I'm proud of Dad, unsung hero

My Dad, Alfred Gordon, would have been 100 this year. He died 13 years ago. I couldn't let this occasion go without saying something about him. It's customary now to list achievements and features - in his case I've placed these in two distinct groups - what he was and what he wanted to be, and what he was sucked into because of mad ideology. Of course, there was no need for the second group.   

Swimmer, family man, historian.         

Concentration camp survivor, refugee, rescuer of children from Nazi oppression, unsung hero.

Dad loved swimming. He went often, and encouraged family and friends. He used to say it helped to 'clear the cobwebs'. He was a very active member of the Bromley Town Swimming Club, that was based at Downham Swimming Pool in Lewisham, at the prior building. He was Secretary of the Club for a time, and later something like Life President. He was a very loving husband, and father. He worked hard, but it didn't get in the way of a cheeky sense of humour. He would watch the regular television programme 'All our yesterdays' which I only know now, was a historical account of the 1930's and the lead up to the Second World War and the war itself. I don't remember him talking about the war. He was interested in history beyond that, and for instance, liked the writings of the 18th/19th Century Scot Thomas Carlyle.    

He was born in Wuppertal, Germany, and when he was 17 in 1933, Hitler came to power. For millions this was literally the beginning of the end. Dad was taken prisoner to Dachau concentration camp, where as it was prior to the war, he survived. He worked with the Oxford Refugee Committee in England to rescue children in Germany from being killed. One such was his teenage girlfriend Lore. They had an enduring love and bond, and they worked together to help get children to safety - when Dad reached England first, Lore sent photos/names/details of children from Germany. Of course, they had both become refugees. Lore, who is my Mum, came to England with her younger sister on a Kindertransport (Children's Transport) train. Dad and Mum became British and he joined the army. A brother was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. Dad was part of the Belsen concentration camp liberation force in 1945 - he evidently said to my Mum of that experience 'I had read and seen a lot before I went there, but nothing prepared me for that'.