Belhamel: The Podcast

Episode Seven:

Leon Greenman

Leon Greenman is the single most important figure in the rediscovery of Eddy Hamel. First, he was able to tell Ajax about Eddy, more than fifty years after the end of the war. Second, he was able to share his account of occupation, arrest and imprisonment, all in meticulous detail. And because the two men shared a bunk at Auschwitz., and served in many of the same slave labor details, his story is, in many ways, also Eddy's story. Without Leon Greenman, we wouldn't know about Eddy Hamel at all.

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Leon Greenman

Leon Greenman at home in 2002. I traveled with my friend Menno Pot to Leon's home in London, shortly after the publication of his book, An Englishman in Auschwitz. If his postwar life was a one man's campaign to fight fascism and antisemitism, his home was the official archive of that campaign. It was not a shambles. It was a neatly and well organized collection of seemingly thousands of documents - photographs, newspapers, court transcripts etc.

Barney Greenman

Barnett Greenman, also known as Barney, the only child of Leon and Else Greenman, was admired by everyone who met him because of his beautiful hair and blue-gray eyes. Leon permitted me to take a picture of this photo at his house in 2002.

Leon the Singer

Leon Greenman was a fine singer. Before the war, he trained at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music, and performed as a member of the Jewish Operatic Society. After the war, in London, he performed as a tenor under the stage name Leon Maure. Leon permitted me to take a picture of this photo at his house in 2002.

You can hear him singing at the beginning of the UCL podcast With a Song in my Heart - Leon Greenman.

Oral History Interview with Leon Greenman

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's publication of the oral history interview with Leon Greenman, a 12-part series of audio, where Leon tells his entire story.