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return to headline pageFrom Dachau to D-Day
The Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal Football Club, has honoured AJR member Willy Field with a special evening to launch his new biography From Dachau to D-Day written by historian Dr Helen Fry.
Willy Field, who was born Willy Hirschfeld in Bonn as one of twins, fled Nazi Germany in 1939 after a period of four months in Dachau concentration camp. He went on to fight for Britain as a tank driver in the D-Day landings and fought for 11 months on the frontline all the way to the invasion of Germany. He was the sole survivor of his crew when his tank was knocked out by a 88mm gun in Holland in September 1944. Willy, who is an avid Arsenal supporter, attended his first match in 1939 as a newly arrived refugee. He has been a seatholder there since the war.
The book launch at Arsenal was attended by three generations of the family, including his twin sister Thea (also an AJR member). Willy and Thea were the only survivors of their family in the Holocaust. Amongst the guests were fellow war veterans who had flown in from Paris, Israel and Germany. A delegation of German school teachers from Bonn also came over for the occasion. It was a very poignannt and special evening.