Helga Bejach was a young Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany during the outbreak of World War II. Her story truly brings back the memories of struggling families at that time. Helga and her sister Irene reached the safety of UK and were adopted by the Attenborough family. Such an act of kindness would be the lifelong bond between the Attenborough family and Helga Bejach.
Helga Bejach’s Life in Early Years
Helga Bejach was born early in the 1930s in Germany. She and her sister Irene grew up in Berlin, a city soon to become a dangerous haven for Jewish families. As Adolf Hitler and his regime began to rise, the risk to Jewish people was constant and made life impossible. Helga’s family wasn’t immune to that increased persecution, and many Jewish families sought ways to escape from horrors being carried out around them.
In the year 1939, when little Helga Bejach was still a child, her parents decided to send her with her sister Irene aboard the Kindertransport to the UK. Kindertransport was a rescue action which evacuated thousands of Jewish children from Nazi-controlled Europe. Helga’s parents had to make the heart-wrenching decision because they knew they might never again see their daughters. Most of them lost their family because it was an era where parents were separated from their children, where the happiness of the parents had to be sacrificed so that the children might survive.
Arrival of Helga Bejach in UK
When Helga Bejach finally arrived in the UK, it was among several Jewish children who had managed to escape the war. The two sisters, Helga and Bejach sister, were fortunate enough to be taken in by a family known as the Attenboroughs. Sir David Attenborough’s parents, Frederick and Mary Attenborough, took in the two sisters. Attenborough family at Leicester took Helga Bejach and her sister as one of their children.
Helping others was nothing new to the Attenboroughs. The head of University College Leicester, Frederick, and his wife Mary were known to be especially charitable and kind-hearted. They already had two other Jewish refugee girls staying with them when Helga and Irene arrived. She made sure the children felt safe and loved despite the alarming situation they encountered.
Life at the Attenborough Residence
Sir David Attenborough acknowledged that he had always loved Helga and her sister Irene who took shelter with the Attenborough family during the war. He remembered once reporting how his siblings’ parents had made all efforts to make life as normal as possible for these two refugee girls. The sisters made the house their haven, and they could find stability in the otherwise mayhem of the world.
Things began to go well gradually between Helga Bejach and the Attenborough family. The children celebrated birthdays with each other, and shared meals together and thereby got closer. Helga and Irene enjoyed a childhood mainly characterized by their care in the warmth of Attenborough despite all traumas of separation from parents and their country.
Post-War period and Later Life of Helga Bejach
Soon after the end of the war, in 1945, the future of most Jewish people, including Helga Bejach and her sister, was unsure. Just when Helga and her sister thought that the end of the war was going to bring them back together with their parents was the time when they sadly discovered that their parents, as well as many other Jewish children, actually were killed in the Holocaust. Being told this despicable news greatly affected Helga, but the Attenborough family helped her to pursue all the following hardships.
Helga Bejach became matured and created a life in the UK. However, her association with the Attenborough family remained. Sometimes, Helga accompanied Sir David to seminars and conferences. He often spoke of how Helga and Irene had influenced his life. He claimed to have been taught qualities of sympathy, sympathy, and giving-in when Helga and her sister stayed in his house.
Legacy of Helga Bejach
Although Helga Bejach never became a celebrity, the story is a part of history. It stands as an example of human spirit at its best on one of the darkest days in the history of humanity. It depicts the life-giving value of kindness for the Attenborough family while spending their time with Helga during one of the darkest times in mankind’s history. The Kindertransport became very important as it saved hundreds of thousands of Jewish children from World War II.
A second public appeal came through the story of Helga Bejach, as Sir David Attenborough, now an internationally renowned naturalist and broadcaster, tracked down the descendants of the Jewish refugee girls who had been hosted by his family during the war. When Sir David Attenborough was 94 years of age, he hosted an exclusive reunion for the descendants of children his parents had assisted to reunite with their families including the family of Helga Bejach, in 2020. Such reunions have the potential to be incredibly powerful reminders of the bonds that were forged within the war.
Conclusion
Helga Bejach’s life is an inspiring history of survival, mercy, and survival. She was a Jewish refugee fleeing Nazi Germany, and she found refuge in the United Kingdom through the benevolence of the Attenborough family. In turn, Helga Bejach’s link to Sir David Attenborough and his family shows how needed kindness can change people’s lives forever.
Although it was because of the Holocaust that her parents lost their lives, Helga Bejach is assisted by the support received. The story does not remind the audience only of the horrors of the war but also of hope in the midst of tragedy.