Dorit Oliver-Wolff is among 31 people recognised for Holocaust education
Dorit Oliver-Wolff, who lives in Eastbourne, is to be awarded the British Empire Medal for “services to Holocaust education and awareness”
She has been giving talks to schools, community groups and businesses about her experiences for many years. Dorit said she was “really excited” to be honoured for just doing her job.
In her book, From Yellow Star to Pop Star: How one young girl survived the Holocaust and became a singing sensation, she says ” It is not that I want to remember, it is simply that I cannot forget”.
When Dorit Oliver -Wolff was just four years old she sang and danced in front of the future king of Yugoslavia. By six years old she was in hiding from the German soldiers who were rounding up and transporting her fellow Jews to concentration camps around Europe.
Years of terror followed, with narrow escapes from capture and bombing raids until, at last, she and her mother were rescued from the cellar in which they are hiding.
She survived those dark days. After the war, stateless and without papers, she joined a touring dance troupe in order to be permitted to travel. She studied by day and sang and danced in in clubs by night until a talent scout spotted her.
Her book is described as ‘a remarkable story that takes the reader through fear and horror, to freedom and joy and shows how the bravery and fortitude of one little Jewish girl helped her survive the holocaust and become a star.”
Ms Oliver-Wolff was born in Novi Sad in Serbia and was unaware that she was Jewish until the age of five, when a woman spat at her on the street.
In 1941, she fled to Hungary with her mother, and travelled from place to place, creating new identities before hiding in a cellar, from where her mother would sneak out at night to look for food in bombed-out shops.
She returned to Serbia in 1945 after the Soviet army liberated Hungary, where she discovered that her father and the rest of the family had been killed by the Nazis.
Ms Oliver-Wolff said all she wanted to do was “to become a singer one day”.
Two years later she was awarded a scholarship to a music academy, and went on to become a jazz and blues singer.
Amongst award winners is 24-year-old Pevensey makeup artist Kaiya Swain. She has earned a British Empire Medal for winning the gold medal for beauty therapy at the Worldskills championship. Ms Swain made her name at the 2017 “skills Olympics” in Abu Dhabi.
Now one of the best young role models in the country, she has her own home salon.She told the Argus, “It’s incredible. I’m so grateful. I’ve spent four long hard years of training, I work for myself and I have a salon at home.
“The competition was for everyone from cooks and engineers to beauty therapists like me.”
Two Sussex women are to be awarded MBEs following their achievements in healthcare and charity work.
Rosemary Thompson who lives in Hurstpierpoint, is head of events with The Not Forgotten Association, a charity which provides extra care for former military personnel.
Each year the charity supports more than 10,000 people. Rosemary has been awarded this MBE for going above and beyond her duties with the charity. The 62-year-old has run more than 36 marathons for the charity.
In Brighton, Jane Marian Goldingham will also be honoured for her work supporting social work across the South East. She is a Principal Adult Social Worker with East Sussex County Council.
Through her work, she is being honoured for “raising the profile of adult social work and contributing to the transformation of the the quality of practice”.
Nationally, Sir Elton John wins the highest accolade in New Year Honours List. He is recognised alongside stars of sport, politicians and hundreds of ordinary people.
He is awarded the Companion of Honour for a remarkable career spanning more than five decades, in which he has sold more than 300m records worldwide, and used his fame to promote the work of 23 charities, including his own Aids foundation. He becomes one of only 64 people apart from the monarch who can hold the honour at any one time.
Olivia Newton-John. the British-born singer, campaigner and actor is best known for starring in the film Grease.
Her damehood is for services to music, cancer research and charity. The Cambridge-born star, who moved to Australia as a child, achieved global fame in the 1978 film Grease. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, she became a campaigner and in 2012 set up a cancer centre near Melbourne.
She said “I am extremely excited, honoured and grateful beyond words to be included with such an esteemed group of women who have received this distinguished award before me”.
Oscar-winning British film-maker Sam Mendes is being knighted in the New Year Honours. Mendes, who won the Academy Award for best director for American Beauty, has been recognised for services to drama. The director of two Bond films said he was “amazed, delighted and extremely proud” to receive the honour.
In the world of sport, members of the World Cup-winning England cricket team were acknowledged.
Skipper Eoin Morgan and three of England’s World Cup winning cricketers have been awarded gongs in the New Year Honours list. Morgan gets a CBE, while man-of-the-match in the final Ben Stokes has been awarded an OBE,
The playwright James Graham, also known for the film Brexit: The Uncivil War, which charted the EU referendum leave campaign run by Dominic Cummings, received an OBE for services to drama and to young people in British theatre following his work at the National Youth Theatre.
D-day veteran Harry Billinge, 94, from St Austell in Cornwall, whose fundraising efforts have made headlines around the world, was made an MBE for services to charity.
