TRIBUTES have been paid to a Holocaust survivor from East Renfrewshire who has died at the age of 96.

Ingrid Wuga, of Giffnock, dedicated her life to raising awareness of the wartime atrocity after escaping from Hitler’s Germany at the age of 15.

Born in Dortmund in 1924, she was able to leave occupied Germany on the Kindertransport with her parents a few weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Soon after arriving in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, she took up a position of a nanny to a baby.

After a few months in England, her parents were offered jobs in the coastal town of West Kilbride, Ayrshire, and the family moved to Scotland.

As the war progressed, ‘Enemy Aliens’ were no longer allowed to live on the coast, as it was feared they may send signals to the German Army, so the family relocated to Glasgow.

Ingrid’s aunt and uncle, who chose to remain in Germany, did not survive.

She worked in a dress shop, sewing collars on British Army uniforms, and married her husband Henry, also a Holocaust survivor, in 1944.

Along with Henry, Ingrid worked tirelessly for charities, especially BLESMA (British Limbless ex-Servicemen’s Association) and the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice, in Glasgow.

Thousands of people heard Ingrid’s testimony through the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Outreach Programme and, last year, she was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to Holocaust Education and Awareness.

Community leaders and local politicians were among those to offer their condolences to her loved ones.

East Renfrewshire Provost Jim Fletcher said: “Everyone at East Renfrewshire Council was saddened to hear of the death of Ingrid Wuga.

“No-one can imagine what she and her family went through as they escaped Nazis persecution but she bravely used her experiences to educate young people on the horrors of the Holocaust.”

Eastwood MSP Jackson Carlaw added: “With tremendous grace and dignity but still, after so many years, with an undimmed charm, Ingrid – together with her husband Henry in a lifelong partnership – did so much to help educate and ensure several generations understood the history and lessons of the Holocaust.”