User:Mahtin/Ruzena Levy

Ruzena "Rachel" Levy BEM
Holocaust memorial event 2025
Born	Ruzena Slomovicova (1930-04-30) 30 April 1930 Bhutz, Czechoslovakia
Citizenship	British
Occupations	dressmaker, educator
Known for	Holocaust testimony and education and surviving the Holocaust
Notable work	I Still Dream In Yiddish by Rachel Levy
Spouse	Phineas Alexander Levy (m. 1953–2005)
Children	2
Parents	Shlomo Slomovic (father) Shleima Slomovic (Steinmetz) (mother)
Relatives	Chaskel Slomovic

Ruzena "Rachel" Levy BEM (born 30 April 1930) is a Czechoslovak-born British Holocaust survivor, educator, and public speaker. She is known for her testimony about surviving Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, her postwar resettlement in Northern Ireland and London, and her decades of work promoting tolerance and Holocaust remembrance. She was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in 2019 for services to Holocaust Education.

Early life

Levy was born in the small mountain village of Bhutz, in the Carpathian Ruthenia region of Czechoslovakia (now part of Ukraine). She was the second of five children in an Orthodox Jewish family. Her childhood community consisted of roughly one hundred Jewish families.

Following the Nazi occupation, Jewish residents faced escalating restrictions. Her father was taken away during a roundup of Jewish men in 1942 and did not return, later believed to have died in a forced-labour camp.

Deportation and the Holocaust

In 1944, at age 14, Levy and her family were forced into a ghetto and subsequently deported in cattle trucks to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon arrival, her mother and three younger siblings were murdered in the gas chambers. Levy and her older brother Chaskel were selected for forced labour.

She was later transferred to Birenboul (sp. Birenbaumul?) and then forced on a death march to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated by British forces in April 1945. She required extensive medical treatment following liberation due to severe malnutrition.

Postwar resettlement

Levy made it to Prague Czechoslovakia in late 1945 and was reunited with her brother Chaskel, who had also survived the concentration camps.

In 1946, Levy was transported to Belfast Northern Island as part of the group of orphaned child survivors later known as "The Boys". She lived and worked on a farm in Millisle, where she learned English and basic vocational skills.

Levy later moved to London and with the help and encouragement of a local Jewish family, who also gave her a home, she trained as a dressmaker and began rebuilding her life.

Marriage and family

Levy married in the 1953 and raised two children, and has two grandchildren. She has spoken publicly about the challenges of rebuilding a family after the trauma of the Holocaust and the importance of transmitting memory to future generations.

Extended family

While Rachel Levy and her brother Chaskel were the only members of their immediate family to survive the Holocaust, several relatives from both her mother’s and father’s sides are known to have survived.

According to Levy’s testimony, some of her maternal cousins had emigrated from Czechoslovakia to Palestine and the United States before the outbreak of World War II, escaping the Nazi occupation of Carpathian Ruthenia. These relatives, along with some of her maternal uncles and aunts that survived the Holocaust, reconnected with her after the war and provided emotional and practical support as she rebuilt her life in the United Kingdom.

Levy has spoken about the emotional complexity of reconnecting with distant kin - balancing the joy of survival with the grief of losing her parents and three younger siblings. These family ties became especially meaningful as she raised her own children and worked to preserve the memory of those who were lost.

Holocaust education and public speaking

After remaining largely silent for decades, Levy began sharing her testimony publicly in the 2000s. She has since become a regular speaker at schools, universities, community events, and remembrance ceremonies. Her message emphasizes the dangers of intolerance, the importance of accepting others, and the need to preserve historical truth in the face of denial and distortion.

Millisle Primary School and the legacy of the Millisle Farm

The former Jewish Refugee Resettlement Farm at Millisle, County Down - known simply as "The Farm" - played a central role in the lives of hundreds of Jewish children who arrived in Northern Ireland between 1939 and 1948. Established on a run-down 70-acre plot near the village, the farm was originally a dilapidated property known as Ballyrolly House. Early arrivals found leaking tents, derelict outbuildings, and harsh weather, but with support from the Belfast Jewish community and local residents, the site was transformed into a functioning agricultural training centre and safe haven.

By the time Holocaust survivors such as Levy arrived in 1946, the farm had become a structured community. Days included English lessons, physical exercise, gardening, and cultural activities. Children received regular medical care, new clothing, and opportunities for recreation, including cinema visits in nearby Donaghadee. Survivors later described the farm as a place of “freedom,”

Return to Bhutz (2013)

In May 2013, at the age of 83, Levy returned for the first time to her birthplace of Bhutz, a small Jewish village in former Czechoslovakia's Carpathian Mountains from which she had been deported by the Nazis in 1944 at age fourteen.

Rachel Levy with family members in Bhutz, 2013.

The visit followed nearly a decade of research by her family to locate the village, whose name and administrative identity had shifted across Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, and now Ukrainian jurisdictions during the twentieth century.

Levy travelled with a multigenerational group of seventeen relatives representing three continents, including her children, grandchildren, nieces, and cousins from the directly related Levy, Slomovic, and Steinmetz families.

Upon reaching the area—now identified as Velykyi Bychkiv/Byouts and Malyi Bychkiv/Byouts - Levy met local residents who remembered the pre‑war Jewish community and the Slomovic family’s flour mill. One 98‑year‑old Romanian speaking villager recalled Levy’s grandfather, Dudye Slomovic, and described how local families had attempted to hide Jewish residents in the surrounding forests during the first Nazi roundup.

