Julia Bryson
BBC News, Yorkshire
Holocaust Centre North Archives/Suzanne Lipton
Suzanne Lipton was only six years old when she last met her parents in the summer of 1942.
The Holocaust survivors who fled the Nazis in France in the 1940s were young children and later moved to the UK at the age of 88 to live a new life.
Suzanne Rappaport Lipton was only six years old when her parents were arrested in 1942 during the Nazi occupation of Paris, but she was saved by a neighbor who hid her for several weeks under a kitchen table.
After living with her foster parents in the French countryside, Ms Lipton was fought by the Red Cross before being taken to England, and most recently in Leeds.
Simon Phillips of the Leeds Jewish Housing Association said Ms Lipton, who was awarded the Order of the British Empire (BEM) last year, was “sadly overlooked.”
Ms Lipton was awarded a BEM for Holocaust Education and Memory Services after becoming a founder member of the Friendship Association of Holocaust Survivors.
Her story is told at a permanent exhibition at the Centre and stored in its archives, and forms part of both primary and secondary learning sessions, including the BBC Learning Zone.
Holocaust Centre North Archives/Suzanne Lipton
In 2024, Ms Lipton was awarded a BEM for Holocaust education and service to memory
According to the Holocaust Centre North, Ms Lipton was at her Paris home in the summer of 1942 when French police and SS came to arrest her parents, Millie and Joseph.
But thanks to Madame Columbu, thanks to the courage of her neighbors, she was first hidden under a kitchen table covered with tablecloths for a few weeks, before being saved by moving to stay with her French country family.
Lipton never saw her parents again and found out she was later taken to the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau, and eventually moved to England, where she lived in both London and Leeds.
In January this year, a message from Ms Lipton was read on her behalf at the Holocaust Anniversary Event held at the Leeds Jewish Housing Association (LJHA), where she had been resident for 13 years.
In her message, she said: “The thing I want to say is “I don’t remember.”
“Ljha and his staff made me feel like I belonged to. I got home. Thank you.”
“Deeply creative”
In response to the news of Ms. Lipton’s death, Simon Phillips, LJHA Community Engagement Officer, said, “I always had a smile on my face every time we visited her house.”
“She was very kind to both the residents and the staff,” he said.
“She is a real ‘Aishet Child’ – a ‘worthy woman’ – and sadly you’ll be overlooked. ”
Dr. Alessandro Butch, director of Holocaust Centre North, said: “I will continue to honor Suzanne’s memory and her legacy of her testimony.
“She loved art and nature. We assure you that these will remain part of how we talk about her – as a survivor and as an incredible, complicated, deeply creative person.”
Dr. Butch said Ms. Lipton is “a woman with extraordinary courage and quiet power. Her memory may be a blessing.”
