The Woman with Nine Lives

Iby Knill is a simply remarkable woman. An Auschwitz holocaust survivor originally from Bratislava, she married a British army officer and set out to make a new life in England, arriving in Cornwall in 1947 to set up home. Dealing with the problems of integration as an immigrant in post-war Britain, raising a family and making careers in civil defence, education, international textile design and manufacture and as linguist, amongst others, she also gained an MA at the age of 80.Passionate about music and art, the loss of her beloved Bert prompted her to return to writing but always hitting a stumbling block, 60 years of suppressed memories. Eventually, despite several breakdowns, she unlocked that part of her life and became determined to tell of her experiences to future generations.Even now, she is in constant demand to talk to various groups, schools and within the media. This eagerly-awaited 'The woman with nine lives' picks up where her best-selling first book 'The woman without a number' ends, evoking changing times through a life that has constantly embraced challenge and opportunity.Included in it is the growing realisation that the past cannot be avoided, the difficulty of facing up to it and of how, eventually, Iby returns to some of the places that brought tragedy and despair to her young and formative years. Interspersed within her story, she tells those of her brother, father and mother - the woman whose determination she has inherited.Poignant, moving and searingly honest, this account reconfirms the very best of human nature and is a truly uplifting sequel.With a foreword by Fabian Hamilton, MP

Iby grew up in an educated, cultured family in Bratislava, then the capital of Czechoslovakia. Her mother was Slovak, her father Hungarian, and Iby and her brother grew up speaking several languages at home.She went to a German grammar school until she was excluded for being Jewish. Once the Sudetenland had been annexed by Germany, and Czechoslovakia was divided, life became more difficult for the Jewish population on both sides. Jewish people weren't allowed to sit down on public transport and were the last to be served in shops. Iby deeply resented being made to wear a yellow star on her clothing and used to cover it with a scarf on her walk to school. Iby didn't come from a religious family, and discrimination on grounds of being Jewish made no sense to her at all. Once the war began and Germany occupied Slovakia the persecution became worse. Jewish students were not allowed to study beyond the age of 16. Iby's parents' business was "Aryanised", which meant it was taken over without compensation and given to non-Jewish people.Her family was forced out of their apartment, which was allocated to a German family, and given a tiny flat on the outskirts of town in which her brother's bed was a board on top of the bath and Iby slept in the kitchen. She spent much of her time queueing in the shops for food. In 1942 Iby's mother had a phone call from a friend, asking whether the authorities had come to "fetch Iby". The friend explained that Jewish girls were rounded up to be taken to work as prostitutes for the German soldiers on the Eastern Front. Iby's mother acted fast. She dressed Iby up as a peasant girl, and Iby and her cousin took a tram out to the village where their grandparents lived. There they hid for several days while Iby's parents made arrangements to get her away to safety.'Safety' meant crossing the border into Hungary, crawling across no-man's land in the middle of the night. Iby went to an aunt, who was scared of repercussions so refused to help her. She then stayed hidden in the apartment of another cousin for several weeks, having to remain absolutely silent so nobody would guess she was there. Iby was just 18.The cousin introduced her to a solicitor who worked in the Hungarian resistance. Iby stayed with the solicitor and his wife for several months and worked with them, helping Allied airmen to escape. Finally the group was caught, and Iby was held in prison for three months where she was subject to torture. On her release she was immediately re-arrested as an illegal immigrant and sent to a refugee camp in northern Hungary. At this point Iby discovered that her family had also escaped to Hungary and was allowed to visit them in a refugee camp in Budapest. While there she met and became engaged to a Hungarian man on the basis that, once married, she and her parents could legally stay in Hungary. Eventually allowed out on parole, she worked as a nanny for a family friend.The Germans invaded Hungary in 1944 and the situation changed markedly. One evening Iby was visiting Jewish friends when an air raid happened and she was unable to return home. At 5am the police came to round everybody up and take them to Auschwitz. It didn't matter that Iby wasn't supposed to be there, she was taken along with the rest. They were kept at a local brickyard then put on cattle wagons and began the journey to Auschwitz. Iby had never even heard of the place and had no idea what was going to happen to her.Iby spent about six weeks in Auschwitz on starvation rations, crammed into inhuman conditions with thousands of others. One day, she and some friends answered a call for volunteer nurses to go with a slave labour transport. They were taking a risk - they had no way of knowing whether the offer was genuine or if they would end up in the gas chamber - but on this occasion they were given better clothing and taken to work in the hospital of an armaments factory in the Ruhr. By this time the war was going very badly for the Germans. Iby and other women sabotaged the work they were doing to undermine the German war effort further.In the dying stages of the war, the Germans evacuated the camp. Iby and the other women were taken on a forced march towards Bergen Belsen. Anyone lagging behind was shot. Iby had developed an infection in her hip and may not have made it were it not for the friends who carried her along. They saw American tanks in the distance. The German forces melted away and Iby and her friends were finally liberated on Easter Sunday 1945.Iby realised that many of her friends and family would not have survived. Although her mother and brother returned to Bratislava, she had no desire to go home. After a stay in hospital she got a job as a translator for the Military Government in Germany and there met Bert, a British army officer. They married in December 1946 and Iby moved to England the following year. She has lived here ever since. Iby had a successful career, first in the education sector and later as a designer. She has a son, a daughter and three grandchildren. She now chairs the HSFA's Education Committee and is a tireless speaker for schools, community groups and other organisations, telling her story as a warning of the dangers of discrimination and persecution. She is an active member of her local church.