An Auschwitz survivor and his wife have celebrated their platinimum wedding anniversary.

Freddie and Freda Knoller marked 70 happy years together on New Year’s Eve on a Zoom with members and volunteers of Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivors’ Centre.

Members of the Centre for many years, the couple joined the weekly virtual Yiddish group and staff shared one of Freddie and Freda’s favourite song, Sophie Milman’s, “Ochi Chernye”, with the volunteers and members.

Speaking on the Zoom, their daughter, Susie Knoller, said, “70 years is quite an achievement and they are very much in love. Thank you to everyone at the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre for celebrating this special day with my Mum and Dad.

“It’s been a lifeline to them after everything that’s happened and after everything the Centre has done for them over the years, it’s so important to them. 

“They miss you all. You mean a lot to all of us and you always will.”

Freddie, from Barnet, will celebrate his 100th birthday on April 17th this year.

He escaped the Nazi’s by fleeing to Belgium but was interned in a Belgian refugee camp until 1940.

Freddie attempted to escape to France and was arrested on the border before escaping prison with false identification papers as a Frenchman from Alsace. He worked in Paris and joined the French Resistance before being betrayed by a French girlfriend and arrested again.

Refusing to reveal the name of the resistance group, Freddie admitted to being Jewish and was sent to the Drancy Transit Camp near Paris.

He was deported, to Auschwitz where he carried 25kg cement bags at a run and survived due to his friendship with a French prisoner, a doctor, who helped him by sharing extra food with him. 

He went on the Death March and was finally taken to by cattle truck to Bergen Belsen before being liberated by the British Army in March 1945. From there he made his way as a refugee to meet his family in America.

Freddie and Freda moved to England in 1952 after two years of marriage.

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Sharing his tips for a happy marriage, Freddie said: "Continued love. Love your partner, that's all that matters."

Freda added: "One must marry the right person to begin with, and really love and respect each other.”