Walter Bun

Serjeant, Pioneer Corps
Service no: 13800008
Died 25 Aug 1945
Buried Birmingham (Witton) Jewish Cemetery, United Kingdom
Age 31

Headstone Inscription
‘YEARS WILL NOT DARKEN NOR SHADOWS DIM THE PRECIOUS MEMORIES WE HAVE OF HIM’


Walter was born on 6 Apr 1914 in Vienna, Austria to Samuel and Julie nee Kohn and he had a younger brother Kurt. After the Nazi regime came into power the family applied on 10 May 1938 to emigrate to Brooklyn, USA but this was refused. Walter managed to get permission to leave and emigrated to England where on arrival he was sent to the Kitchener Camp in Kent.

Walter was one of the first to volunteer into the Pioneer Corps on 16 November 1939 and was sent to serve in France. Early on in 1940, he fell ill with renal disease and was returned to England for treatment at Alton hospital where he had the diseased kidney removed. He met and married Evelyn Katz in Wales in late 1940 and their son Roy was born the following year. Walter was released from military service in 1942.

Holocaust records show that his brother Kurt was murdered at a concentration camp in 1941 and his parents were killed on 4 September 1942 at the Maly Trostenets concentration camp in Belarus.

Walter succumbed to his illness on 25 August 1945 at his home 6 Cornfield Road in Birmingham. His death certificate states he had cardio respiratory failure and tuberculosis in his remaining kidney.


Walter’s death certificate