LIFE STORY

harrowing legacy to the next generation of Holocaust survivors. As a non-Jewish survivor himself, he encountered some difficulty in telling his own story to German children when he revisited his home in southern Germany and was invited to talk to schoolchildren by the local museum of Christians and Jews. Getting in touch with the London charity, Generation 2 Generation he was able to train, first himself and then additional speakers, on how to make their parents’ stories relatable to varied audiences using guidelines laid down by their own successful project.

the Kommunist Party of Deutschland, who was responsible for smuggling out many comrades over the border to Czechoslovakia. He was shot and wounded by the Nazis and eventually made his way to the UK after living out most of the war on a pig farm in Czechoslovakia.

Head of the Northern Holocaust Education Group, Ernie Hunter has made a huge contribution to the North-West over the last ten years by founding, organising, and running a group of volunteers to speak in schools, clubs, and institutions on the

Ernie was keen to include the Jewish side of his story, that of his mother Fanny Höchstetter and his staunchly anti-Hitler father. His mother Fanny was a determined and well-educated woman who, during the years before Hitler became Chancellor had risen very high in Der Post, the German equivalent of British Telecom. When she was abruptly “retired" a fate met by many Jews, who were thus deprived, not only of their income, but of any pension rights due, Fanny ferociously contested her dismissal and in the face of physical violence at every level, managing to acquire written proof of her length of service, firmly believing that when Hitler was defeated she would be re-instated or compensated. She stayed in Germany until Kristalnacht when she equally determinedly got out. She joined her sister Bertle in the North-West of England, but was sent into internal exile in Llangollen, a tiny village in Wales. She met and married Ernie's father, Anton Hundsdorfer, the son of a strong communist family, a member of

After several moves, they made Manchester their home and had two sons. Ernie the younger, later became an international accountant. Returning to his homeland and discovering some of his family history led him, like many second-generation survivors, to discover much about his past and eventually to set up the voluntary speaking group Northern Holocaust Education Group. Rigorous in his standards, he has been determined not to let them drop and insisted that the volunteers undergo the same training he had benefitted from. To date many of NHEGS volunteers have spoken to thousands of school children, Adult Education groups rotary Clubs, police trainees, and prisons in NorthWest England. Other speakers like Judith Hayman have returned to Austria, Germany, and Eastern European countries to tell their parents' stories and have been met with great respect by those telling the story to the future generations of their own countries.

A charming and even-tempered man, Ernie has been an excellent guide for those who want to follow in his footsteps and thoroughly deserves to receive recognition for his work.

Northernholocausteducationgroup.org.uk Generation2generation.org.uk