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Kopel Kendall |
Holocaust survivor built new life after arriving in UK alone
KOPEL Kendall, who has died aged 81, was one of “The Boys” – a group of young Holocaust survivors flown from Prague to Britain by Lancaster bombers at the end of the Second World War.
The group of 732 concentration camp refugee children was flown to hostels in Carlisle in May, 1945. They still meet each year.
Born in Poland, the young Kopel arrived in this country without clothing, family or spoken English. He took a course at a fashion college and went on to open Zenith Tailors, in Finchley Road, which he ran with his wife for 41 years until 1996.
The windows of his shop were blown in when the IRA bombed the road in the 1993 and Mr Kendall once had to fend off a crazed customer who attacked him with an axe one Friday the 13th.
He met his wife, Vivienne, in a coffee club in Baker Street when Mr Kendall asked her to dance.
They lived in Canfield Gardens, West Hampstead, and were married for 53 years.
Mr Kendall, instantly recognisable for his snappy suits and unmistakable voice, was a popular face around West Hampstead.
He was active in fighting rogue landlords during the founding years of the Fairhazel Cooperative and sat on many of the housing group’s committees.
A progressive Jew who attended Belsize Synagogue, he was celebrated as the “sausage man” for running a summer garden party barbecue for 40 years. A cherry tree will be planted in his memory.
Mrs Kendall remembers happy, sun-soaked holidays in the south of France and beyond, a life of laughter and jokes, and how her husband loved to flirt – even with the nurses in the hospice before he died after a battle with lung cancer. She said: “It might not have been easy, being with a Holocaust survivor – they come with a few issues.
“But he gave me a fantastic life and treated me like a piece of Dresden china.”
Mr Kendall is also survived by two sons, a daughter and six grandchildren.
TOM FOOT |
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