H E N N Y   F R A N K S
Biography

   Henny (Henriette) Franks was born in Cologne on the 29th of June 1923. She was the eldest child of Jacob and Helene Grünbaum. Together with her parents, her sister Grete, her brother and her grandparents, she lived at Kleiner Griechenmarkt and at Thürmchenswall in the centre of Cologne.

   Henny went to the Lützowstrasse Jewish Municipal ‘Volkschule' in Cologne [and afterwards wanted to do a course at a Textile Design school. Since she was Jewish she was not given a place there so she started an apprenticeship as a dressmaker.

   In February 1939, Henny Grünbaum reached England with a Kindertransport together with her younger sister. By contacting Dr Erich Klibansky, the principal of the Yavneh Jewish Grammar School, her mother had managed to arrange for the two girls to leave the country with a Yavneh Kindertransport. In London, Henny was able to stay with her uncle’s family. For some years she worked as a dressmaker. When she was 19, she was recruited by the British army and given work as a driver.

   Whilst Henny’s younger siblings were also able to survive the war in England, Henny Franks’ parents first fled to Belgium at the outbreak of war and then to the south of France where her father Jacob Grünbaum was arrested, deported to Sobibor and murdered there.

   Henny Franks had a son and a daughter with her husband. She now has three grandchildren and lives in London (2016). Since we got to know her as part of the Kindertransport Project, she visits Cologne regularly and tells children and young people about her life.
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