Remembering Franz Nebel and the UK’s hidden Holocaust survivors:
Let no Holocaust survivor or refugee in need suffer alone
Six Point Foundation is calling on Jewish community…
…to let UK Holocaust survivors and refugees in financial need know that help may be available for them.
“Today, on Holocaust Memorial Day and as we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp, we want people to know that, for survivors with financial struggles, there is help available.” – Susan Cohen, Six Point Foundation’s Executive Director
“Our determination to find survivors in need is driven in part by the memory of Franz Nebel, who fled Nazi Germany in 1939 and died alone in his London flat in 2010. His body was discovered a month after his passing. We believe it is very important that every Holocaust survivor and refugee in this country is aware of the support available to them should they need it so that this type of tragedy doesn’t happen again. Many people do not realise that for every survivor who can participate in a Holocaust Memorial Day event there is usually another who cannot due to difficult circumstances. We need to help before it is too late.”
Dan Green, Chief Executive of ORT UK said…
“We were incredibly saddened when we learnt Franz Nebel, one of the Old Boys from the ORT school in Leeds who relocated from Berlin just before the outbreak of the Second World War, died in such lonely circumstances. No Holocaust survivor or refugee should find themselves isolated in later life. We are encouraging everyone to spread the word in their communities that help is available. You could help change a life for the better.”
Six Point Foundation was set up in 2011 with some of the proceeds from the disposal of assets which were owned by the Otto Schiff Housing Association (OSHA). OSHA had its origins in a fund set up in 1933 to rescue Jewish people from Nazi oppression in Germany.
To date, over £550,000 has been awarded in 475 grants. Grants have been for one-off expenses to improve quality of life such as home adaptations, medical bills, travel costs and temporary care.
In one grant, a Holocaust survivor received £14,305 to undergo a lung transplant in the U.S. because he could not get one in the UK due to his age. His medical condition was related to being in hiding from the Nazis at a very young age in damp conditions. His support worker said, “He asked me to express his immense gratitude for enabling him to go ahead with this major lifesaving procedure.”
In another grant a Manchester-based Holocaust refugee received £6,752 to undertake adaptations to his home. His social worker said that, “His physical condition stems from the fact that he was on a waiting list to have surgery done to his foot when he was a child when the Germans said they would no longer treat Jews.”
Five partner agencies work with the Foundation to give out grants: The Association of Jewish Refugees, Holocaust Survivors Centre (Jewish Care), Agudas Israel Housing Association (AIHA), Bikur Cholim and North London Bikur Cholim. They confidentially assess people who have requested help and make requests for grants to the Foundation on their behalf.
Six Point Foundation has also provided grants to organisations supporting Jewish Holocaust survivors and refugees, and has awarded over £2.4 million. Organisations that received grants include The National Holocaust Centre and Museum (Newark), Gateshead Jewish Family Service, Merseyside Jewish Community Care, Federation of Jewish Services (Manchester) and Jewish Care.
The Foundation was established as a spend-out foundation and, before it closes within the next two to three years, the Foundation aims to reach and help as many struggling Holocaust survivors and refugees as possible in modest but meaningful ways that would not come about if it did not exist.
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Notes:-
For more information contact Renata McDonnell: 020 3372 8882 / info@sixpointfoundation.org.uk
Six Point Foundation, 25-26 Enford St, London W1H 1DW | www.sixpointfoundation.org.uk
· Six Point Foundation is a grant-making foundation registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (1143324) that supports Holocaust survivors and refugees in financial need who are of Jewish origin and living in the U.K.
· Holocaust survivors/refugees are eligible if they have an income of less than £10,000 per year (excluding pensions or social security) and have assets less than £32,000 (excluding a primary residence and a car).
· ORT UK is the UK arm of World ORT, the world’s largest Jewish education and training charity. Currently operating in 56 countries, ORT helps vulnerable communities to become self-sufficient by educating and training their members in the skills they need for life.
· Franz Nebel, born in September 1923, and his older brother, Kurt, were two of ORT’s Leeds Old Boys. Franz joined the British Army’s Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in 1943, and outlived both his brother and his own wife. Franz and Kurt had been pupils of the ORT school in Berlin, set up in 1936 for German Jewish children who could not go to mainstream schools because of Nazi persecution. The school relocated to UK three days before war was declared on 1 September 1939.