'A Giant Among Men'

by Erica Morris - Wednesday 8th October 2008


A heroic British army chaplain who was attached to the unit which liberated Belsen was this week remembered as a "giant among men" and a "mensch" after he passed away at the age of 95.

Former Hendon United Synagogue minister Reverend Leslie Hardman died on Tuesday at the Royal Free Hospital, sparking a flood of tributes from some of the thousands of individuals and organisations he touched through his work in Holocaust education and during his more than seven decades of communal service after the war.

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"He lived such a life - it's almost unbelievable to speak of him in the past tense," said Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks at a memorial service at Hendon shul on Tuesday. "How can any of us imagine a Hendon Jewish community without him? He was a source of strength for me, as he was for all of us. For me and for so many rabbis he was a role model. In clinging to the tree of life he became a tree of life."

In entering Belsen on the 17 April 1945, two days after its liberation, Reverend Hardman was greeted by some of the most horrific scenes in history - 13,000 dead bodies lay unburied and most of those that had survived to that date were gravely ill.

The chaplain - described by one survivor as "our Messiah" - comforted whose who had been incarcerated and, as one of only three Jewish soldiers, led the first Hebrew prayer service following the liberation.

Rabbi Sacks, a friend for 35 years, spoke about how Reverend Hardman conducted separate burial ceremonies for 20,000 people at the camp, saying Kaddish for all of them. He added that "it was spiritual leadership on a heroic scale, giving them dignity in death that they had not known in life. You can almost imagine [Reverend Hardman] surrounded by clouds of glory".

Hardman once told a BBC correspondent: "If all the trees in the world turned into pens, all the waters in the oceans turned into ink and the heavens turned into paper, it would still be insufficient material to describe the horrors these people suffered under the SS."

But Hardman still worked to teach others about the Nazi era, authoring a book about the horrors he witnessed and talking to audiences across the country about those darkest of days including a moving address earlier this year at the national commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Lord Janner, Chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: "It was at the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp, on the second anniversary of the camp's liberation, that I first met the remarkable and greatly respected Reverend Leslie Hardman. As Military Chaplain for the British Army in Germany he was an outstandingly supportive presence in the DP Camp and he did so much to lift the morale of survivors. Reverend Hardman was a long-standing supporter of the Holocaust Educational Trust and we shall miss him greatly."

Association of Jewish Refugees Chairman Andrew Kaufman said the organisation "sends our sincerest condolences to his family. Like many AJR members, Reverend Leslie Hardman was a witness to the Nazis' inhumanity. He will always be remembered and honoured for continuing to speak about his experiences at Belsen, which had a profound effect on his life."

Hardman, who was awarded an MBE in 1998, served as minister of Hendon United Synagogue between 1946 to 1975 as well as as the Hendon Branch Chaplain of the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women.

Jeremy Jacobs, new chief executive of the United Synagogue, commented: "Reverend Hardman was a remarkable man and played a leading role in developing Hendon United Synagogue and creating a thriving community. Within the United Synagogue he was one of our most senior and most respected ministers - a man full of compassion who dedicated his life to our community."

Reverend Malcolm Weisman, senior Jewish chaplain of Her Majesty's Forces, added:"He was one of the most remarkable people I've ever met-a dedicated chaplain and a very inspirational person. I asked him once how he was doing, and he answered 'I'm getting younger all the time.'"

Jewish News columnist Eric Moonman, a family friend who grew up with Reverend Hardman, added: "He had a gift and the experience to liven up any meeting or conference he attended. He could infuse people to act. My father used to say 'Leslie Hardman is a mensch and always will be.'"

Reverend Hardman is survived by two daughters, seven grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren. He lost his wife and another daughter earlier this year. A fourth daughter passed away some years ago.

"Until the last few months of his life he seemed ageless," said the Chief Rabbi. "The loss of two of his daughters and his beloved wife Josie, to whom he was married for more than seventy years, finally made him long to be reunited with them, but not before he gave a moving address, at the age of 95, at the National Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration in Liverpool earlier this year."

He added: "He was a great man, a good man, a man who dedicated his long life to the service of others and of God. He will be missed, but never forgotten."

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