Roman Halter (1927–2012)

Roman Halter was born to a Jewish family in the small village of Chodecz, Poland. He was the youngest of seven children. At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he was 12 years old. After suffering the brutal German Occupation of the town, Halter was deported along with his family and the other Jews to the Łódź Ghetto. In 1942, his father and grandfather died of starvation; Halter, his mother, sister, and her two children were then selected for the Chelmno extermination camp. He jumped from the cart taking them away and hid, but was later sent to Auschwitz, where he joined the metal workers. With them, he was sent to Stutthof concentration camp in Dresden, and then on a forced march to Terezín (Theresienstadt). He was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust. In 1945, he was brought to Britain by the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF), now the World Jewish Relief. He went on to study architecture and established successful practices in London and Cambridge. He married and had three children. Halter published his autobiography, Roman's Journey: A Memoir of Survival, in 2007.