ICE archaeologist Dr Gilly Carr invited to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to honour British Hero of the Holocaust

Dr Gilly Carr was invited to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Tuesday 23 January 2018 as part of their Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations. Following extensive research by Gilly, Jersey woman Dorothea Weber née Le Brocq was being recognised at the ceremony as a British Hero of the Holocaust.

​The event was led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, as well as the Israeli ambassador Mark Regev and Sir Eric Pickles, Special Envoy for post-Holocaust Issues. Pierre Landick, Dorothea's second cousin, was at the ceremony to receive the posthumous award on Mrs Weber’s behalf.

Gilly’s research discovered that during the German occupation of the Channel Islands in World War II, Mrs Weber risked her life to hide a Jewish friend, Hedwig Bercu, from the German forces occupying Jersey. Mrs Weber was previously awarded the ‘Righteous Among Nations’ honour in 2016 by Yad Vashem – the Jewish living memorial to the Holocaust – on behalf of the State of Israel. This is an honour bestowed on non-Jewish people who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. 

"The story of Dorothea and Hedwig is such a remarkable and exciting one in its details and I felt strongly that Dorothea should be recognised for her bravery," said Gilly. "She risked her life to save her friend, but died long before this was publicly recognised in the island or further afield. I am glad that she has family who can accept the award on her behalf".  

Dr Gilly Carr is the ICE academic with responsibility for Archaeology and for Holocaust Studies.  As part of ICE's offerings in Holocaust Studies, we have forthcoming an online three-module course on Britain and the Holocaust starting in October 2018. The second of these modules will be on 'the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and the Channel Islands', in which the case of Mrs Weber will be discussed. This course is based on Gilly’s new research and features information on display at the current Wiener Library exhibition 'On British Soil: Victims of Nazism in the Channel Islands'.

Other forthcoming courses that may be of interest include the one day course Exploring British Jews in WWII.