Last year art dealer Manya Igel described herself as “a bl**dy miracle, considering the life I lead”. Life did indeed throw much sadness and drama her way, but her fighting spirit always seemed to overcome the most traumatic events.
Born in Panevėžys in Lithuania, Manya and her devoted family moved to the Free City of Danzig. However, as war threatened Europe, her mother wrote to Russian friends in London and asked them to take care of ‘Little Manya’. Despite none of them replying, Manya managed to escape to England on the last Kindertransport to leave Danzig. Her older sister, Sara, and her parents did not survive the war.
Arriving in London with no family or friends, Manya was taken to the vast and decaying Bloomsbury House on the corner of Gower Street and Bedford Avenue.