Helga Bejach
Helga Bejach was a little girl who was forced to leave Germany at the start of the Second World War. Her mother had died sometime previously, so it was her father who made the difficult decision to send Helga and her sister, Irene, away, hopefully to keep them safe. Helga’s elder sister was too old to be part of the Kinder Transport, and she stayed behind in Germany. Thankfully, the sister survived the war, but Helga never saw her father again. He was murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Why am I writing of such heartbreaking events on the Irene Mawer page? It is because while Helga was in England, she enrolled at the Ginner-Mawer School of Dance and Drama and spent her days in with them in Boscastle (Cornwall).
Helga’s foster family in the UK were the Attenborough’s. Of the three sons, Richard became a famous actor and David became a famous naturalist. The celebrity status of the Attenborough’s has brought Helga, and her sister Irene, in to the spotlight.
I have written about Helga previously, so please see earlier blog posts if you would like to know the details. Today’s post is just for me to show off a little, if I may (blush, blush.) I have just come across a website about David Attenborough. It is clearly not an official site, not least because it calls him Sir Attenborough, when of course, it is Sir David. However, the site seems harmless enough. I was interested to see the story of Helga Bejach was a highlight of this site.
When I clicked through her story, I was extremely pleased to see that they had included the Ginner-Mawer School, with links to Miss Ginner and also to Miss Mawer. When I clicked on the link for Miss Mawer, I wondered what I would see. And what did I see? I saw a real treat. The link for Miss Mawer goes through to the Wikipedia page that I made for her. (The one that Wikipedia gave me an award for, as it is so good, blush, blush and blush again.)
Unusual David Attenborough site as it may be, I am pleased it is there! The site was in Spanish, so I just clicked the translate button. Here is the link: https://sirattenborough.com/helga-e-irene-bejach/
