World War Two: 'Being born in Newry saved my mother's life'

Newry in the 1890s was a growing port town with a busy canal, railway and a town hall under construction.

Into this scene, under false pretences, entered a family of Lithuanian Jews. Little did they know that 50 years later, their arrival would ultimately save a descendant's life.

"The family came in 1890 to Newry," Lill Fanny Saether told BBC News NI.

She's been piecing together her ancestors' story for decades.

Family tree

"They were originally going to America. They were fooled by the captain to think they were in New York but they were in fact in Newry.

"There was a consular in Newry called Stokes and he helped all the people who came from other countries who couldn't speak English.

"So he and his family were of great help to my family."

Lill Fanny Saether visited buildings in Newry where her family lived

Lill began tracing her roots in the mid 1990s, when her children bought her a family tree as a birthday present.

This week she visited Newry to explore some of the buildings that have proved crucial to her very existence.

"The first address was 30 Mill Street," Lill said.

Today, 30 Mill Street is the headquarters of St Vincent de Paul in the city.

But on 1 August, 1906 it was the setting for the wedding of Joseph Mendle and Flossie Freeman - Lill's grandparents.

A marriage certificate shows that Lill's grandparents were married at Mill Street and a birth certificate shows that Elsie was born in on Kilmorey Terrace

The resultant marriage certificate states that Joseph was a draper living at 13 Canal Street and Flossie was the daughter of Abraham Freeman - also a draper.

The document states that 30 Mill Street was her home address at the time of the marriage.

The couple then moved across town to Kilmorey Terrace - a location Lill visited for the first time this week.

"My mother was born here in number seven in 1909," she said.

"It's quite moving. She lived there for two years until 1911. Then the family emigrated to Norway."

A copy of Elsie's birth record issued in 1929 highlights her date of birth as 18 August 1909 and her residence as 7 Kilmorey Terrace.

Elsie (back middle) and her siblings in Norway in 1920

But it was events some 33 years later around 750 miles away in Oslo that would highlight the importance of documents like this.

"They were obviously Jewish and like the other Jewish families were victims of the Nazis occupation and persecution.

"In October and November 1942 they arrested first the men and then all the women and children.

"But because my mother was born here [in the United Kingdom] and had kept her British citizenship she saved her life.

"There were certain nationalities that were exempt and that was those that weren't occupied, that were neutral and those that were allies with Germany."

Elsie's brother and sister were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp

When the Nazis came to the family's apartment they took Elsie's sister, who was born in Norway. Their brother, who was also born in Norway, had already been arrested.

They were sent to Auschwitz during the Holocaust, "so they perished", said Lill.

She added: "But my mother and her mother and my grandfather and the sister that was born here, they were able to escape to Sweden in the middle of December 1942.

"The fact that she was born here...that means I'm alive, and my daughters and my grandchildren."