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Honorary Doctor of Philosophy, 1996
Bio | Citation

Trude Levi was born into an Austro-Hungarian Jewish family in 1924 in Szombathely, Hungary. She worked as a nursery school teacher in Budapest until 19 March 1944, when the city was occupied by Germans troops. After travelling back to her home town to find her parents, she and her mother were taken by the Nazis and transported to Auschwitz. She survived the ordeal at Auschwitz and was transported to a Buchenwald outcamp which she also survived. Trude has since travelled around the world giving lectures and talks, recounting her experiences at the hands of the Nazis. She has written two books. In A Cat Called Adolf she describes her time in the concentration camps and on death marches. In Did You Ever Meet Hitler Miss? she seeks to address some of the questions asked by children during her many tours. She has been guest contributor to Anglia Ruskin courses on genocide.

In 1996 Trude Levi was made an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy of the University.

Areas Of Interest: Writer/Journalist, Education
Faculty: Arts, Law & Social Sciences
Citation:
"Trude Levi was born into a prosperous Austro-Hungarian Jewish family in 1924 in Szombathely, reputedly the most anti-Semitic town in Hungary. From early childhood she experienced racism and was barely 20 when she was deported, along with the whole of the Jewish population of the town to Auschwitz. The series of near-miraculous coincidences which resulted in her survival are described rivetingly, but without the faintest trace of self-pity, in her extraordinary autobiography "A Cat Called Adolf". At one point she describes Nazi guards debating over her prostrate body whether she was worth a bullet and deciding she was not, so near to death did they believe she already was.

Her survival, and the rebuilding of her life during the post-war years, constitutes a narrative which may truly be described as heroic. Her modesty would disclaim this word, but all of us who have read her work and, above all, those who have been privileged to hear her speak, know that Trude Levi is one of the genuine heroes of our age.

It has been our great good fortune at Anglia to have had Trude Levi visit us as a guest contributor to our course in the study of genocide; no-one who has heard her will ever forget the experience. One can only guess at the degree of stress involved in giving a single talk or lecture of this kind; yet Trude Levi does this repeatedly, year by year, throughout Europe and beyond. Her sense is that she bears witness for the millions who experienced the same events and the same treatment as herself but did not survive: they speak through her and they could not have a mouthpiece of greater integrity or eloquence. Having been a participant in the history of the twentieth century's most terrible episode, she is now helping humanity itself to come to terms with what it has been capable of.

We propose Trude Levi as Honorary Doctor of our University, conscious that honour is conferred on us by her acceptance."

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