter where you were from or your background, and for some reason, he found time in his busy life to ring me a lot. 

"There are some other Windermere boys left but it felt like an era drawing to a close when I heard he had passed away."

British Olympic Association chairman Sir Hugh Robertson said Sir Ben 'represented the very best of humanity'.

He said on the Team GB Twitter account: "The fact he survived the concentration camps to go on to represent Great Britain at the Olympic Games tells you all you need to know about his determination and character. Our thoughts are with his family at this sad time. We will not let his memory nor his legacy fade."

Paying tribute on Twitter, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "Sir Ben Helfgott was an inspirational Holocaust survivor, who became a British Olympian, global pioneer of Holocaust education and grandfather to nine grandchildren.

 

"Ben survived the worst of humanity. His legacy is the ultimate triumph over that darkness."