966: I Thought You Were A Nazi Bea Green MBE went to secondary school in Munich: Bea Green MBE Read Full Text Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Home All Memories About Menu Close ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → ← Previous Memory Credits & tags Edited from Bea Green MBE 's interview with Sharon Rappaport for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, June 2006 • Learn More → Bea Green MBE Hitler Youth Resistance Reunited Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts Germany See Locations Full Text Bea Green MBE went to secondary school in Munich: There were two girls who often turned up with their BDM—their Hitler Youth uniform. I stayed clear of them. One of them found me after the war. There were five Jewish girls in a class of 40. The five of us were in a little bunch. The other 35 were in their larger circle. It didn’t bother us, it kind of seemed normal & it didn’t mean that I didn’t talk to the others ever. I didn't think about them until the article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung about the Kindertransport & my visit to Munich. She read this article & rang the editor who gave her the address of the woman who wrote the article who rang me up & said could she–I said yes, you can give her my address. So she didn’t want to wait to write, she got onto directory enquiries & got my telephone number. The telephone rings: “Is that Mrs Green?” This is in German. “Ja.” I’ll tell it in English. “Were you the Beate Siegel?” Yes. Ah, she said. I remember, you were sitting in the front row by the door & you used to go & look out for the teacher. When he or she came, you used to dash back into the classroom & say: “Er kommt, er kommt” “He’s coming, he’s coming” But you were so quick that you were sitting down before he actually came to the door & I admired that because it was so courageous. After all this I said to her, but who are you? She told me her name. Now, the next bit came straight out, without going through the filter of my head, came straight out from wherever my soul is: 'But why are you ringing me I thought you were a Nazi?' Boom. Moment silence. Then she said: how can you say that, I was so shy. 'But you used to turn up in your BDM uniform'. Then she said that there was a good reason for that: 'I can explain it.' Her explanation was that her father was a civil servant accused of anti-Hitler sentiments, so she was making up for it. And I believe her, she’s decent. She said, but “Ich hab’ die Treffen immer geschwänzt”: I always played truant when it came to the meetings of the Hitler Youth by saying I have to practise my piano. She is now a professional pianist. You know, it rang true, I believe her, & we are in touch even now. When you hear stories like that, you get a view of history where you have to distinguish between the real bastards & those that kept quiet when they shouldn’t & those who kept quiet when they perhaps had no choice. She told me a good story also about the Director of my school. During the war, after I'd left & was in England, in German schools, whenever Hitler made a speech, all the children had to listen to the speech, so they were all taken into the big assembly hall. She told me the director had a pact with the janitor who fiddled with the radio. It crackled & crackled. The janitor would say every time “Sorry but the radio’s broken” & they all clapped & went back to the classroom, never listening to Hitler’s speech. Little anti-Nazi tricks & a director who was courageous enough to do it & a janitor who worked with him. And the girls who didn’t object or didn’t go home & denounce the director. So this went on in Germany throughout the war. 966: I Thought You Were A Nazi Bea Green MBE Edited from Bea Green MBE 's interview with Sharon Rappaport for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, June 2006 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts

March 1945: Susan Pollack OBE, age 15, is on a death march from Guben slave labour camp to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp: I never exchanged a word with anyone. I was on my own, withdrawn within myself. If you'd been found talking to someone, you'd have been shot. No place to escape. I didn’t know anyone. Where would I go? Who'd help me? I was very obedient & did what I was told. That was their way, making sure that you follow. I don’t know how we survived, how anybody survived. Conditions were so dreadful. A long, long, long walk. I wasn’t there very long, the barrack in Belsen. Conditions were… bodies all over, dead, rotted. I woke up to find my neighbour dead. I heard shouting when the liberation came. But it didn’t mean anything to me any more. It didn’t matter. Bergen-Belsen was a place of death. Look, I’m grateful I’m alive. I’m grateful that I could survive with an enormous amount of pain. The Swedes were helpful actually, in creating—that’s what music does to one’s life. Music, that was my recovery, help. We walked away, there was no revenge. We walked away, we didn’t commit any crimes or hate or anything like that. I’m glad we did not. We just walked away & hoped perhaps we can somehow build a life, just a little life. I became a Samaritan, that was very helpful to me. I used to take my children at Christmas time to hospitals & relieve the staff from serving tea. We would do it. That I found, for me, is very helpful. I had befriended a number of British soldiers who had liberated Bergen-Belsen. They are my real heroes, who liberated after such a long battle & yet retained kindness, helpfulness. That stayed with me. Goodness, kindness & helpfulness are the driving forces for life. After liberation Susan was sent to Sweden to convalesce. I began to understand that there is a goodness in the world. I don’t have much recollection about getting there. I was in a daze. I thought it must be a dream, a fantasy that people cared about me. I feared that the picture will disappear. I didn’t completely understand liberation myself yet. It had to come gradually. Listening to music every night. This wonderful, youngish man had a very big collection of music he played to us. Lights off, we sat in the dark. And I learned I had an inner life. That inner life was strengthened by listening to the music, because Beethoven understood me. Somehow the beautiful, lyrical music was there. And the darkness opened up like a flower. 