Joseph Grenfell’s life was marked by both unimaginable loss and extraordinary resilience. He was born in 1926, in a small town in eastern Hungary. He and his immediate family moved to Budapest in his teens, and it was in his Bar Mitzvah year that the Second World War began. But things only really became difficult for the Jews towards the end of the War, in 1944 when the Germans invaded Hungary.
By June 1944, at just 17 years old, Joseph was conscripted into a Jewish forced labour battalion. “I said goodbye to my mother and father and sister. Unfortunately, that was the last I saw of my father…my mother and sister survived but my father was taken away and never came back.”
Joseph and a handful of his schoolmates were sent to labour camps, transported to the Bor camp in Serbia on a journey that took five days. There, in brutal conditions, he was forced to build a railway line.
“Out of 4000 [sent to Bor], only about 250 survived. We were lucky.”
As the Soviets and Yugoslav partisans gradually gained ground against the Germans that Autumn, Joseph was among the 2000 prisoners forced to march on a rainy, foggy September day, an ordeal that ended unexpectedly with liberation. On returning to Budapest, he found that his mother and sister had survived, under Swiss diplomatic semi-protection in Budapest, but his father had been murdered by the Germans, and most of the wider family perished in the camps.
Joseph went to university in Budapest after the War to study law. By the time he completed his studies, there had been a full Communist takeover of Hungary, with one of the most repressive regimes in the Soviet bloc. He tried to flee the country but was caught at the border (emigration was illegal) and sent to prison for a year. Following his release, as an ex-prisoner and ‘enemy of the state’ he was forbidden to practise law and could only work in factories.
In 1956 he, like many others, took part in the initially successful – but ultimately doomed – uprising against the Communist regime, and when the Soviets invaded Hungary to put down the uprising, he (like two hundred thousand others) took advantage of the chaos to escape to the West. His refugee journey took him to first to Vienna, and finally to the UK at age 30. There, he began again.
With the help of relatives, Joseph secured work and slowly rebuilt his life. He married, raised a family, and became a successful accountant. A happy coda is that, since he had never been able to attend his graduation ceremony in 1949 (having tried then to flee Hungary, been caught and then imprisoned), in 1990 after the Communist regime fell, he applied to his old university in Budapest to attend a graduation ceremony at last. He and his family travelled to Budapest, and there he formally graduated – 40 years late – a grey-haired man among a sea of twenty-somethings.
Joseph never forgot what he had endured, or the responsibility he felt to give back after fortunately surviving. For 28 years, he donated annually to Jewish Care and left a legacy in his will.
Today, that legacy lives on through his son, Michael.
Michael shares, “I knew my parents supported Jewish Care, and I was delighted to discover that this was a commitment for many years as I know they thought it had an important role in the community. My wife and I are pleased to continue that tradition by donating to Jewish Care ourselves.”
Michael, Joseph’s only child, speaks warmly of his parents’ legacy. “Luckily, both my parents lived to see their twin grandchildren. It means a lot that their values carry forward.”
Joseph Grenfell’s story is of courage and enduring generosity. Through Jewish Care, his legacy lives on.
Sarit Simon, Legacy & Giving in Memory Lead, shares, “Joseph was incredible in his lifetime and beyond. He planned for the future and shared what was important to him with his family. We are incredibly grateful to Joseph for his generosity and for his kindness in choosing to leave a gift to Jewish Care in his Will ensuring our vital services will be there for others in the future.”
To find out more about our Free Will Writing Service and how to leave a Future Gift in your Will visit jewishcare.org/futuregiving, contact Sarit on 020 8922 2819 or legacyteam@jcare.org