My Voice: Henry Monath

My miraculous escape

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• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781526186492
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526186485
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Jewish History
• Index: History

Henry Monath was born in Kraków, Poland in 1925. He grew up in a family who ran the second-largest furrier business in the country. By 1938, his mother recognised the increasing dangers for Jewish people in Poland and travelled to London in January 1939. She managed to arrange for Henry and his sister Rezika to escape to England, where she was reunited with them.

Henry reflects on the challenges of settling in a new country, and recounts his experience being evacuated from Manchester to Blackpool in 1939 once war had broken out and later living through air raids in Manchester. After the war, Henry married Gloria, and they had two children. He built a successful company manufacturing lampshades. He visited Kraków several times in later life.

Henry's book is part of the My Voice book collection, a stand-alone project of The Fed, the leading Jewish social care charity in Manchester, dedicated to preserving the life stories of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution who settled in the UK. The oral history, which is recorded and transcribed, captures their entire lives from before, during and after the war years. The books are written in the words of the survivor so that future generations can always hear their voice. The My Voice book collection is a valuable resource for Holocaust awareness and education.

Table of contents

• Front matter
• My Voice Project
• Dedication
• Contents
• 1 – My maternal family
• 2 – My paternal grandparents
• 3 – My world collapses
• 4 – The family business and our home
• 5 – Kraków, a city of contrast
• 6 – Mother remarries
• 7 – School days
• 8 – Family holidays and leisure time
• 9 – My Bar Mitzvah and religious festivals
• 10 – The taste of childhood
• 11 – Life becomes dangerous
• 12 – Escape to England
• 13 – First impressions of England
• 14 – The fate of the rest of the family
• 15 – Evacuation and my first job
• 16 – Escaping the air raids
• 17 – Starting my own business
• 18 – Friendships and love at first sight
• 19 – Our weddings
• 20 – Starting our married life
• 21 – My grandmother’s candlesticks
• 22 – A growing business and family
• 23 – Becoming more religious
• 24 – My return to Kraków
• 25 – My premonitions
• 26 – My mother’s passing
• 27 – Memorable trips to Israel
• 28 – My half-brother Edward
• 29 – My golden rule
• 30 – My political views
• 31 – My legacy
• 32 – Postscript by grandson Benjy Smith
• Glossary
• My Voice volunteers
• About The Fed