W E R N E R   L A C H S
Biography

   Werner Lachs was born in Cologne on 30th November 1926, the second child of Richard Hermann and Johanna Lachs. His sister Ruth had been born three years earlier. His father came from Hochkirchen near Nörvenich, and his mother from Düren.

   Werner Lachs started in school in 1933. His first day at school was on April 1st, the day of the boycott of ‚Jewish‘ businesses, lawyers and doctors – the first wide-reaching antisemitic campaign of the new National Socialist regime. Werner initially went to the Caesarstraße (or Annastraße) primary school in Bayenthal. In 1935 he moved to the Lützowstraße Jewish Municipal ‘Volksschule’ . From 1937 onwards he was at the Yavneh.

   On November 10th 1938, Werner Lachs witnessed the riots during the Kristallnacht pogrom. Luckily his father was able to escape arrest by hiding in his home town of Hochkirchen. However, as a result of the pogrom he lost his job because the Jewish firm which employed him was ‘Aryanised’ and forced to close down.

   His parents then decided to emigrate to England, to begin with, as they would have had to have waited several more years for their application for a visa for the USA to come through. Even though they were not able to provide financial guarantees, they were given an entry visa. This was thanks to the British intelligence officer Frank Foley, who worked at the passport office of the British embassy in Berlin and helped thousands of German Jews in the 1930s to emigrate to Palestine or Great Britain by supplying them with visas even though they did not possess the required financial guarantees.

   On June 22nd 1939, the Lachs parents’ wedding anniversary, the family of four left Germany, about two months before the outbreak of the Second World War. After initial difficulties, Werner Lachs was able to establish himself in Manchester, where he followed a professional career and started a family. For many years he has been the local Chairman of the ‘Association of Jewish Refugees’ (AJR) which was founded in 1941 by Jewish refugees from central Europe and even today provides social and cultural opportunities in the UK for survivors of the Holocaust.

   Werner Lachs now (2010) lives in Manchester with his wife Ruth.
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