928: Goodness Kindness & Helpfulness Susan Pollack OBE Credits & tags Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Previous Memory Next Memory ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → Previous Memory Next Memory 928: Goodness Kindness & Helpfulness ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → Susan Pollack OBE Read Full Text Previous Memory Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Next Memory ← Previous Memory Credits & tags Edited from Susan Pollack OBE's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, October 2023 • Learn More → Susan Pollack OBE Bergen-Belsen British Army Concentration Camp Guben Liberation Recovery Slave Labourer Swedish Recuperation Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts Germany See Locations Full Text March 1945: Susan Pollack OBE, age 15, is on a death march from Guben slave labour camp to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp: I never exchanged a word with anyone. I was on my own, withdrawn within myself. If you'd been found talking to someone, you'd have been shot. No place to escape. I didn’t know anyone. Where would I go? Who'd help me? I was very obedient & did what I was told. That was their way, making sure that you follow. I don’t know how we survived, how anybody survived. Conditions were so dreadful. A long, long, long walk. I wasn’t there very long, the barrack in Belsen. Conditions were… bodies all over, dead, rotted. I woke up to find my neighbour dead. I heard shouting when the liberation came. But it didn’t mean anything to me any more. It didn’t matter. Bergen-Belsen was a place of death. Look, I’m grateful I’m alive. I’m grateful that I could survive with an enormous amount of pain. The Swedes were helpful actually, in creating—that’s what music does to one’s life. Music, that was my recovery, help. We walked away, there was no revenge. We walked away, we didn’t commit any crimes or hate or anything like that. I’m glad we did not. We just walked away & hoped perhaps we can somehow build a life, just a little life. I became a Samaritan, that was very helpful to me. I used to take my children at Christmas time to hospitals & relieve the staff from serving tea. We would do it. That I found, for me, is very helpful. I had befriended a number of British soldiers who had liberated Bergen-Belsen. They are my real heroes, who liberated after such a long battle & yet retained kindness, helpfulness. That stayed with me. Goodness, kindness & helpfulness are the driving forces for life. After liberation Susan was sent to Sweden to convalesce. I began to understand that there is a goodness in the world. I don’t have much recollection about getting there. I was in a daze. I thought it must be a dream, a fantasy that people cared about me. I feared that the picture will disappear. I didn’t completely understand liberation myself yet. It had to come gradually. Listening to music every night. This wonderful, youngish man had a very big collection of music he played to us. Lights off, we sat in the dark. And I learned I had an inner life. That inner life was strengthened by listening to the music, because Beethoven understood me. Somehow the beautiful, lyrical music was there. And the darkness opened up like a flower. 928: Goodness Kindness & Helpfulness Susan Pollack OBE Edited from Susan Pollack OBE's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, October 2023 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts

926: Dressing Up As A Gestapo Officer France, 1943: Betty Bloom (13) escapes to Switzerland. Her sister Ruth (17) stays behind with the Resistance: Betty Bloom Read Full Text Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Home All Memories About Menu Close ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → ← Previous Memory Credits & tags Adapted from Betty Bloom's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, February 2020 • Learn More → Betty Bloom False Identity Nerves of Steel Resistance Reunited Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts France See Locations Full Text France, 1943: Betty Bloom (13) escapes to Switzerland. Her sister Ruth (17) stays behind with the Resistance: Ruth was told by her committee there's a Jewish child in Grenoble left by her parents, an infant under a year old, in an orphanage, & the Gestapo had found out. The Gestapo were coming to arrest this baby. Somehow, news got out to Ruth's committee. They wondered what can we do for this child? So, she dressed up; my sister dressed up as a German officer. With her good Berliner accent, in her 'Berlinerisch' [Berlin dialect]. With boots & hat, all in black. She demanded this child. The person in charge of the orphanage didn't want to give her away. She said, 'What's wrong? We like this baby, we love her. We'll look after her.' Ruth said: 'If you don't give us this child, we close the orphanage'. They gave her the child; she took the child to a safe home & the child survived the war. Got eventually to Israel & she was told that she was saved by a person. She found out who through the rabbi, who knew that Ruth was then in Israel. She was told where Ruth was. One day she turned up at Ruth's kibbutz. Can you imagine? Knocked on the door: "I am Celine. You are my 2nd mother. You gave me birth a 2nd time." They did everything. They had passes, they had costumes. When I first heard the story, cold crept up my… She saved this child. After that episode, the Gestapo were looking for Ruth. Because, you know, somebody walks as a Gestapo officer into an orphanage & goes out with a child. Her committee said to her: 'Ruth you can’t stay here anymore. A, you endanger your own life, B, you endanger our lives'. So she decided to cross into Spain. She knew Switzerland wasn't for her, she was over 16, they might send her back. She met up with a group, it took them 4 days across the Pyrenees to cross into Spain. The "chemin de la liberté". Walking at night, in ice: very very difficult. In Spain, they were well received. Eventually she got to Cadiz. She was given the option of either going to Palestine or England. But to come to England, she'd have had to wait till after the war ended, it wasn't simple. This was in '44. She was in terrible quandary. In the end she got a permit to go to Palestine on a legal ship. But on arrival, she was interned by the British because she couldn't prove that she was Ruth Schütz because she didn't cross the border with a passport. You know, what did the British expect? But by then my Aunt Betty was living in Haifa because she'd emigrated in 1936. She heard that Ruth was there & she went to the authorities, in Atlit, & she said: 'she's my niece' & she proved it by—she showed photos. I don't know what, anyway, they let her go. 926: Dressing Up As A Gestapo Officer Betty Bloom Adapted from Betty Bloom's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, February 2020 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts

Hiding Valuables Memories 946: Being Stateless Is An Advantage Benno Stern My father, by a great stroke of fortune, was made stateless by Poland because he’d fled the country. It worked to our advantage... Read Full Memory 955: 28 People Hiding In The Loft Rivka Reich We thought going to Auschwitz would be just hard labour. But my father was different. He thought we must escape... Read Full Memory 969: No One In My Situation Lia Lesser In 1939, my father married again in Prague. His wife was called Ola & she was a seamstress. When she came out of Auschwitz she got in touch... Read Full Memory 980: Getting Streetwise Margot Harris When we were packing for England, the Gestapo came & went through all the cutlery drawers & took the silver cutlery & this & that... Read Full Memory 981: 4th of the 4th, 1944 Jack Cynamon My first recollection is aeroplanes in the sky in Brussels. One morning the sky was full of aeroplanes. There must have been 60... Read Full Memory Previous Experience Next Experience

