Silman, Leon (Private, b.1917-d.1992)

Collection relating to the Second World War service of VX55757 Private Leon Silman, 2/9 Field Ambulance, Malaya, 1945.

Collection consists of one letter from Private Silman to Miss Margot Kochen (later Lustig), dated 11 September 1945.

Silman was a prisoner of war in Malaya between February 1942 and September 1945, and worked on the Burma-Thai Railway. In his letter to Margot, he thanks her for writing to him, and shares that, as a prisoner he had to work very long hours with inadequate food, and that many of his fellow prisoners had died from illness. He expresses that he is very glad that the war is over, and that conditions in the camp are much better, with good food and a medical team dropped by parachutes. Silman then says that he had heard very bad news from Europe, and was worried about his Jewish family there. The concluding paragraph of the letter is written in Polish, addressed to his cousin Dora. In it, Silman asks Dora to write to his parents, and indicates that he was very upset about the huge numbers of Jewish people killed in Europe.