Auschwitz Survivor Celebrates 71 Years with the Soldier Who Rescued Her
(lenalir/iStockPhoto)
Every other love story can just sit down right now, because there is no meet-cute in the world half as good as the how-we-met story of Edith Steiner, an Auschwitz survivor who just celebrated 71 years together with the hot Scottish war hero who rescued her from the Nazis.
Near the end of the war, a group of Jewish prisoners was being forced by Nazis to march from Auschwitz to another concentration camp. Among them were 20-year-old Edith Steiner and her mother. Steiner’s father and the entire rest of their family were murdered in the gas chambers after arriving at Auschwitz. Steiner and her mother were being being forced to march to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, in Germany, when suddenly the Nazi guards were attacked by a team of commandos. British forces had set upon them en route to stop the Nazis and rescue the prisoners.
The raid was successful, and while Steiner did not meet 23-year-old Scottish soldier John Mackay at the time–everyone was obviously occupied–after the rescue there was a celebratory dance in a village hall, and she met him then.
How the hell is this not a movie already?! Come on, Hollywood. Everyone would watch this.
According to The Telegraph, despite being a commando who had just defeated a bunch of Nazis, Mackay was too shy to actually go ask Steiner to dance himself, so he sent a friend over to ask for him. She said yes, but only if he came over and asked for himself.
Two years later they got married. They wound up operating a small hotel together in Scotland, and they eventually had two children, five grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. They’re retired now, and at 96 and 92 they live together in an assisted-living facility in Scotland, where everyone’s hearts are constantly warmed by the real-life example of everyone’s ultimate relationship goals. The staff says they’re always warm and happy together, and they’re still as in love as ever. They call each other “sweetheart” and hold hands, and it’s great because if anybody deserves to live happily ever after, it’s them.