925: Finding Something Good In Everything Ursula Gilbert, Berlin, prewar: Ursula Gilbert Read Full Text Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Home All Memories About Menu Close ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → ← Previous Memory Credits & tags Edited from Ursula Gilbert's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, January 2007 • Learn More → Ursula Gilbert Attempted Humiliation Auschwitz Close Family Murdered Deported Nerves of Steel Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts Germany See Locations Full Text Ursula Gilbert, Berlin, prewar: My father always used to find something good in everything. Family was very important to him. He always used to read to us & talk & explain. He'd always say: ‘Things are not so bad. We'll get through it.’ Until the very, very last day. During WW1 he was a prisoner of war in Russia. That's how he got the Iron Cross. When war ended he walked back to Berlin. He said it was quite easy: ‘I walked along the railway lines from Tashkent'. My parents were under 50 when I left, before they were sent to Auschwitz. Older people were sent to Theresienstadt & younger people to Auschwitz, unfortunately. The little things I remember. My father sometimes talked about the children who were desperate to come to England on the children’s transport. I wanted to get away quickly. At school the Jewish children had to sit near the window instead of wherever we wanted. We had to be separate. We couldn’t mix in the school yard. We weren’t allowed to buy any second-hand books because ‘No, you can afford to pay for the new ones’. Lots of little pinpricks. My father was very conscious & god-fearing. He believed in the goodness of people. He always said ‘Why quarrel?’ My sister & I, ‘you don’t get anything out of it, it’s silly.’ Words were very important. He'd always find the right words. Even the last—I have a lot of letters. Because my parents were sent to Auschwitz very late, in 1943. He sent a telegram to my uncle in Sweden saying ‘I’m going on the 9th transport’. That was the last I ever heard from them. Life is strange! My sister was 18, she met a boy, they got married on special permission. In Berlin she never had a boyfriend. Then she'd write to me, talking about this particular boy. They got special permission & were married the day before they were deported. So they were able to all be deported together, my father wrote. Because he was convinced everything’s going to end in a happy way, I feel my father made it possible for my mother & sister not to be so frightened. It made their life more pleasant & more bearable, I think. He could talk & you could find always the good side of things. 925: Finding Something Good In Everything Ursula Gilbert Edited from Ursula Gilbert's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, January 2007 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts

942: Father's New Woman Budapest, 1944: John Hajdu MBE's father is incarcerated in a labour camp. His mother is taken to Mauthausen camp. John & his aunt are moved into the ghetto: John Hajdu MBE Read Full Text Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Home All Memories About Menu Close ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → ← Previous Memory Credits & tags Edited from John Hajdu MBE's interview with Dr Jana Buresova for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, July 2023 • Learn More → John Hajdu MBE Arrow Cross Finding Out Ghetto Incarceration Liberation Reunited Siege of Budapest Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts Hungary See Locations Full Text Budapest, 1944: John Hajdu MBE's father is incarcerated in a labour camp. His mother is taken to Mauthausen camp. John & his aunt are moved into the ghetto: In each flat it was about 20 of us squeezed in. The area was guarded by the Arrow Cross Party: fascist & brutal. Hardly any food: bread & drippings & water. We couldn’t go out. In fact, you didn’t want to go out because on the streets were shot at for no reason whatsoever & you saw people dying on the street from dysentery & all kinds of other diseases. So you stayed in the flat. We stayed in this flat for quite some time until the Soviet Air Force was approaching Hungary. They’d already liberated Romania, now they were approaching Budapest. They started bombing. We had to go down into the cellar often. Part of our block was bombed & collapsed. We were extremely fortunate not to have been entombed or killed by the falling masonry & bricks & the roof. We stayed in this terrible situation for some time until the Soviet Air Force & the Soviet Army surrounded Budapest. The whole ghetto was mined by the Nazis in order to blow everybody up. Imagine: 900 blocks of flats, 100s of 1000s of people. But they couldn't blow us up because they had to escape as quickly as possible from the Soviet Army. They didn’t have time to do it. So we were saved by the quick action of the Soviet Army. Then we came out & found Budapest in flames. Houses were demolished or hardly anything left, people wandering aimlessly. Nobody knew what to do. A bombsite. The bridges had gone. In one way it was freedom. It was life. We'd escaped death. So obviously, there was relief. It was freedom, it was happiness. When you then looked at what you have seen around you – Yeah. As a young boy, it was almost impossible to comprehend. The question was, what happens next? My mother wasn’t there. My aunt & I had to find somewhere to live & start a new life. We decided to go to Romania. Why Romania? Because Romania was freed by the Soviets before Hungary & that is where my father escaped. Getting to Romania was a hell of a journey. My father & uncle had started a little shop & they were living a reasonable life. I went back to school there & we lived a reasonable life there. Always at the back of your mind was, what happened to our belongings, to our flat in Budapest & above all what happened to my mother? I found out later that she was taken to Mauthausen concentration camp. She was beaten, her hair fell out, her teeth fell out, her back suffered. If she found some snails to eat she was lucky. People all around her died but somehow, she survived until the American troops freed her. She then was taken in a terrible state to a hospital. After some weeks she recovered enough to allow her out. She went back to Budapest. She didn’t know where the family was, she was not allowed back into our flat by the occupier. She was not given back any of her belongings & was simply told to go. Just back from Mauthausen. Homeless, she searched for us in Budapest, which was in ruins. Eventually a friend told her that we were in Romania. Somehow she managed to trace us & arrived at our doorstep. The feeling of suddenly confronted by your mother in front of you when you thought that she was lost. We couldn’t believe what we’re seeing. A miracle. A wonderful thing to happen. But by this time my father, who thought obviously that my mother is not coming back, had started a relationship with a local woman. I can’t blame him for that because that’s life. My mother after a few hours found out my father had another woman. She immediately turned round & took me back to Budapest. So another part of my life had to start all over again in the ruined town of Budapest where my mother had to find somewhere to live & some work. 942: Father's New Woman John Hajdu MBE Edited from John Hajdu MBE's interview with Dr Jana Buresova for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, July 2023 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts

