Roman Halter | Granta

Roman Halter

Born in 1927, Roman Halter was a celebrated architect and arist. He designed the gates to Israel’s holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, and his paintings, testifying to his experiences during WW2, have been shown widely, including at Tate Britain. He died at the age of 85, in 2012.

Publications

Roman's Journey

Roman Halter

Roman Halter is an optimistic and boisterous schoolboy in 1939 when he and his family gather behind net curtains to watch the Volksdeutsch neighbours of their small town in western Poland greeting the arrival of Hitler’s armies with kisses and swastika flags. Within days, the family home has been seized, and twelve-year-old Roman becomes a slave of the local SS chief and, returning from an errand, silently witnesses his Jewish classmates being bayoneted to death by soldiers at the edge of town. And then there begins the remarkable six-year journey through some of the darkest caverns of Nazi Europe, and the loss of every other member of his family and the 800-strong community of his boyhood. Roman tells his story with a simplicity and grace that allow his suffering and survival to speak for themselves.