A Leeds resident and Holocaust survivor has died 77 years after escaping a WWII concentration camp.
Iby Knill, 98, sadly died on Easter Sunday - the same day she was freed from the Auschwitz camp in a Nazi-occupied Poland. She escaped during a forced march to Bergen Belsen in 1945 when the appearance of US tanks caused Nazi guards to flee.
Iby was born in Bratislava to Jewish parents who smuggled her across the border to Hungary after she was forcibly removed from her school by authorities. She stayed with a cousin and one of his friends before becoming a member of the Resistance effort but was imprisoned and beaten for her activism, released and then re-captured for being in the country illegally in 1944.
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After her freedom, she became an interpreter for the British army. This lead her to meet British soldier Bert Knill in 1946 and the pair married.
Iby called Leeds her home and spent much of her life speaking across towns in West Yorkshire about her survival. She lost her father and other relatives during the terrifying period in which she was captured, tortured and imprisoned due to being seen as Jewish.
Mrs Knill went on to become a well-known speaker and author about the Holocaust and received a British Empire Medal in the Queen's Honours list in 2017. She wrote a two-volume autobiography, The Woman Without a Number and The Woman With Nine Lives, and often told her story to young people to educate them about the Holocaust.
In a BBC interview, she said she got through her captivity in the concentration camp by "staying together" with her four friends and "living one day at a time".
Karen Pollock, chief executive, of the Holocaust Educational Trust described Mrs Knill as "formidable". She said: "Iby was an active member of the Resistance movement and a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Iby had a unique story to share.
"She was passionate about sharing her testimony and ensuring the next generation learnt about the horrors of the Holocaust. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this sad time."