975: Life In A Siberian Labour Camp Poland 1940: Soviet troops force 14-year-old Izak Wiesenfeld & his family to emigrate from Przeworsk to Novosibirsk, Siberia: Izak Wiesenfeld Read Full Text Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Home All Memories About Menu Close ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → ← Previous Memory Credits & tags Edited from Izak Wiesenfeld's interview with Dr Rosalyn Livshin for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, August 2006 • Learn More → Izak Wiesenfeld Food Forced Soviet Emigration Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts Soviet Union See Locations Full Text Poland 1940: Soviet troops force 14-year-old Izak Wiesenfeld & his family to emigrate from Przeworsk to Novosibirsk, Siberia: We were taken by lorries into the forest, to a huge barrack. The first speech: “You will never get out of here, here you will die & if you don’t work you won't get any food”. I was 14. I had to go to the forest to cut down trees & dry out swamps, difficult work. They used to give workers 1.2kg of bread. People who couldn’t work, or who were too young: 0.5kg. The bread inside was like clay, outside was a bit better. We had no vegetables, fruit, fat, sugar, or anything like this. Because of it we couldn’t see at night, we really lost some of our sight. But when war broke out, in 1941, they stopped all the bread as well. We had to live from what we could collect in the forest. During the summer we had strawberries, or mushrooms & all kind of things. That is what we had to live on for a long, long time. We were there with Russians who'd been there since 1917, since gulags & communism. They helped, knew what was edible. When we got malaria in Siberia, during the 3 months that it was hot—people think of Siberia as cold, that wasn’t the worst, the worst was the 3 months when it was hot, like a tropical country. Then it was like in the Torah, in the Tochacha [Leviticus 26] they say: “In the evening we waited for morning & in the morning we waited for evening”. In the evening when we came home we couldn’t sleep in the barrack, because there were the bugs, & outside there was the mosquitos, thousands of them, & then we waited for the morning. And we went to work in the morning in the forest & every bite you got your hand was swollen & your feet were swollen & you waited for the evening, so it was… it was very, very difficult. For malaria there is only one cure: quinine. Here, if you get malaria, you either get an injection or pills. There, after pleading & pleading & pleading, we got it in powder form. This is the bitterest thing in the world. We couldn’t take it, one Gulag said: get hold of an onion, get one of their thin skins, wrap up this powder in it, with a bit of water. That's how we could take it. But lots of people didn’t survive. Once they became ill there, you are finished, no cure, no doctor, no medicine, or anything like this, so that is how my father died in Siberia, & my friend's father. I was a bit lucky, because although I was 14 I was short, so when my father died I was still able to sit shiva. But when my friend's father died, he didn’t go to work & they put him in prison for 8 days for this. There were about 120 or 130 of us in the barracks & about 39 died during the one and a half years we were there. We were taken once to clear away snow, about 10km from us. We slept in a school overnight on the floor, & there we got some bread, it was good bread somehow. We queued up, with our names, & she couldn’t read our names. Some of us queued up 3 times, we got 3.6kg of bread. We lay down on the floor, it was only bread, nothing else. We couldn’t fall asleep until we finished the whole lot, because for months we didn’t have any. But they didn't treat us too bad. It depended who was in charge. Mazel [luck] played a big, big part in this. We were in the forest, we were free, we couldn’t go anywhere. We had no transport, no paper, no radio, we didn’t know the world existed. Cold weather is actually very healthy weather, if you have proper clothing & boots. A human being can survive different climates. If you take an animal from a hot climate to another climate, it may die. But somehow, Hakodosh Boruch Hu [God] gave us special shkoyach [strength], if I was to eat now what I did there, or walk now on snow with bare feet, I wouldn’t be well here. Whatever Jewish customs we could keep, we kept. No question of eating treife [non-kosher food]. There was no treife there, no meat or anything like that. Although remember I said we couldn’t see at night, because of the lack of vitamins? A Russian said “If you get hold of a piece of liver & eat it your sight will be restored.” Eventually we got hold of one & it came back. 975: Life In A Siberian Labour Camp Izak Wiesenfeld Edited from Izak Wiesenfeld's interview with Dr Rosalyn Livshin for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, August 2006 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts

