Auschwitz survivor who spent six weeks in Nazi hell camp dies age 92 with her ‘sweetheart’ Scottish soldier hubby at her side
Edith Mackay met husband John after he rescued a column of Jewish prisoners from their Nazi guards
A WOMAN who survived the horrors of Auschwitz and married the Scottish soldier who rescued her has died aged 92.
Edith "Eci"; Mackay passed away from pneumonia last week alongside her family and John, her husband of 70 years.
Edith, met John, 96, after he rescued a column of Jewish prisoners from their Nazi guards.
She was a young Hungarian Jew among the prisoners who were being marched from Auschwitz to another concentration camp in the closing months of World War II.
John and Edith then met at dance organised by troops shortly afterwards at a village hall.
They married, moved to Scotland, had a family and lived together in a care home in Broughty Ferry, Dundee.
The devoted couple, married a year after the war ended and still referred to each other as "sweetheart" every day.
Born Editih Steiner in the Székesfehérvár region of Hungary, she survived six weeks in the barbaric concentration camp but tragically lost 39 members of her family during The Holocaust.
The couple moved back to the UK after the war ended and lived in Edinburgh, Liverpool, Gleneagles and Pitlochry and had two children, Sharon and Peter.
Speaking about her mum, Sharon said: "My mum was an extremely private person, very, very kind and quiet.
"Mum was just mum.
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"She was a seamstress in her youth. She was very quiet, very reserved, very kind and very family orientated."
According to their devoted daughter, John is "lost" without his beloved wife by his side.
She continued: "He is absolutely lost. Thankfully they got to spend the last year together. He cared for her."
Sharon added that her mother never spoke of her time in Auschwitz.
She continued: ";I think she really struggled. She really had a lot of nightmares.
"It was 39 members of their immediate family they lost (during Te Holocaust), aunties and uncles."
John, whose own wartime exploits included escaping from an Italian prisoner of war camp, spotted Edith at the dance but was too shy to approach her.
He sent a over a pal to ask her if she would dance with him, but Edith insisted that if he wanted a dance them he must ask her himself.
As well as their two children, the couple have seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
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