Holocaust Remembrance Day: Constable Joanna Yuke’s Story

For Constable Joanna Yuke, Holocaust Remembrance Day carries deep personal meaning.

She reflects on her grandmother’s experience escaping Nazi-occupied Poland, as well as the loss of other family members during the Holocaust.

“My grandmother was born in Lodz in 1913, in Poland,” Constable Yuke said. “She had two younger twin brothers and an older brother, and her mom and dad.”

Constable Yuke said her grandmother came from an affluent family and had aspirations of becoming a doctor before the Nazi invasion of Poland disrupted her studies.

Her grandmother was able to escape and evade capture.

However, several members of her family were murdered during the Holocaust.

“They took her twin brothers, her mom and her dad. They took them out of the ghetto, and they never heard from them again,” she said.

After escaping, her grandmother joined the Polish partisans and assisted in transcribing shortwave radio transmissions to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which were shared with the underground movement in Poland.

“This helped provide insight into what was happening during the war,” Constable Yuke said.

Constable Yuke said learning about her family history inspired her path into policing and her commitment to helping others and upholding human rights.

To learn more about Constable Yuke’s story, watch the video below.