Stella Shinder, Chemnitz, 1934: It was when I started school at the age of six, that I had my first encounter. I had a little umbrella with red stripes. A little schoolmate of mine said, 'Is that the blood of German babies that the Jews are killing?' I came home to my mother & said, 'Could this be true?' That was my first experience of what was happening. My mother said: 'Absolutely not. This is not true. You must never believe that'. My father had an encounter with a janitor who called him a ‘dirty Jew’. This man had a stick. So my father took the stick & beat him up. There was never any talk about going. Never. It wasn’t until we actually left in July 1938—Friday the 13th—that my mother—we went on our usual holiday to Czechoslovakia. We lived quite near the border & holiday in Karlovy Vary. A beautiful spa in the Sudeten part of Czechoslovakia. When we crossed the border, my mother said to my brother & myself, 'We are never going back'. So that was it. My brother & I were elated. Because we'd already experienced antisemitism. We were thrown out of our schools. We were spat at in the street. We'd experienced antisemitism quite strongly. We weren't allowed to sit on park benches or use swimming pools. So we were very, very happy to leave all that behind. When we were getting ready, I said 'Mummy why are you packing winter stockings on our summer holiday?' She gave me a smack & said, 'Be quiet'. Because we had a cleaning lady working in the flat & she didn’t want her to know that we would never come back again. My father was still in Germany & didn’t want to leave, because we had a beautiful home. He had a business. He didn’t want to leave. My mother wrote to him & said 'If you don’t follow us, you'll never see us again'. So he packed his bag & he had some money in a briefcase. And on the platform at the station he was so nervous he left this bag with the money behind. My poor, poor father. We never saw it again. So he came & joined us. Then we went to live in Prague, where we stayed for six months prior to coming to England. So. Then we had a small flat which we rented in Prague. My brother & I attended a German-speaking school. And of course we were spat at by the Czech children not for being Jewish but because they thought we were Germans. There was a lot of anti-German feeling in Czechoslovakia at that time. We had a letter from my father’s parents who lived in Warsaw at the time to say there was an aunt, my grandfather’s sister, living in England, in London. 'Write to her, get her to, get her to get you a visitor’s visa. Get out of Czechoslovakia because Hitler’s going to come into Czechoslovakia'. So, we were so lucky, we managed to get this visa. My mother arranged for us to fly to England. Crossing Germany would have been dangerous for us, if we'd gone by train. So we took a flight which landed at Brussels & then another flight from Brussels to London. We landed in London on the 6th of December 1938. Croydon Airport. When we left, my mother used to write to—in those days we didn’t all have telephones. She would write to our friends, 'Leave, leave'. And nobody paid any attention. Nobody paid any attention. There was great antisemitism, but nobody could have imagined what finally happened. 963: Experiencing Antisemitism Stella Shinder Credits & tags Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Previous Memory Next Memory ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → Previous Memory Next Memory 963: Experiencing Antisemitism ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → Stella Shinder Read Full Text Previous Memory Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Next Memory ← Previous Memory Credits & tags Edited from Stella Shinder's interview with Clare Csonka for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, March 2021 • Learn More → Stella Shinder Emigration to Czechoslovakia Not Allowed To Use Swimming Pools Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts Germany See Locations Full Text Stella Shinder, Chemnitz, 1934: It was when I started school at the age of six, that I had my first encounter. I had a little umbrella with red stripes. A little schoolmate of mine said, 'Is that the blood of German babies that the Jews are killing?' I came home to my mother & said, 'Could this be true?' That was my first experience of what was happening. My mother said: 'Absolutely not. This is not true. You must never believe that'. My father had an encounter with a janitor who called him a ‘dirty Jew’. This man had a stick. So my father took the stick & beat him up. There was never any talk about going. Never. It wasn’t until we actually left in July 1938—Friday the 13th—that my mother—we went on our usual holiday to Czechoslovakia. We lived quite near the border & holiday in Karlovy Vary. A beautiful spa in the Sudeten part of Czechoslovakia. When we crossed the border, my mother said to my brother & myself, 'We are never going back'. So that was it. My brother & I were elated. Because we'd already experienced antisemitism. We were thrown out of our schools. We were spat at in the street. We'd experienced antisemitism quite strongly. We weren't allowed to sit on park benches or use swimming pools. So we were very, very happy to leave all that behind. When we were getting ready, I said 'Mummy why are you packing winter stockings on our summer holiday?' She gave me a smack & said, 'Be quiet'. Because we had a cleaning lady working in the flat & she didn’t want her to know that we would never come back again. My father was still in Germany & didn’t want to leave, because we had a beautiful home. He had a business. He didn’t want to leave. My mother wrote to him & said 'If you don’t follow us, you'll never see us again'. So he packed his bag & he had some money in a briefcase. And on the platform at the station he was so nervous he left this bag with the money behind. My poor, poor father. We never saw it again. So he came & joined us. Then we went to live in Prague, where we stayed for six months prior to coming to England. So. Then we had a small flat which we rented in Prague. My brother & I attended a German-speaking school. And of course we were spat at by the Czech children not for being Jewish but because they thought we were Germans. There was a lot of anti-German feeling in Czechoslovakia at that time. We had a letter from my father’s parents who lived in Warsaw at the time to say there was an aunt, my grandfather’s sister, living in England, in London. 'Write to her, get her to, get her to get you a visitor’s visa. Get out of Czechoslovakia because Hitler’s going to come into Czechoslovakia'. So, we were so lucky, we managed to get this visa. My mother arranged for us to fly to England. Crossing Germany would have been dangerous for us, if we'd gone by train. So we took a flight which landed at Brussels & then another flight from Brussels to London. We landed in London on the 6th of December 1938. Croydon Airport. When we left, my mother used to write to—in those days we didn’t all have telephones. She would write to our friends, 'Leave, leave'. And nobody paid any attention. Nobody paid any attention. There was great antisemitism, but nobody could have imagined what finally happened. 963: Experiencing Antisemitism Stella Shinder Edited from Stella Shinder's interview with Clare Csonka for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, March 2021 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts

945: Dad's Blood-Drenched Shirt Munich, 10th March 1933 Bea Green MBE's father, Dr Michael Siegel, goes to a police station to complain on behalf of a Jewish client whose shop had been damaged, is beaten up by the police and marched round Munich, and has his image captured in a famous photo by an American journalist: Bea Green MBE Read Full Text Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Home All Memories About Menu Close ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → ← Previous Memory Credits & tags Edited from Bea Green MBE 's interview with Sharon Rappaport for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, June 2006 • Learn More → Bea Green MBE Arrested Attempted Humiliation Encounter With Nazi Officials Nerves of Steel Telling The Story Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts Germany See Locations Full Text Munich, 10th March 1933 Bea Green MBE's father, Dr Michael Siegel, goes to a police station to complain on behalf of a Jewish client whose shop had been damaged, is beaten up by the police and marched round Munich, and has his image captured in a famous photo by an American journalist: I like talking. I seriously believe trying to protect your children by not telling them everything is a terrible thing. Because it makes them imagine things that could be worse than reality. So I told my children what it was like when they beat up my dad. That was the first intimation of serious antisemitism. 10th March ’33, I remember everything. I was at home with a cold & my mum had gone out shopping. In a block of flats you have laundry facilities in the basement Our maid was down there. So I was alone in the flat. I heard the key of the door at the end of the corridor. I was at the other end in my bedroom. I expected whoever it was who had come back to see if I was all right. Nobody came. Funny. I waited a while. Then I got up. I walked out through my brother’s bedroom to the corridor that led down to the front door. My brother’s bedroom door was opposite the bathroom. Outside the bathroom door I saw my father’s– he used to hang his suit there. There was his suit & his shirt all blood-drenched. What does a little girl of 8 feel? I was scared you know. It was as if I had been winded; I mean, I now think in retrospect that’s how I would describe it. I walked down the corridor. My parents’ bedroom was closed. I did something I had never done before: I knocked. Then I opened the door. I saw my father pull up his sheet so that I shouldn’t see his face. He said: 'Warte, bis deine Mutter heim kommt'—wait until your mother comes home. The word Mutter was never used, it was always Mutti. The use of that language, & seeing him pull up the sheet, the feather bed, to cover up his face. I don’t remember walking back to bed, but I remember lying on my back on my bed feeling nothing, you know, nothing. It is hard to explain & it’s hard for me to recreate, even in myself. Then my mother came back & the maid came back & my brother came back from school. At that point I knew they were protecting me from knowing what had happened, they didn’t want to tell me. Somehow this idea must have formed in my head: if I ever have children I’ll never do that, I’ll tell them. I don’t think they told me, I must have found out something. But no detail. The following day we were driven down by friends to our little house in Walchensee with our doctor. My father was very brave about it, so I knew he was all right. The fact that they protected me from the details didn’t matter so much at the time. I was 8. When I was 10 there was a polio epidemic in Munich. My parents sent me to an aunt in Luxembourg. It was that aunt who showed me the famous picture which had appeared by that time in the world press. An extraordinary thing went on in my head: I thought that she should not have shown it to me, it should have been my parents. So I learnt from it. You have to cope with whatever situation presents itself. No different from anybody else’s life. Children learn to cope with whatever their situation is. To a kid, whatever happens is normal. 945: Dad's Blood-Drenched Shirt Bea Green MBE Edited from Bea Green MBE 's interview with Sharon Rappaport for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, June 2006 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts

959: The Invasion Of Hungary George Donath, born in Ujpest, Hungary, was 13 on May 18, 1944 when Germany invaded Hungary: George Donath Read Full Text Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Home All Memories About Menu Close ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → ← Previous Memory Credits & tags Edited from George Donath's interview with Dr Jana Buresova for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, February 2019 • Learn More → George Donath Deported Encounter With Nazi Officials Forced Labour Near Escape Yellow Star Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts Hungary See Locations Full Text George Donath, born in Ujpest, Hungary, was 13 on May 18, 1944 when Germany invaded Hungary: The 19th of March was a Sunday. We went to my grandparents for lunch as usual. All of a sudden we see these black Mercedes drawing up in front. Black uniformed soldiers got out. I don’t think we realised they were Gestapo. They went into a couple of houses, dragged out three Jewish industrialists, left us alone. Then Jewish legislation starts coming in. First thing is Yellow Stars. So we all put on the Yellow Star. More people have to go into forced labour, so my father under fifty, is called up & taken away. We have to move into a certain district & put a big Yellow Star on the entrance to the flat. Then the deportations started. There were attempts made by the Germans to mislead us. We were taken to a place they called kenyérmesö [bread fields]. They organised masses of postcards, always the same text: “We are fine, send you our regards.” No postage stamp. It was childish but people believed it. My father was in this camp. My mother heard it was us next. So she organised a country gentleman to pick us up during the night & take us into hiding in the countryside. This was the end of June. She gave this man a certain amount of money. We were waiting at the gate. We stood & stood, but he didn't come. He kept the money, nice. The next morning the Hungarian gendarmes—it was the gendarmes who did the deportations. The SS were just not visible. The gendarmerie were the country police, dressed very distinctively: cock feathers in their cap, carrying guns and so on. They came for us. And marched us out. The railway station was in a place called Rákospalota, a nice little walk of maybe 5km. We had this audience on either side, having a good time. We get there & there are the wagons. We’ve got numbers, up to 80. My mother ends up, number 80, into the wagon. My sister & I, are out! Into the next wagon. So my mother, I don’t know how, got out. And screams that she’s not going to be separated from her children. And the gendarm rendör [patrolman] hits her with the back of the gun. And she says: 'You can beat me to death, you can shoot me,' nothing doing. She won. So all three of us got into the next wagon. After a few hours, we ended up in a brick factory in Budakalász. There were 25,000 Jews there. A brick factory is an ideal place for this sort of thing, because whilst there is cover. it is also open. So they could supervise us. There was one single SS there. All the others were Hungarian gendarmes. At night, there were lights playing, not to let us