Roehampton University awarded Vera Schaufeld for her services to education


l -r : Dr Christopher Stephens, Head of Southlands College, Vera Schaufeld and, Professor Jean-Noël Ezingeard, Vice Chancellor of the University of Roehampton

Vera Schaufeld MBE, brought to England in 1939 by the Kindertransport rescue effort organised by the British humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Roehampton on Monday, 29 July at a ceremony at the Festival Hall in London for her services to education.

Vera was born in Prague in 1930, and fled the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939 on the Kindertransport, which rescued 10,000 children from Nazi-controlled Europe before the outbreak of the Second World War. Her parents couldn’t escape and in 1945 she learnt that no one in her family had survived the concentration camps.

In 1948, she joined Southlands College, the then Methodist College of Education, which is now part of the University of Roehampton, where she trained to be a teacher. After a short period of teaching following her studies, she moved to Israel and lived on a kibbutz, where she met her husband, Avram, a Holocaust survivor.

Together they returned to England and Vera began to teach English in Brent, London. In 1972, Vera took the decision to join the Language Service in Brent, to teach English to recently arrived Asian immigrants England, a role that resonated with Vera having arrived in England as a child not speaking English. The Language Service and Vera’s responsibilities grew rapidly as Brent became home to many of the Ugandan Asians that were expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin – the then President of Uganda.

Alongside her teaching and advisory work, Vera has been heavily involved in Holocaust education. She helped in the establishment of the Holocaust Centre and Museum in London and, with her experience as a teacher, was particularly dedicated to the Centre’s educational work. Vera supported the creation of the Centre’s primary learning programme, offering insights as to how young children could be encouraged to empathise with the experiences of individuals like her, who had been affected by the Nazi regime. Vera, now a grandmother, received an MBE for services to Holocaust education this year.

Professor Jean-Noël Ezingeard, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Roehampton, said: “Vera is a truly inspirational person, whose suffering created in her a drive to support others. She has dedicated her life to upholding those values which our institution holds most dear and to combatting those actions and attitudes which we most abhor. We are honoured to call her a member of Southlands College and an honorary graduate of the University.”

August 1, 2019