Helen Bamber OBE: Borders of the Mind

January 15, 2012 by Gail
Filed under VidStyle

Helen Bamber OBE has worked tirelessly in the Human Rights field for over 60 years helping thousands of survivors of Human Rights violations worldwide. She began working with survivors in the former concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen after WWII.

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ABOUT Helen Bamber OBE

“Born in London to parents of Polish Jewish extraction, at the age of 20, Helen joined one of the first rehabilitation teams to enter the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen, in Lower Saxony in north-western Germany.

She remained in Germany for two years, negotiating the evacuation to Switzerland of a group of survivors suffering from tuberculosis. On her return to England, she was appointed to the Committee for the Care of Young Children from Concentration Camps.

Fourteen years later, she joined Amnesty International and became Chairman of the first British group. The victims of torture whom she saw, inspired her to set up the Medical Foundation for Care of Victims of Torture to provide long-term care to patients. This was just as she qualified for her pension.

In 2005, together with Dr. Michael Korzinski, Helen founded the Helen Bamber Foundation, a Human Rights organisation aiming to expand the already established rehabilitative work with torture survivors to include those who have suffered other gross Human Rights violations, such as women and young people trafficked for sexual exploitation. The Helen Bamber Foundation provides therapeutic and practical support to over 2700 clients today.

Named European Woman of Achievement in 1993, Helen was awarded the OBE in 1997 and in the same year also received a lifetime Human Rights Achievement award. In 2009, she received the Dag Hammarskjold Inspiration Award as well as the 1st Annual Times/ Sternberg Active Life Award. Helen holds honorary degrees from eleven UK Universities.”

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