H A N S   W A L T E R
Biography

   Hans Walter was born on 7th February 1926 in Cologne, the first child of Fritz (Friedrich) and Carla (Karola) Walter. His sister Berta came into the world two years later. Their father worked in the family business called ‘Gebrüder Walter & Cie’, a wholesaler for haberdashery and fashion items which was based at 113-117 Schildergasse. His mother was a housewife. The family lived at 29 Moltkestraße. Hans first went to the Lützowstraße Jewish Municipal ‘Volksschule’ and in 1938 moved to the Yavneh Grammar School.

   In January 1939, Hans Walter was able to leave Germany with the first Kindertransport from the Yavneh and was lodged at the Yavneh Hostel at 1 Minster Road in London’s Cricklewood with his classmates. At the beginning of the Second World War, he was evacuated to Bedford, but after one year he returned to London.

   At the age of 14, Hans Walter had to leave school and began working as a shoemaker. After a few years he was able to set up his own shoe repair shop and become independent.

   Hans Walter’s parents and sister were deported from Cologne to Minsk in July 1942 and were immediately murdered in Maly Trostenez.

   Hans Walter was married twice. He had three daughters with his first wife, who had survived the Auschwitz concentration camp as a young girl, but his eldest daughter died at the age of twelve. Hans Walter never wanted to return to the city of his birth. Only after our visit to him in the summer of 2010 did he decide to make the journey, and visited Cologne together with his two daughters, as part of the ‘Visit the City of Cologne’ programme for Jewish former citizens of Cologne in 2011.
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