sleep. To reduce resistance. We were there for five nights, during the first bombing of Budapest. We loved seeing the bombs. The next morning the wagons were ready, & we’re going to be put into the wagons. But then six names circulated in the camp. Ours is one. So we reported. We spent a day in a central place surrounded by stones, watching people being loaded into wagons. There was another sight: a tanner called Lajos Kaufer. A big strong man but very short-sighted, almost blind. One of the gendarmes pushed him so he turned round. He was shot instantly. There & then. Probably the best thing that happened to him, but a dreadful sight. Anyway. I was never actually frightened. My mother wasn’t frightened either. She had fear. I was very nervous apparently at one point but I had a strange faith – [with emotion] in my mother. That she will look after us. Which she did. All of a sudden a lorry comes. We are told to get in with about sixty people. No gendarmes but an SS. We realise that we are going into town. Next thing we know we arrive at the Jewish Deaf and Dumb Institute. We go into the back entrance and there are hundreds of people there. We get off & they say: 'Congratulations you are here'. Through my mother's connections we were saved. To her dying day, my mother blamed herself for not taking another half-dozen children that were not hers. But who the hell thinks? 959: The Invasion Of Hungary George Donath Edited from George Donath's interview with Dr Jana Buresova for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, February 2019 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts

Food Memories 933: Interned In Algeria Erna Klein One Arabic sentence helped a lot. It meant: ‘Are you drunk or whatever is the matter with you?’ That helped me out of a few difficult situations... Read Full Memory 937: Eichmann Asking For Chopped Liver Fred Barschak On Saturday: elderly Jews scrubbing the pavements & marvellous shouts of ‘At last, Hitler’s found work for the Jews!' Read Full Memory 939: How To Bake A Stuffed Pike Fred Barschak The building still exists. Right next to the Prater, the great playground. But when I went back 25 years later I was disappointed... Read Full Memory 940: Bringing The Alarm Clock Hanna Hemingway There's a reel in here [points to her head]. I can’t get it out of my mind. It's there. I just wish somebody would erase it... Read Full Memory 941: Sharing The Sandwiches Henry Wuga MBE Ingrid & I got married on December 26 1944. In the middle of the war. We were in love & there was nothing to wait for. We were 20... Read Full Memory 944: Cat Piddle In My Beer Rudolph Sabor It strengthened my belief: this cannot be forever. A cultured people like the Germans, would wake up any day. Total delusion... Read Full Memory 955: 28 People Hiding In The Loft Rivka Reich We thought going to Auschwitz would be just hard labour. But my father was different. He thought we must escape... Read Full Memory 960: The Awful Heydrich Reprisals Frank Bright Two Gestapo men came to our flat & asked where was I at the time. My mother had been indoors. I had just arrived from school... Read Full Memory 975: Life In A Siberian Labour Camp Izak Wiesenfeld We were taken by lorries into the forest, to a huge barrack. The first speech: “You will never get out of here, here you will die..." Read Full Memory 977: The Cruel Guardian Maria Ault My first guardians were fine. But when we were evacuated we stayed with a very, very, very, very bad person who used to hit us... Read Full Memory 989: Buying Sauerkraut & Soap Eva Mendelsson When you're a child, when nasty things happen, you remember. It makes a tremendous impression, even if you don’t quite understand... Read Full Memory 992: Chickenpox Bridget Newman I was stuck. Then one day, the doorbell rang: a Gestapo. He came in, he was really rather nice. He had white hair & a big, white moustache... Read Full Memory 998: Red Oaks Boarding School Ruth Jackson I was led upstairs to an empty dormitory & told that the very end bed was mine & I should have a bath & come down to tea. I felt miserable... Read Full Memory Previous Experience Next Experience

Willie Field, born in Germany, took part in the D-Day Landings for the British Army: That was the best thing that could happen to me. After all, I was a refugee from Nazi oppression. I wanted to have my revenge and I had my revenge. That was a wonderful feeling. Willie joined the army in Australia, where he'd been sent on the HMT Dunera to be interned by the British government: It was ridiculous to send people who were refugees from Nazi oppression there. Finally, they sent a gentleman from the Home Office to Australia. His name was Major Layton. He tried to persuade young people to join the Pioneer Corps & come back to England. Of course, all of us youngsters immediately volunteered. We landed in Liverpool, where we were sworn in to be soldiers. We were given a pass & told that in ten days we have to report to Ilfracombe to join the Pioneer Corps. We were trained there. It was quite comical because most of us couldn't speak proper English. I must compare it with "Dad's Army" if you want me to be honest with you. We didn't have rifles or guns or anything. We had broomsticks, things like that. At least we were in the British Army & we were somebody. It was something I always wanted to do. From then on we were split up & sent to various Companies. I was sent, with one or two of my friends, to a company near Oxford - 65 Company. We had to build huts & roads. Then I was sent to Internee 149 Company at Catterick Camp. It was always the same: building huts or building canvas & that was not what I really wanted to do. I was 22 years old & thought I could be doing better things than building huts etc. Then, all of a sudden, they called us in & said, "You don't have to, but, if you want, you can join the fighting forces." I thought, now is my time, so that is what I did. I was thinking, "What shall I join? The infantry? No, I don't want to start walking". So, I said I wanted to go into the tank, the Royal Armoured Corps. I applied but you don't hear anything. After about a month, the Commanding Officer called me in & said, "You have been accepted for the RAC, but you have got to go on a test." I said, "That's all right." They sent me to Aberystwyth for a week. They gave us mental & physical tests. I was accepted. Eventually I was sent to Ilfracombe to the RAC & trained as a tank driver. I changed my ordinary Pioneer hat to a black beret with a tank on there. I was so proud you can't imagine. I used to walk through Ilfracombe & think: at last now I can do a bit of fighting. I passed my tank driving test & was sent to Norfolk, Thetford, to the King's 8th Royal Irish Hussars. I was of good German origin & was accepted by them as their own. I had no problems. Nothing. I was given a tank & a crew. A tank crew consists of a tank driver, a co-driver, a wireless operator, a gunner & a commander. We trained to get ready