SCOTLAND'S last survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp has gifted £500,000 in her will to Strathclyde University.

Judith Rosenberg died in January aged 98 having lived in Glasgow since 1946, coming to the city to join her beloved husband Harold.

Her donation will honour his memory also, creating the Harold and Judith Rosenberg Chair in Quantum Technology and the Harold and Judith Rosenberg Quantum Technology Laboratories in their honour.

Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal & Vice-Chancellor of Strathclyde, said: “Judith Rosenberg was a great friend and supporter of the University of Strathclyde and I was deeply saddened by her passing.

"I always found my meetings with Judith both inspiring and enjoyable, her unstinting interest in science and engineering was a consistent topic for our conversations.

"She was immensely interested in our research activities and achievements at Strathclyde and had expressed her desire to support the advancement of science and technology through this substantial legacy gift.

"We are delighted to honour both Judith and her late husband Harold through the creation of this new Professorial position and the naming of our new laboratories.

"I thank them sincerely for their contribution which will help us to accelerate our progress as a leading international technological university.

"Legacy gifts play an important role in supporting students, research and the wider community at Strathclyde and build on our very first legacy gift in 1796 – that of our founder, Professor John Anderson."

Judith told her story to the Glasgow Times last year, telling of the horror of Auschwitz but also the wonderful life she went on to lead with Harold.

Glasgow Times:

She was born in Gyor, Hungary on September 3, 1922 to Zsigmond and Irene Weinberger.

Judith studied at Budapest University but returned home when antisemitic attacks on campus increased.

On her return to Gyor she became apprenticed to a watchmaker but in April 1944 was deported along with her family and other Hungarian Jews and taken to Auschwitz, arriving in May.

During the journey her grandmother died and on arrival at the concentration camp she was separated from her father.

She never saw him again, but his last words to her saved her life.

He told her that if given a choice by her Nazi captors to always choose the hardest option as they would have ulterior motives.

She followed his advice and in September was selected to work in a munitions factory in Lippstadt where her knowledge of watchmaking and physics helped her gain extra rations which she shared with her mother and sister, thanks to mending German officers’ watches.

Her father had also insisted German was spoken at home, and ensured his elder daughter learned English and French, skills that changed her life.

In April 1945 she was liberated, along with her mother and sister, by US soldiers and later became an interpreter for the British Army.

It was during an afternoon tea in a British military headquarters that she met her future husband, Lieutenant Harold Rosenberg, a Scottish artillery officer from Glasgow.

"I adored him," Judith told the Glasgow Times last year. "And he adored me.

"He didn't right away ask to marry me but fairly quickly, after three months.

"My mother said to him, 'Are you sure you love my daughter, because soldiers and sailors go to another port and find somebody else?'

Glasgow Times:

"But Harold said, 'No, I'm sure.'"

They married in Warburg, Germany in 1946 and settled in Glasgow, with Judith saying her first memories of the city were clothes shopping in Sauchiehall Street's grand department stores.

The couple enjoyed almost 60 years of happy marriage until Harold died in 2005 on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

She is survived by her only blood relative Erika Marosi – her sister Kati’s daughter – who lives in Hungary.

Judith died on January 22 and is buried in the Jewish section of Glasgow’s Western Necropolis.

The Harold and Judith Rosenberg Chair in Quantum Technology will be funded for an initial period of five years.

However, given the expected high calibre of the Chair appointment, the post is expected to become self-sustaining.

Glasgow Times:

Professor Paul McKenna, Head of the Department of Physics, said: “Judith Rosenberg’s bequest is extremely generous and will help us to advance quantum technology research and understanding at Strathclyde.

"The creation of this named professorial Chair in recognition of the interests of Harold and Judith Rosenberg will further accelerate growth in the field, add capacity and support our vision of firmly establishing Strathclyde as an international leader in research, training and industrial-commercial development activities in Quantum Technology.

"The new Chair in Quantum Technology will have an impact on our Department and University for many years to come, which will be a fitting and lasting legacy to a truly remarkable woman and her beloved husband.”