Gena Turgel

Early life and the Holocaust Turgel was born in Kraków in 1923, the youngest of nine children of Samuel and Estera Goldfinger. Her parents ran a small textile business.

Her brother Willek was shot and killed by the SS through the window of their home while he stood on a chair beside the window to reach a suitcase on top of a wardrobe. The ceremony was officiated by Jewish British Army chaplain Padre Capt. Leslie Henry Hardman. Her wedding dress, made from a British Army parachute, is an exhibit in the Imperial War Museum in London. Norman held a party to celebrate his engagement to Gena at Belsen having been granted permission to do so by Major Leonard Berney, the commander of the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp (as it was then called). Norman Turgel died in 1995.

Her memoir, I Light a Candle, was published in 1987. She spent much of her life educating British school pupils about the Holocaust.

Death She died on 7 June 2018, at the age of 95 in England. Upon news of her death, Britain's chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, called her a "truly remarkable Holocaust Survivor," and said, "Her legacy is our responsibility now."