Ann Kirk BEM (1928 – 2025)

It is with great sadness that we bear the news of the passing of Class of 1946 alumna Ann Kirk (nee Kuhn), aged 96.

Ann was an inspirational and beloved member of the South Hampstead community, who dedicated her life to Holocaust education and remembrance. As a young Jewish girl brought up in Germany in the 1930s, Ann witnessed first-hand the widespread fear and destruction that the rise of Nazism brought, including witnessing the devastating events of the Kystallnacht in 1938. For her own safety, Ann’s family were forced to send her away and in 1939, aged only 10 years old, Ann was sent to London as one of the Kindertransport passengers. She was enrolled at South Hampstead High School and took her A Levels here, determined to excel academically and establish herself in a good career in order to look after her family once she was reunited with them. While she did excel – she earned a place at secretarial school before embarking on a career as an editorial assistant – she never saw her family again. Both of her parents were killed in Auschwitz in 1943.

Together with her husband Bob, another Kindertransport refugee, Ann spent the rest of her life doing educational outreach across the UK – sharing her own experience, and her family’s bravery, in order to honour and remember those who lost their lives in the Holocaust. For their services to the community, both Ann and her husband received a BEM from Queen Elizabeth II in 2019.

Ann remained closely connected to South Hampstead High School, through educational visits to speak with the girls at both the Junior and Senior Schools and through her support as a bursary donor. She was fiercely vocal about the life-changing experience of an education for young girls, and was involved in the School’s bursary programmes such as the Ukrainian refugee programme in 2022.

Each year, we observe Holocaust Memorial Day with a special assembly for our Senior School community. This week, one of our Deputy Head Girls shared the moving stories of her great-grandmothers – two creative teenagers, whose normal, happy lives were transformed by the Holocaust. Although one of them was due to travel on the last Kindertransport train, which was cancelled, and the other ended up in Auschwitz, both survived; most of their family members did not. The assembly was a poignant reminder to never forget those who suffered, and to use our memories of what happened to continue to stand against prejudice and hate, and to build a better future – just as Ann did.

To learn more about Ann’s story, read her feature in our 2023 Opening Doors Philanthropy Review here.