• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Generation 2 Generation logo
Show Search
Hide Search
Contact Us Donate
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • About Us
    • Our goals
    • What we do
    • Our Partners & Supporters
    • Our Story
    • Our team
  • Our Survivor Stories
    • Our Survivor Stories
    • Our Speakers
  • Book a Speaker
    • Book a Holocaust Speaker
    • Our Speakers
    • Speaker Booking Process
    • Ensuring quality
    • Evaluation forms
  • Wall of Memories
    • What is the Wall of Memories?
    • Wall of Memories
    • Honour a Memory
    • Search a Name
  • Get involved
    • Volunteer
    • Become a speaker
    • Donate
    • Keep in touch
  • Resources
    • For speakers
    • Resources for schools
  • News and Events
    • Latest News
    • Events
    • Archived Newsletters
    • G2G in the news
  • Contact Us

The Story of Tony Chuwen 1924-2004

Survivor Story
Speaker Bio
Presentation Clip
Holocaust survivor Tony Chuwen 1
Tony Chuwen Pre war 1936 – aged 11
Tony Chuwen aged 19 1944
Tony his father Solomon and sister Sonia in 1935
Tonys mother Gusta
Tony Chuwen
Holocaust survivor Tony Chuwen with Gloria 2000

The survival of Gloria Silver’s father, Tony Chuwen, is a story of bravery, resourcefulness, and good luck. Living by his wits, Tony’s path to ultimate freedom was an extraordinary and high-risk journey.   

Tony grew up in Galicia, Poland in a secular Jewish family. His childhood years were spent in a small town in Poland’s Carpathian Mountains where his father was an architect. Childhood ended for Tony at age 14 with the outbreak of World War Two. The rest of his teenage years were spent in continual danger and on a personal quest simply to outlive Hitler.    

His dramatic story includes his incarceration in two concentration camps and his escape by jumping off a moving train.  On the run, he managed to obtain false identity papers and ‘hid’ in the most unlikely place, the German Army. He found a way to desert, with the aid of an Estonian smuggler, only to be interned in Finland. His final escape was by skiing alone for three days over the frozen sea to neutral Sweden.   

The story is presented against the background of the Holocaust and World War Two in central Europe. His experiences are illustrated with clear maps and simple background information to allow the audience to understand and follow both what happened to him and the underlying historic events. It includes personal audio testimony from Tony himself, who was interviewed by the London Holocaust Survivor’s Centre in 1993. The full recordings are held in the British Library.  

Despite the tragic subject matter, her presentation is given in a manner accessible to young people, without being too overwhelming or going into too much detail of some of the crueller aspects of this period of history. Despite everything, including the loss of almost all of Tony’s large family, ultimately it is a positive story of survival in almost impossible circumstances.

Survivor Story
Speaker Bio
Presentation Clip

This presentation is suitable for students of Year 9 and above and for adult audiences.  

View more stories
Book a Speaker

Holocaust speaker Gloria Silver 3

Presented by Gloria Silver

Gloria Silver grew up in Scotland and Israel. She is a retired pharmacist, who worked in both hospital and retail settings. For many years she was also a magistrate in Barnet. She is a keen gardener, and her many interests include travel, history, literature and the arts.  

In retirement, she is active in charity work as well as being a dedicated mother and grandmother. She tells the story of her father, Tony Chuwen. Like many survivor’s children, she only got to know this story gradually, learning most details only when an adult.  

Gloria feels it important to tell her father’s story, partly to remember the many murdered members of her family, but mainly to try and help counter the recent increase in antisemitism and Holocaust denial. She believes one person’s story can mean more than many statistics in conveying the reality of that dreadful time.

Watch an excerpt from the story of Tony Chuwen



The Survivor Story
View more Holocaust stories
See a full list of speakers
Book a speaker

↑

Back to the top

Footer

Home
About us

Book a Speaker
Our Survivor Stories
Our Speakers
Get involved
Donate
Contact

Generation 2 Generation is a Holocaust Education Charity based in the UK, providing Holocaust speakers to schools and other organisations.

Registered charity number: 1187255

Keep in touch
Contact us
Privacy Policy

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Generation 2 Generation · Log out

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. See our privacy policy for more details.OkPrivacy policy