Helen Lewis

Helen Lewis was born in Trutnov, Czechoslovakia, where she completed her grammar school education. She successfully auditioned for a place at Milca Mayerova’s School of Dance in Prague, and while studying there for her diploma, she began a course in Philosophy at the German University.

She married in 1938, and in 1942, together with her husband Paul, she was deported to Terezin, the Jewish ghetto, and then to Auschwitz, where they were separated.

After the liberation she returned to Prague to learn that her husband had not survived.

In 1947 she married Harry, an old friend who had escaped to Belfast just before the start of the war, and settled there with him the same year.

After the birth of their two sons, she became involved in dance again, choreographing for theatre and opera, and her teaching eventually led to the foundation of the Belfast Modern Dance Group.

Helen Lewis died on New Years Eve 2009.


A Time to Speak is now available to download as an eBook from the Amazon Kindle store