Tributes after Leeds Holocaust survivor Iby Knill dies aged 98

Iby Knill, who has died aged 98. Credit: Holocaust Memorial Trust

Tributes have been paid to a Holocaust survivor, who made a new life in Leeds, following her death at the age of 98.

Iby Knill died on Easter Sunday – 77 years to the day after she was freed from the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in April 1945.

Her granddaughter, Julia Kinch, posted the news on social media, saying her "wonderful and much loved" grandmother had passed away surrounded by "love and family" in her home.

Mrs Knill was born in 1923 in what is now the Czech Republic.

She fled to Hungary with her parents after fears Jewish girls were being rounded up to work as prostitutes for the German soldiers on the Eastern Front.

But, classed as an illegal immigrant, she was later arrested and sent to a concentration camp.

After her liberation from Auschwitz, she married a British soldier and moved to the UK in 1947, eventually settling in Chapel Allerton in Leeds.

She devoted her later years to speaking about her experiences and wrote a two-volume autobiography, The Woman Without a Number and The Woman With Nine Lives.

She was awarded a British Empire Medal for her commitment to Holocaust Education and Commemoration. 

Alex Sobel, Labour MP for Leeds North West, described her books as a "lasting testimony to the horrors of the Holocaust".

Deputy Mayor for Leeds Alison Lowe said she was "so sorry" to find out about Iby's death and posted "condolences" to her family.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust tweeted that they were "deeply saddened" to hear of the passing of their dear friend.