InfoPersons, originating from Poland
Ana Benkel de Vinocur
Born: September 25, 1926 in Łódź, Poland
Died: January 7, 2006 in Montevideo, Uruguay
Name in Poland: Hanka Benkel
In September 1939 Poland was occupied by Germany. In 1940 the Jewish Hanka Benkel and her family were locked up in the Ghetto of Łódź,
were they had to live under extreme difficult circumstances. They were forced to work for the German war industry.
In 1944 the family was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where Hanka lost her father and her youngest brother.
When the Russian army came closer to Auschwitz, in the spring 1945, Hanka and her mother are transported to the Stutthof camp.
There died her mother because of illness and hunger.
On May 3, 1945 Hanka was finally released and taken to a hospital in Kiel.
In 1947 she left Europe for Uruguay, where she was reunited with her brother Herschek, who had changed his name in Enrique. Together they were the only survivors from their large family. In 1948 she married Alberto Vinocur and for the rest of her life she carried the name Ana Benkel de Vinocur. They raised a family and got two sons.
Ana started a career as a singer. She had great success:
One of Ana's records
four albums with her songs were recorded in Uruguay, two in Argentina and one in the United States.
She wrote her first book 'A Book without a Title' in 1972 and received a literary award from the Ministry of Education and Culture.
The book was translated in English in the United States and had several editions in Mexico, as well as her second book 'Lights and Shadows after Auschwitz'.
Her third book called "Back to Life after Auschwitz" was published in 2015. In all of her books she testifies about the life under Nazism.
During many years she gave lectures and held talks at universities, public and private colleges and various educational institutions all over Uruguay.
The primary goal of her life was to inform about what happened in the Holocaust and to keep the memory alive.
She was founder and Secretary General of the Holocaust Memorial Center Uruguay, an educational institution.
She received honors throughout here life and posthumously. Among them the Medal of Honor awarded by the President of Poland.
In 2009 a Public School was named Ana Vinocur and in 2014 a forest in the Negev desert, in Israel got her name.
Klick here for more information in Spanish. A meeting with students at the Montevideo University in 2005
Polonica stamps:
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Uruguay 2015, 28 I |
