Roman Halter, 1927-2012

February 10, 2012

Pears Foundation would like to pay tribute to Holocaust survivor Roman Halter, who passed away in January. Roman was a tireless Holocaust educator whose art and literature inspired the Foundation’s work. 

Born in 1927, in Chodecz, Poland, Roman was the youngest of seven children. From 1940 until spring 1945 Roman was in Lodz ghetto and Auschwitz-Birkenau and Stutthof concentration camps. He was then used as slave labour in a factory in Dresden.

In 1945 Roman was brought to the UK by the Jewish Refugee Committee together with 732 young people, all known as ‘The Boys’ – all had lost their families during the Holocaust.  Roman later went on to train as an architect at the Architectural Association where he also later taught for five years. He opened his own architectural practices in Cambridge and London. Roman’s passion however, was art and in 1974 he started to seriously pursue his love of painting and had an exhibition of his work on show at Tate Britain. 

In 2006 Fergal Keane accompanied Roman to Poland and the resulting film of their visit was shown on the BBC. His autobiography ‘Roman’s Journey’ was published in 2007 and Pears Foundation is proud to have supported a film version which is due to be released this year. Roman’s portrait is featured in Portraits for Posterity, a touring exhibition of photographs of Holocaust survivors.

“The truth of our past – the history of the Holocaust – must be taught, especially to younger generations, for the sake of concord amongst people and for the building of a better, safer future and world.” Roman Halter