He Rescued Her From Auschwitz And Now They"re Celebrating Their 71st Valentine"s Day

Every February we get inundated with stories about couples in love, falling out of love, and finding love. But none have struck me quite as strongly as the story of a Hungarian Jew, her survival at Auschwitz, and the Scottish soldier who helped save her before working up the courage to ask her to dance. 

In 2017, this incredible couple is spending their 71st Valentine’s Day together, and if that isn’t something worth celebrating, I don’t know what is.

Edith Steiner, called Eci by her family, spent six weeks in Auschwitz during the summer of 1944. She was rescued by British commandoes during a prisoner transfer.

Hungarian Jews, Eci and her mother were selected to join the work crews at the concentration camp. The rest of their family were not chosen and died in the gas chambers. As the Third Reich was falling to allied forces, they were being transported to Bergen-Belsen when the commandoes rescued them. 

John Mackay had been a war prisoner himself. He escaped an Italian POW camp with a friend by dressing in Italian uniforms. 

Even after 18 months of traveling and evading capture, he didn’t stop fighting in the war and was a member of the commando team that rescued Eci and her fellow prisoners. 

Once they were safely away, a dance was held to celebrate the liberation of the prisoners. That’s where Eci caught the eye of John, though he was too shy to ask her to dance at first.

When he sent a friend to ask in his stead, Eci refused to consider it unless John asked her himself. 

Newly in love, John took Eci and her mother back to his home in Scotland, and they married on July 17, 1946.

Together they had two children, who have since added seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren to their family. In Scotland, they owned the Atholl Arms Hotel in Pitclochry until they retired.

Together they moved into a care home in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, where this year they celebrated their 71st Valentine’s Day together! John and Eci are now 96 and 92, and they still dote on each other.

“He is always checking in to make sure Eci is happy and the pair still refer to each other as ‘sweetheart’ on a daily basis,” activity co-ordinator Pamela Shaw told The Daily Mail.

Be sure to SHARE their incredible story of survival and love with your own family!