Simon Weinstein was born in Radzivilov, Poland (now Ukraine), in 1938, into a middle class orthodox Jewish family. He was held in the ghetto in Radzivilov after the German invasion of USSR and witnessed atrocities, but escaped with his family and survived in hiding. He came to Britain in 1948 via Displaced Persons camps in Bytom (Poland) and Hofgeismar, near Kassel. His family settled near his uncle in Nottingham. His mother died and his father left for Israel, but Simon integrated into British society through National Service and he became a mathematics teacher. Keen to help Beth Shalom Centre in Nottinghamshire.