QUB Holocaust Memorial Day: Journeys

Meet Joanna Millan, orphaned survivor: my new hero.

On first appearance, Joanna seems just like your average granny; bubbly, feisty and with lots of stories to tell. Only, her stories tell a lot about the dark history of our nations past.

Having only in the last four years discovered a huge amount of her past, her journey is an incredible one and one worth sharing.

The lovely lady herself – If I hadn’t have been slightly scared of her, I’d have definitely gone for a hug

In 1943 Bela’s father was taken to Auschwitz where he was killed and later that year in June Joanna and her mother were placed on the trains to Theresienstadt where her mother later contracted TB and died. Joanna was one of 140,936 Jews placed in this camp, 7 times the amount the camp was designed for.

Joanna was placed with 5 other orphaned children. Their story has become one of amazement and intrigue. Just how did 6 orphaned children survive?  Joanna talked of how the children became scared of adults and dogs, had no toys to play with and of how she discovered a woman named Litska Shallinger whose job in the camp was the vegetable patch used to sneak the children vegetables.

Once liberated from the camp, the children were moved around from home to home. Joanna described how their natural inclination was to be mischievous towards the nurses as they didn’t know how to deal with grown ups, having never been in much contact with any. On one occasion Joanna was told off and sent to stand in the corner where she was followed by her 5 friends. They really did band together.

Joanna shows a photo of herself as a child in the camps

Eventually Joanna was adopted by a couple living in London who changed her name from Bela to Joanna as they were fearful of her name sounding too Jewish. She was told she was not allowed to tell people she was German or Jewish and had to pretend to be there natural daughter. Joanna laughed at this describing herself as a short and red headed child in comparison to her tall and elegant ‘parents’.

Joanna was asked by the audience if she remembered the camp to which she replied that every day was the same, there was nothing out of the ordinary to spark memories. She did however recall the day she left the camp in 1945 when the camp was liberated by Russian soldiers.

She bravely told the audience in QUBSU how she was terrified as people who left the camp often did not return.

For me, the darkest picture Joanna painted was how 190 bodies were cremated daily in four ovens, which were originally designed for one body, but could fit four due to how thin they the starved bodies had become. She described how the ashes were thrown into the nearby river (likely along with her mother’s) in expectation of a visit from the Red Cross.

When asked by a Queen’s student what nationality she considers herself she replied, “I’m special, I’m different, I’m a bit of everything.”

She spoke of how she does not consider herself wholly German as her citizenship was taken away from her under the Nuremberg Laws and she was raised to be British. She revealed that she in fact only ever knew two German words which were “dog” and “soup” – the only two words she needed to know in the camp – one to obtain food, the other to be wary of (Alsations were specifically trained to kill in camps).

Another student asked Joanna what today’s generation can do to carry on her work to which she made a plea for individual moral goodness; urging the audience to speak out against discrimination and racism, reminding her audience of the words of Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”.

Before this event the Holocaust did not seem very real to myself. After listening to Joanna for just an hour, it really brought the past into the present for me.

Joanna’s approach to the event was very blunt yet light hearted. You were left in no doubt that she is angry towards the UK for the majority standing by and the minority standing up, arguing that at “if more individuals stood up, more of the enemy would have stood down.”

Her very, very honest approach brings a human aspect to the event which is often only thought of as facts and figures.