Members of the family also visited the site of the former Jewish cemetery, destroyed during the communist period, where they lit a Yahrzeit candle and recited Kaddish.

File:Ruzena Levy Return to Solotnva 2013.jpg

Solotvyno Ukraine Memorial reads: "TO THE JEWS OF THE VILLAGE OF SOLOTNVO, WHO DIED DURING THE HOLOCAUST."

The group continued to Solotvyno, the location of the wartime ghetto from which Levy and her family had been deported, and held a further memorial at the commemorative plaque marking the site.

The journey marked Levy’s first and so-far only return to her childhood home and served as a significant moment of remembrance for both her family and surviving local witnesses to the village’s destroyed Jewish community.

Honours

Levy was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the The Queen's Birthday Honours List 2019 for her services to Holocaust education. Her award was part of a wider national recognition of Holocaust survivors who had dedicated their lives to public testimony and educational outreach.

She received her medal at an investiture ceremony held at the Tower of London in November 2019, where it was presented by the Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, Sir Kenneth Olisa.

Holocaust Memorial Day

Levy has participated and spoken at various of the UK's Holocaust Memorial Day events over many years. Catford in 2007. Croydon in 2012. Lewisham 2021. London in 2023, 2024, 2025.

Confronting Holocaust Denial with David Baddiel

Levy appeared in the BBC documentary Confronting Holocaust Denial with David Baddiel. In the programme, comedian and writer David Baddiel interviewed Levy as part of his examination of the persistence of Holocaust denial and the motivations behind it.

Levy provided personal testimony about her experiences during the Holocaust, contributing first‑hand evidence to counter misinformation and denialism. Her account is presented within the documentary’s broader effort to address the rise of Pseudohistory narratives and the challenges posed by contemporary misinformation.

Levy’s appearance underscores the film’s central theme: that survivor testimony remains essential as the number of living witnesses continues to decline. Baddiel uses Levy’s story, alongside those of other survivors, to highlight the importance of preserving accurate historical memory and confronting attempts to distort the historical record.

Portraits commissioned by HRH The Prince of Wales

“Ruzena Levy a portrait commissioned by Prince Charles and painted by British artist Stuart Pearson Wright in 2021-2022”

A portrait commissioned by Prince Charles of Holocaust Survivor Ruzena "Rachel" Levy painted by British artist Stuart Pearson Wright in 2021-2022.

In 2022, Levy was one of seven Holocaust survivors selected to have their portraits painted for a special royal commission initiated by Charles, Prince of Wales (later King Charles III). The project, titled Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust, was conceived as a living memorial to the dwindling generation of survivors and as a tribute to their contributions to Holocaust education.

Levy’s portrait was painted by British artist Stuart Pearson Wright. All seven completed portraits were first exhibited at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace from 27 January to 13 February 2022, coinciding with Holocaust Memorial Day (UK). The other Holocaust survivors featured in the series were: Helen Aronson, Lily Ebert, Manfred Goldberg, Arek Hersh, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, and Zigi Shipper.

The portraits moved to Holyrood Palace after closing at the Queen's Gallery. and they have not been seen in public since that second exhibit. The portraits entered the Royal Collection and are overseen by the Royal Collection Trust.

On Holocaust Memorial Day 2026, holocaust survivors and their families were invited to Buckingham Palace by Charles III. The King was showing the portraits he had commissioned.

Levy also took part in the documentary "Survivors: Portraits of the Holocaust" for BBC Two.

Memoir: I Still Dream In Yiddish

In 2025, Levy published her memoir, I Still Dream In Yiddish, as part of the UK-based My Voice project, a national initiative to preserve and share the life stories of Holocaust survivors living in the United Kingdom.

The book recounts her early life in Bhutz, her deportation to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and her postwar journey through Millisle and London. It also explores her reflections on memory, identity, and the enduring emotional legacy of the Holocaust. The title refers to the language of her childhood and the dreams that still connect her to her lost family and community.

The memoir was developed through a series of recorded interviews and writing workshops facilitated by the My Voice team and editorial guidance from project volunteers. Levy worked closely with editors to shape her narrative, ensuring that her voice and memories remained central to the final publication.

The book was launched at a public event in Hampstead, London, on 14 July 2025, alongside memoirs by fellow survivors Kurt Marx and Jacques Weisser. The launch was attended by family members, educators, and representatives from Yad Vashem UK and The Fed, who praised the project as “a victory over the silence.”

I Still Dream In Yiddish is now part of the growing My Voice Collection, which aims to preserve the testimonies of Holocaust survivors for future generations and support Holocaust education across the UK.

Further reading

• Levy, Rachel (2025): I Still Dream In Yiddish. My Voice. ISBN 978-0596528126

See also

• History of the Jews in Carpathian Ruthenia
• Auschwitz concentration camp
• Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
• Millisle
• The Boys
• Holocaust survivors
• History of the Jews in Ireland
• Holocaust education
• Holocaust Educational Trust
• British Empire Medal
• Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust
• Holocaust Memorial Day (UK)

External links

• Rachel Levy oral history interview at the Imperial War Museums
• Holocaust Memorial Day Trust – 2019 Honours List
• Royal Collection Trust – Seven Portraits Exhibition
• BBC News – How Holocaust survivors took shelter on a Northern Ireland farm
• WartimeNI – Jewish Refugee Resettlement Farm, Millisle
• 45 Aid Society – Millisle Hostel history