Leslie Hardman

Early life He was born in Glynneath, Wales to Abraham and Dora Hartmann, who were Ashkenazi Jews from Poland and Russia, respectively. The couple worked as drapers and anglicised their name as 'Hardman'. At the outbreak of the First World War, Abraham, a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was interned as an enemy alien because Austria-Hungary was allied with Germany, then at war with the United Kingdom.

Dora and their three children relocated to Manchester for domestic support and were later reunited with Abraham after his release. Between 1916 and 1918, the couple had two more children, both born in Manchester. The family moved to Liverpool in 1922 where Leslie attended the Hebrew School in Hope Place. He subsequently studied at a yeshivah before enrolling at the University of Leeds, where he took his BA and then an MA. He married his wife Josi (1911–2007) on 14 October 1936, two years after becoming minister of the Jewish community at St. Anne's, where he was also the shochet, or ritual slaughterer. From there he took a ministerial appointment in Leeds.

By April 1945 Captain Hardman was the 32-year-old Senior Jewish Chaplain to the British Forces, attached to the 8th Corps of the British 2nd Army. On 17 April 1945, Hardman entered Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, two days after it had been liberated by British military forces, under the command of fellow Welshman Brigadier Glyn Hughes. Hardman became the first Jewish chaplain at the site. On arriving at the camp he tried to bring comfort to the survivors and said the Kaddish, the Jewish memorial prayer, over the dead. He tried to persuade the army bulldozer drivers who were pushing the bodies of the dead into a pit to bury them with some kind of dignity.

Later he wrote of his experience at the camp, "Towards me came what seemed to be the remnants of a holocaust – a staggering mass of blackened skin and bones, held together somehow with filthy rags. 'My God, the dead walk', I cried aloud, but I did not recognise my voice... [peering] at the double star, the emblem of Jewry on my tunice – one poor creature touched and then stroked the badge of my faith, and finding that it was real murmured, 'Rabbiner, Rabbiner'." Years later, Hardman told a correspondent from the BBC (paraphrasing from Akdamus Milin),"If all the trees in the world turned into pens, all the waters in the oceans turned into ink and the heavens turned into paper, it would still be insufficient material to describe the horrors these people suffered under the SS."

He was recorded as having said that he had lost his faith at Belsen. However, he later stated, "I didn't lose my faith, but some of the words of the prayers I said at Belsen stuck in my throat. I couldn't understand how the God I worshipped could permit this."

Hardman was present during the interrogation of Josef Kramer, the Commandant of Bergen-Belsen; Kramer's complete lack of remorse made a deep impression on him. Kramer would later be tried, and was hanged in December 1945.

Later years After the war Hardman served as the rabbi at Hendon United Synagogue from 1947 to 1982, and was the Hendon Branch Chaplain of the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women. He also served as chaplain to the psychiatric unit at Edgware Hospital and was a strong supporter of the Holocaust Educational Trust. In January 2008 he gave a speech at the National Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration in Liverpool.

Leslie Hardman died on 7 October 2008 aged 95.

Publications Hardman, Leslie and Cecily Goodman 'The Survivors: the story of the Belsen Remnant' London: Vallentine, Mitchell, (1958) Hardman, Leslie (contributor) Belsen in History and Memory By Jo Reilly, Joanne Reilly Published by Routledge, (1997)