Beloved Kindertransport refugee and Shoah educator turns 100
Henry Wuga, who celebrates his centenary on Friday, fled Nuremberg in May 1939.
A Holocaust survivor who fled to Scotland from Germany in 1938 on the Kindertransport celebrates his centenary this Friday.
Henry Wuga, a much-loved member of The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) turns 100 years old in the same year as the Kindertransport’s 85th anniversary.
The Kindertransport (children’s transport), saw the historic rescue of 10,000 mostly Jewish children, sent from their homes across Central Europe to Great Britain. It first arrived in the UK in 1938.
Henry Wuga was born in Nuremberg in 1924. His family was Catholic on his father’s side and Jewish on his mother’s side. Henry Wuga himself was raised Jewish.
After being forced to leave school in Germany at age 14, he began an apprenticeship as a cook at the kosher kitchen of the Tannhäuser Hotel in Baden-Baden.
In May 1938, he was able to escape the country via the Kindertransport to Scotland, where he was interned as an “enemy alien” after the war began.
After ten months on the Isle of Man, Henry Wuga was released in spring 1941. Back in Glasgow, he attended the Refugee Club, where at the age of 18, he met his future wife and fellow Kindertransport refugee Ingrid Wolff.
They married on 27 December 1944 at Pollokshields synagogue in Glasgow. Henry’s father died that same year, and as a result his mother no longer had the protection of a non-Jewish spouse.
In January 1945, she went into hiding in the countryside near Nuremberg, where she experienced the end of the war.
Henry and Ingrid ran a catering business together for 30 years and Ingrid was awarded a BEM for services to Holocaust education in 2019. She died in 2020 at the age of 96 years old.
Henry was awarded an MBE in 1999 for services to The Limbless British Ex-Servicemen’s Association.
The couple have two daughters, four grandsons, and two great-grandsons. Henry has attended the Edinburgh International Festival every year since being in the UK and tells the AJR he plans to do so this year.
Michael Newman, chief executive officer, The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) said: “On behalf of us all at The AJR we wish Henry Wuga a hearty mazel tov and huge congratulations on the occasion of his 100th Birthday.
“Henry is a much-loved member who came to the UK via the Kindertransport and went on to have an eminent career in catering. The Association of Jewish Refugees is organising a special one-off concert to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Kindertransport at Wigmore Hall on May 12.
“It promises to be a captivating musical event, honouring some of the youngest victims of Nazi terror – who like Henry, came to the UK to build new lives and communities and had a profound impact on British society and culture.”
To book tickets for the concert, click here.
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