for the D-Day landing. I was the tank driver. The tank driver's job was to look after the tank, ensure everything's all right, that there is always enough petrol. The best thing that happened in my life. Not only it was the comradeship, it was wonderful - completely different from the Pioneer Corps. You are somebody then. No anti-Semitism. They knew I was Jewish, originally from Germany. I was absolutely like one of them. We trained & eventually went to Bognor Regis & got our tank ready for the D-Day landing. The D-Day landing we took part. I was always with them. I took part at the Normandy Landing it is called. We landed and I was with them. It was a wonderful thing for me arriving in France & taking German prisoners. For me that was one thing I always wanted to do ever since I left Germany. A wonderful feeling & wonderful comradeship. We went right through to Holland & here comes the sad part I'm afraid. We were always together with my five, we lived together. On the way to Nijmegen & Arnhem, my tank was knocked out by a German 88 gun &, unfortunately, everybody was killed except me. A dreadful thing. I managed to try to save the gunner operator. He had his leg already off, his arm was half off but he was still alive. I got him behind the tank & managed to get the ambulance boys to pick him up. I couldn't pick him up. I was wounded myself, but it was a blessing he died on the way. That was a terrible thing. I was in hospital for a few days. But, like everything, if you fall off a bicycle you get on the bicycle straight away. They gave me another tank. I went through to Hamburg & we took Hamburg. 961: Having My Revenge Willy Field Credits & tags Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Previous Memory Next Memory ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → Previous Memory Next Memory 961: Having My Revenge ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → Willy Field Read Full Text Previous Memory Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Next Memory ← Previous Memory Credits & tags Edited from Willy Field's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, September 2003 • Learn More → Willy Field Australian Internment British Army British Internment HMT Dunera Nerves of Steel Recovery Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts France See Locations Full Text Willie Field, born in Germany, took part in the D-Day Landings for the British Army: That was the best thing that could happen to me. After all, I was a refugee from Nazi oppression. I wanted to have my revenge and I had my revenge. That was a wonderful feeling. Willie joined the army in Australia, where he'd been sent on the HMT Dunera to be interned by the British government: It was ridiculous to send people who were refugees from Nazi oppression there. Finally, they sent a gentleman from the Home Office to Australia. His name was Major Layton. He tried to persuade young people to join the Pioneer Corps & come back to England. Of course, all of us youngsters immediately volunteered. We landed in Liverpool, where we were sworn in to be soldiers. We were given a pass & told that in ten days we have to report to Ilfracombe to join the Pioneer Corps. We were trained there. It was quite comical because most of us couldn't speak proper English. I must compare it with "Dad's Army" if you want me to be honest with you. We didn't have rifles or guns or anything. We had broomsticks, things like that. At least we were in the British Army & we were somebody. It was something I always wanted to do. From then on we were split up & sent to various Companies. I was sent, with one or two of my friends, to a company near Oxford - 65 Company. We had to build huts & roads. Then I was sent to Internee 149 Company at Catterick Camp. It was always the same: building huts or building canvas & that was not what I really wanted to do. I was 22 years old & thought I could be doing better things than building huts etc. Then, all of a sudden, they called us in & said, "You don't have to, but, if you want, you can join the fighting forces." I thought, now is my time, so that is what I did. I was thinking, "What shall I join? The infantry? No, I don't want to start walking". So, I said I wanted to go into the tank, the Royal Armoured Corps. I applied but you don't hear anything. After about a month, the Commanding Officer called me in & said, "You have been accepted for the RAC, but you have got to go on a test." I said, "That's all right." They sent me to Aberystwyth for a week. They gave us mental & physical tests. I was accepted. Eventually I was sent to Ilfracombe to the RAC & trained as a tank driver. I changed my ordinary Pioneer hat to a black beret with a tank on there. I was so proud you can't imagine. I used to walk through Ilfracombe & think: at last now I can do a bit of fighting. I passed my tank driving test & was sent to Norfolk, Thetford, to the King's 8th Royal Irish Hussars. I was of good German origin & was accepted by them as their own. I had no problems. Nothing. I was given a tank & a crew. A tank crew consists of a tank driver, a co-driver, a wireless operator, a gunner & a commander. We trained to get ready for the D-Day landing. I was the tank driver. The tank driver's job was to look after the tank, ensure everything's all right, that there is always enough petrol. The best thing that happened in my life. Not only it was the comradeship, it was wonderful - completely different from the Pioneer Corps. You are somebody then. No anti-Semitism. They knew I was Jewish, originally from Germany. I was absolutely like one of them. We trained & eventually went to Bognor Regis & got our tank ready for the D-Day landing. The D-Day landing we took part. I was always with them. I took part at the Normandy Landing it is called. We landed and I was with them. It was a wonderful thing for me arriving in France & taking German prisoners. For me that was one thing I always wanted to do ever since I left Germany. A wonderful feeling & wonderful comradeship. We went right through to Holland & here comes the sad part I'm afraid. We were always together with my five, we lived together. On the way to Nijmegen & Arnhem, my tank was knocked out by a German 88 gun &, unfortunately, everybody was killed except me. A dreadful thing. I managed to try to save the gunner operator. He had his leg already off, his arm was half off but he was still alive. I got him behind the tank & managed to get the ambulance boys to pick him up. I couldn't pick him up. I was wounded myself, but it was a blessing he died on the way. That was a terrible thing. I was in hospital for a few days. But, like everything, if you fall off a bicycle you get on the bicycle straight away. They gave me another tank. I went through to Hamburg & we took Hamburg. 961: Having My Revenge Willy Field Edited from Willy Field's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, September 2003 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts