Browne was born on 20 February 1948 in Hamburg , Germany . His father was a British Army officer who later worked for Anglo-Persian Oil ( renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company ( AIOC ) in 1935 ) , which later became British Petroleum . His mother , Paula , was a Hungarian Jewish Auschwitz survivor . Many members of Browne 's Jewish maternal family , including his grandparents , were murdered at the Birkenau concentration camp during The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust
John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley