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979: Sitting Through That Bronia Snow came to Britain in 1939 on a Nicholas Winton Kindertransport from Prague: Bronia Snow 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 Bronia Snow's interview with Sheila Rabin for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, July 2024 • Learn More → Bronia Snow Close Family Murdered Finding Out Kindertransport Nicholas Winton Kindertransport Recovery Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts Czechoslovakia See Locations Full Text Bronia Snow came to Britain in 1939 on a Nicholas Winton Kindertransport from Prague: My parents always discussed everything. But not a word was spoken about my going to England. So I found myself one fine day, my mother packing a suitcase, me packing a little rucksack full of my doll, my favourite book & so on. On a platform of the main railway station, & getting on a train, with no idea it was going to happen. The platform was full of not only parents with children, but German soldiers with fixed bayonets. I was scared stiff. I thought: since they want to kill us all, why do they let the children, the next generation go? So I thought they would attack us, I was really scared. The idea was: my mother had a brother in New York who was very comfortably off. We were all going there. My parents & brother were going to pick me up in London, they were just waiting for a document called an affidavit which never came in time. I would have been an American person, instead of which I became an English schoolgirl. When I first arrived, I was frightened, alone. I didn’t speak a word of English. My aunt & uncle lacked my parents' warmth. They lived a life of luxury, with servants. It was a completely different atmosphere. The children were with a governess in the nursery, the parents were golfing, playing bridge, you know the sort. I had one last letter from my father, from Theresienstadt, saying, “We’re not starving, we have potatoes to eat.” Then I had the final notification. I was in the sixth form, 1945. One day before school, as I was getting ready, I had a notification informing me that on such & such a date, transport number so & so, my parents & brother were taken to Auschwitz. The Germans kept detailed numbers, records of the people they were going to murder. Thoroughly ridiculous. They were sent to Auschwitz & no more was heard of them. So I go to school–I mean that was a big shock, because all through the war I had lived in hope of being reunited, we were a very close loving family. So that as closure, I knew I’d never see them again. So I go to school as usual, [laughs], our headmistress announces: “Girls, we are very fortunate to have with us today Miss Moose who has just come back from Bergen-Belsen & will tell us all about it.” So I sat through that, I didn’t want to have to climb over everybody’s legs, & make an exhibition of myself, so I sat & listened to it all. Didn’t do me any harm, made me even more grateful for what I had escaped. And the chances I had had, & I determined I would try & live the sort of life my parents would have wanted me to live, so they’d be proud of me, & make the best of my chances. I became top of my year, was the school hockey team champion. I became an English schoolgirl, I loved it. But when I was in the sixth form my headmistress called me into her room & said, “Bronia, we would have liked to have made you head girl, but your lack of tact is against you.” [Laughs]. I had no idea I was tactless. “But we will make you senior prefect, in charge of discipline instead,” I’d been such a naughty child & there was I in charge of discipline, it was an absolute hoot. What’s lacking in England is an education, the young aren’t being taught history. They’re in cloud cuckoo land, they think England will always be free & democratic, without them even bothering to vote. They don’t realise that if the good people don’t bother, the baddies take over. Just what happened in Germany. Hitler took over before people realised. 979: Sitting Through That Bronia Snow Adapted from Bronia Snow's interview with Sheila Rabin for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, July 2024 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts

948: Not Remembering My Emotions March 15 939: Hella Pick CBE arrives in Britain from Vienna on a Kindertransport: Hella Pick CBE 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 Hella Pick CBE's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, February 2019 • Learn More → Hella Pick CBE Domestic Service Helped By Non-Jews Kindertransport Not Remembering Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts England See Locations Full Text March 15 939: Hella Pick CBE arrives in Britain from Vienna on a Kindertransport: I can still see myself arriving at Liverpool Street Station & being picked up. That I can remember. But I can’t remember much about the journey. Just a blank. It’s shocking. It shocks me. But it also saved me from thinking about it too much. I can’t remember my emotions. The only English I knew was ‘Goodbye’ so I said “Goodbye” to the family who picked me up. A very nice house in West Hampstead. They had 3 children. They put me to school in London straight away. I don’t remember much about the school at all. But at the end of the first term, I found a school certificate: I was speaking English, obviously doing all right. But I wasn’t there long because then summer holidays & then off I went to the Lake District to be with my mother. Hella's mother arrived in Britain on a domestic permit in June 1939. Obviously huge relief. I was so lucky. She found a job with the Chorleys who wanted someone who knew how to bake Austrian cakes. Theo Chorley became the last hereditary peer to be created in this country. I’m very, very friendly with all their children. Hella's parents divorced when she was 3. Her father remarried & emigrated to the US. I really hardly ever knew my father. The Board of Deputies for a time, tried to get my father to make some financial contribution.He adamantly refused to get involved. He never wanted to do anything for me. My mother adapted well. She learnt English very rapidly. I have memories of the Lake District partly because there are photographs. I was happy walking & swimming & playing with the other children. Just having a normal child’s life. Then war broke out & the Chorleys had to go back to London. My mother had to find another job. She found this job with a family who were very comfortably off. Had a lovely house. But treated her throughout the war as just their cook. I had to go into the house by the back door. If I wanted to swim in the lake, I had to make sure than nobody else was using the garden or was swimming. This sort of thing. It made it hard for me to bring my school friends. Only the very closest friends could be told the circumstances that I was living in. Which, you know, created—well, I don’t know how much a problem it was. I had two or three very close friends who certainly did come. But it was a curious life for a small child. On the one hand to be going to a school where most of the children came from well-off established families & then going home through their back door. And we were ranked as enemy aliens. For instance, if I had school friends who lived on the other side of Lake Windermere which was in what was then Lancashire. Lancashire was a protected area: it had a prisoner-of-war camp. I—theoretically—had to ask permission from the police to go across the lake. But in fact, what we did was to row across the lake without permission. But things like that for a small child were odd experiences. I went a lot to a lovely village called Grasmere in the Lake District & became friends with one of the Lake artists called Heaton Cooper & his wife, a sculptress. They became my anchor, the absolute firmament in my life. They gave me stability which nothing else gave me. I absolutely refused to speak German. If my mother spoke a word of German on a street I would just scream at her & say, 'Speak English!' Then I had a male teacher I totally fell in love with, at the age of 13. And he said to me, 'German is your mother tongue. You’ve just got to speak German.' He forced me again to confront German. 948: Not Remembering My Emotions Hella Pick CBE Edited from Hella Pick CBE's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, February 2019 • 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

933: Interned In Algeria Erna Klein Credits & tags Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close 1939: Erna Klein, born in Oels, is working as a nanny in Algiers. During my stay in Algeria I was interned three times, because of my nationality. The first time was immediately after the outbreak of war, I was sent to Sidi Bel Abbès, where the Foreign Legion was. I was the only woman interned there. A few men of German & Austrian nationality were there too. Quite a few Italians. I was put into the hall, on a sack with straw & watched over by an Arab Tireurs soldier with a bayonet. I asked the French officer could I please have the key to lock myself in. He was kind enough to give me the key. After a few days I caught gastroenteritis & the porters were so very, very kind, they asked the French officers could they give me a room in their flat & a bed, & look after me, & that was granted. After I got better I was sent back to Mostaganem. The second time I was interned for three months high up in the Atlas mountains in a place, a very small place called Ben Chicao. An ancient orphanage. There were people from Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland, Russia. I was given the infirmary to look after & looked after the sick people. There were mothers with babies there & I had to distribute the milk, to the babies. They kept pigs outside & a sow had lots of piglets & couldn’t feed them all so I had to bring them the leftover milk accompanied by a soldier carrying bayonet. He wanted to be fresh. Fortunately, before in Mostaganem, a Spanish lady had taught me a smattering of Arabic. So when this Tireur was not very respectful one Arabic sentence I had learned helped me a lot. It meant: ‘Are you drunk or whatever is the matter with you?’ That helped me out of a few difficult situations. Therefore it’s a sentence I won’t forget. I was in Ben Chicao when the Germans took over Paris. The Germans there heard the radio & knew & they celebrated & it was all very sad. There were a few Jewish girls as well. They did not live in Algeria. One of them was arrested because she was in the troupe of Mistinguette, a famous French dancer. They came from South America, their ship landed in Algiers & she was arrested. There were a few entertainers. We all slept in the same dormitory so as not to be with the Germans who were antisemitic. Then I was liberated again. The last time, I was arrested & brought to a hotel in Oran by the American army with some Italians & Germans again of course but that was pretty wonderful. Because for years we had been cut off from France & there was scarcely anything to eat in Algeria except for grapes & melons & figs. But while we were interned by the Americans we had proper food, even chocolate! I showed them some letters I got from my parents from England. So they told me that I could go. But I still had to go back to Mostaganem which was a very long way away from Oran & again I was arrested & had no money. But fortunately we were arrested in a hotel where we had to sleep three in a bed, I said ‘How am I going to go to Mostaganem?’ There was an Arab wholesaler of vegetables who had come with his lorry to buy his wholesale vegetables in Oran. He said ‘I’ll give you a lift back on my lorry.’ So I got back to where I had my home. There was a typhoid epidemic. I joined the Free French Army as a nurse. It was 1944. I felt I was alive & ought to do something for France. Had I been a man I would have gone into the Foreign Legion, but that wasn’t open to me. Previous Memory Next Memory ← Previous Memory Credits & tags Edited from Erna Klein's interview with Dr Rosalyn Livshin for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, March 2003 • Learn More → Erna Klein Algerian Internment Food Liberation Nerves of Steel Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts Algeria Text adapted & edited by Susanna Kleeman See Locations Facebook & Instagram Posts

953: Slave Labour In Ravensbrück September 6, 1944: Selma van de Perre is imprisoned in Ravensbrück for her part in the Dutch resistance: Selma van de Perre 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 Selma van de Perre's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, August 2020 • Learn More → Selma van de Perre Encounter With Nazi Officials False Identity Near Escape Ravensbrück Resistance Slave Labourer Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts Germany See Locations Full Text September 6, 1944: Selma van de Perre is imprisoned in Ravensbrück for her part in the Dutch resistance: They transported us to Ravensbrück. Terrible. Screaming, shouting, dogs & whips. The dogs had the same clothes as the soldiers. Same green-grey colour material. They even wore hats. We were marched to the main camp & put in tents. Selma was there under a non-Jewish false identity & called herself Margarete van der Kuit. No one knew that she was Jewish. It was a lice colony. Within a few weeks everybody was full of lice. We were taken in fives to the shower, made to strip, give up all your clothes. Then the doctor’s investigation. I can’t remember if he had gloves on. But he didn’t wash his hands at least. I was given a very thin blue-grey striped prison dress. That was all. And some wooden shoes. No underwear or anything. But in the barracks they gave me my jumper back. We each had a hollow flannel which we hung at the end of our bunk with a toothbrush & toothpaste in. When we woke up, it had disappeared. Stolen by other women. We learned later on that was quite a normal thing to do. In Ravensbrück, Selma was forced to work as a Siemens slave labourer: You had to solder very fine wire together. At the start I was so nervous I fainted. One evening I couldn’t get up from the loo. My tummy was completely out of order. We were given what they called ‘soup’: water with a few grass sprits in it & that was it. No wonder I was ill. So an SS came & started beating me with his belt, with all these iron things on it. So I fainted again. These two girls had to pick me up & hold me up while he was counting. Then they took me to the hospital barrack for 4 days. Then I went back to Siemens. One day we were told to stand outside the barrack, & they told us that the old women over 50 didn’t have to work anymore, & were to be given better food etc. They were taken to the Jugend camp in Uckermark. We later heard that they were gassed & killed. In October it got very cold. Someone said to me 'There's a Jewish woman who works in the textile barrack. She wants bread for her children. She’ll give you some warm clothes.” So I saved up the week’s sliced bread & went to see her. She gave me a man's long johns. They kept me warm the whole time I was in Ravensbrück. Fantastic. There were so many nationalities there. Polish, Slovaks, Czech, Dutch, French. But no more Jews in the Siemens barracks. They'd all been deported to Auschwitz by then. By then we slept in the Siemens barracks. Better conditions: only two in a bed. Three tiers mind you. But no dogs & no big SS fellows screaming away. Selma was liberated by the Swedish Red Cross on 23 April 1945. We were told to stand outside the Siemens barrack. We thought we’d get the same treatment as the old people a few months beforehand. You couldn’t flee because there were Germans on the side of you with dogs. Then we passed Uckermark, luckily & got to the big camp. We were very pleased in a way, but still scared because what’s going to happen! Every day we thought we’d be taken out because we knew they were killing women. You could smell it. The crematorium was going all the time. One day my Czech friend said 'You’re going to be freed Marga: you've got a Red Cross parcel.' So, we said, “Well we hope so.” I gave her a piece of bread, biscuits, & some sausage. She had been very good to me. We then stood outside. That was morning. Nothing came for a while. In the afternoon suddenly a little sportscar came. Out jumped a young Swede. He told us Count Bernadotte was coming with white buses to drive us to Sweden. But the buses didn’t come. We stood there the whole night. Suddenly military trucks came. We were told to jump in. A friend & I fought for the seat next to the driver, ‘cause we wanted to see. The driver said, “We’ll stop in an hour’s time, then you can change.” So I went with my friend in the next truck. After an hour we stopped in a beautiful wood. We were given chocolate & sandwiches & drinks & so by the drivers who had it all ready for us. Beautiful flowers & beginning of the pale green that comes out in the spring. So wonderful to sit there in freedom. Suddenly there were shots. The drivers said, “Leave everything, come quickly back in the truck." So we went in & I wanted to sit next to the driver. But my friend fought with me again, so I had to let her sit, because my friend Dit pulled me back to the other truck. Lo & behold, the truck I should have sat in, was shot. The woman & the driver were shot—by the Allies. They thought they were German. And I was saved again. 953: Slave Labour In Ravensbrück Selma van de Perre Edited from Selma van de Perre's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, August 2020 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts

See Locations Poland Memories 935: Starting To Speak Mala Tribich MBE Talking about my experiences was a very gradual process. Before no one was talking & no one asked... Read Full Memory 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 949: Liberation of Bergen-Belsen Susan Pollack OBE We were not human beings anymore. We were reduced to being animals - maybe more. That’s how it was. We were just – no feelings... Read Full Memory 950: Liberation of Majdanek Rose Lebor At liberation I was four. All the executions, the beatings that they had to watch. My mother could never bring herself to tell me... Read Full Memory 951: Passover in Lviv Lili Pohlmann MBE My mother and us two children went every Passover to Lviv to my grandparents, her parents, which was lovely... Read Full Memory 954: Arriving In Auschwitz Judith Steinberg We were put in a big school hall, we were all sitting on the floor with a rucksack. They said we are going to go to work... 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 983: The Struggle To Stay Alive Helen Aronson BEM We were taken to a disused prison. People were crying & hungry, not knowing anything. In the morning, Chaim Rumkowski came... Read Full Memory 986: The End of Łódź Ghetto Helen Aronson BEM In 1944, the ghetto was closed, everybody sent to camps. But the Germans decided: there's still some money to be made... Read Full Memory 988: Getting Up From The Dust Ivor Perl BEM I was only 12 when I was taken to Auschwitz. I feel very, very hurt that I haven’t got many memories of my family... Read Full Memory 1000: Idzia Mala Tribich MBE Rumours started circulating that there's going to be a deportation. So people were in panic, trying to find ways of saving themselves... Read Full Memory Auschwitz Częstochowa Krakow Lviv Majdanek Marysin Piotrków Trybunalski Łódź Locations Previous Country Next Country

1000 Memories is an independent Holocaust testimony archive preserving short edited moments once created for social media from the AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive. It is not affiliated with the 1000Memories startup (2010–2013) or Ancestry. 1000: Idzia Mala Tribich MBE Rumours started circulating that there's going to be a deportation. So people were in panic, trying to find ways of saving themselves... 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 957: How To Hide In Vienna Father Francis Wahle Letter-writing was timetabled: once a week. But from 1942 onwards there were no letters in reply because my parents went underground... Read Full Memory 926: Dressing Up As A Gestapo Officer Betty Bloom The Gestapo were coming to arrest a Jewish baby in an orphanage. So my sister dressed up as a German officer and demanded this child... Read Full Memory 1000 Memories: Short Edited Holocaust Testimony 1000 Memories is an online archive of over 1,000 short testimony extracts from Holocaust survivors and refugees who experienced Nazi persecution as Jews and later found refuge in Britain, before, during, or after the Second World War. Here, in their own words, ordinary people recall the violence, oppression and prejudice they once experienced – as well as the moments of kindness, luck, bravery and heroism. They also describe what if felt like to start again in a new country. The memories were originally edited from transcripts of interviews conducted by the Refugee Voices Archive of the Association of Jewish Refugees. The Refugee Voices interviews are filmed conversations between Holocaust survivors, oral historians and trained interviewers. Click each memory square to read the full long extract. Read More See All Memories 924: The Babies Not Sent To Auschwitz Jacques Weisser BEM I have absolutely no memory of any kind whatsoever about the war other than what I have been told... Read Full Memory Memory Map Great Bravery: Click on each memory square to read some of the bravest actions remembered in the archive: 926: Dressing Up As A Gestapo Officer Betty Bloom The Gestapo were coming to arrest a Jewish baby in an orphanage. So my sister dressed up as a German officer and demanded this child... Read Full Memory 929: Fending For Myself Aged 9 Stephen Nagy I contracted scarlet fever. You had to go to an isolation hospital for six weeks. The fascist Hungarians took over. So, I was stuck in hospital... Read Full Memory 930: Reunion After 22 Years In Siberia Dorothy Bohm My sister was one when I left. 22 years later I saw her again. We had no language in common. No memories in common, no childhood. Nothing... Read Full Memory 932: A Cigarette For An Iron Cross Harry Weinberger A very young lieutenant in charge of us told me that the British Army will fight to the last alien, to the last foreign soldier... Read Full Memory 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 936: Why It's Necessary To Talk & Write Selma van de Perre I didn’t speak at all the first 30 years! To anyone or anything or myself. It was in 1975 with the opening of the Ravensbrück Memorial... Read Full Memory 943: The Legless Side Of The Bed Laszlo Roman I was always told I mustn’t pee by the side of the road because someone might see that I am circumcised... Read Full Memory 945: Dad's Blood-Drenched Shirt Bea Green MBE I believe trying to protect your children by not telling them everything is a terrible thing. Because it makes them imagine things worse than reality... Read Full Memory 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 957: How To Hide In Vienna Father Francis Wahle Letter-writing was timetabled: once a week. But from 1942 onwards there were no letters in reply because my parents went underground... Read Full Memory 961: Having My Revenge Willy Field I was a refugee from Nazi oppression. I wanted to have my revenge & I had my revenge. That was a wonderful feeling... Read Full Memory 996: How To Hide In Berlin Hans Danziger My father had nerves of steel. Before the war, Jews were obliged to put ‘Israel’ in front of their names. My father refused... Read Full Memory Agricultural Labour Algerian Internment Anschluss Arrested Arrow Cross Asked To Leave School Attempted Humiliation Auschwitz Australian Internment Bergen-Belsen Betrayed Boarder British Army British Citizen British Internment Buchenwald Business Seized Canadian Internment Close Family Murdered Concentration Camp Converted To Christianity Dachau Deported Destruction Of Property Dismissed From Job Domestic Service Emigration To Shanghai Emigration to Czechoslovakia Encounter With Hitler Encounter With Nazi Officials False Identity Finding Out Food Forced Labour Forced Soviet Emigration Foster Family Ghetto Incarceration Guben HMT Dunera Helped By Non-Jews Hidden Child Hiding In Plain Sight Hiding Valuables Hitler Youth Homesick Hostel In Hiding Isle Of Man Internment All Experiences See More People Albert Lester Bea Green MBE Benno Stern Betty Bloom Bridget Newman Bronia Snow Charles Danson Dorothy Bohm Dr Charlotte Feldman Erna Klein Eva Evans MBE Eva Mendelsson Father Francis Wahle Frank Bright Fred Barschak George Donath Gerta Regensburger Gerti Baruch Hanna Hemingway Hannah Wurzburger Hans Danziger Harry Bibring BEM Harry Weinberger Helen Aronson BEM Hella Pick CBE Henry Wuga MBE Ida Skubiejska Ivor Perl BEM Izak Wiesenfeld Jack Cynamon Jacques Weisser BEM John Dobai John Goldsmith John Hajdu MBE Judith Steinberg Kurt Wick Laszlo Roman Lia Lesser Lili Pohlmann MBE Lilly Lampert Mala Tribich MBE Margot Harris Maria Ault Marianne Summerfield BEM Miriam Freedman Mirjam Finkelstein Rivka Reich Rose Lebor Rudolph Sabor Ruth Barnett MBE Ruth Edwards Ruth Jackson Ruth Rogoff Selma van de Perre Simon Jochnowitz Stella Shinder Stephen Nagy Susan Pollack OBE Tom Heinemann Trude Silman MBE Ursula Gilbert Walter Kammerling Willy Field 924: The Babies Not Sent To Auschwitz 925: Finding Something Good In Everything 926: Dressing Up As A Gestapo Officer 927: The Wonderful Thing 928: Goodness Kindness & Helpfulness 929: Fending For Myself Aged 9 930: Reunion After 22 Years In Siberia 931: Let Down Too Many Times 932: A Cigarette For An Iron Cross 933: Interned In Algeria 934: The Safest Place For Jews On Earth 935: Starting To Speak 936: Why It's Necessary To Talk & Write 937: Eichmann Asking For Chopped Liver 938: Some Kind Of Darkness 939: How To Bake A Stuffed Pike 940: Bringing The Alarm Clock 941: Sharing The Sandwiches 942: Father's New Woman 943: The Legless Side Of The Bed 944: Cat Piddle In My Beer 945: Dad's Blood-Drenched Shirt 946: Being Stateless Is An Advantage 947: The End Of The Gallery 948: Not Remembering My Emotions 949: Liberation of Bergen-Belsen 950: Liberation of Majdanek 951: Passover in Lviv 952: Interned On My 16th Birthday 953: Slave Labour In Ravensbrück 954: Arriving In Auschwitz 955: 28 People Hiding In The Loft 956: Getting To Grips With It 957: How To Hide In Vienna 958: Discovering I Was Jewish 959: The Invasion Of Hungary 960: The Awful Heydrich Reprisals 961: Having My Revenge 962: Speaking German With An English Accent 963: Experiencing Antisemitism 964: The Next Thing Is We Were Gone 965: Wounded Animals On The Farm 966: I Thought You Were A Nazi 967: Fitting In 968: How To Talk Without Crying 969: No One In My Situation 970: Mother's Death At Our Liberation 971: Equalising What Happened 972: Discovering My Brother Was Alive 973: The Puzzle & The Blanks 974: How To Recover 975: Life In A Siberian Labour Camp 976: Coming To England Alone Aged 5 977: The Cruel Guardian 978: Hitler On The Loudspeakers 979: Sitting Through That 980: Getting Streetwise 981: 4th of the 4th, 1944 982: Not Dwelling On Things 983: The Struggle To Stay Alive 984: The Attack On Our School 985: Black Heart Outside The Flat 986: The End of Łódź Ghetto 987: Father's Deportation 988: Getting Up From The Dust 989: Buying Sauerkraut & Soap 990: The Shock 991: My Ransacked School 992: Chickenpox 993: Jews Not Welcome 994: Grass Snakes At The Beacon 995: Father's Shop 996: How To Hide In Berlin 997: My Mother & Father 998: Red Oaks Boarding School 999: The Caretaker & His Daughter 1000: Idzia Memories Algeria Australia Austria Belgium Canada China Czechoslovakia England France Germany Greece Hungary Isle of Man Italy Lithuania Netherlands Northern Ireland Palestine Poland Scotland Soviet Union Spain Sweden Switzerland USA Yugoslavia Countries 1000 Memories: Background Each memory on this site was originally created as a post for the AJR Refugee Voices social media accounts on Instagram , Facebook and X (Twitter) from 2019-2024. The social media project has ended and this site is its archive. The posts are preserved and stored here independently, as embedded links and full texts. They are arranged by person , experience , place and post order . They are searchable . This site is a work in progress, and the memories are being put up one-by-one in reverse order. Subscribe to keep updated. Read More

931: Let Down Too Many Times Ruth Barnett, 3rd foster home, East Harting Farm, West Sussex, 1949: Ruth Barnett 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 Ruth Barnett MBE's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, November 2016 • Learn More → Ruth Barnett MBE Betrayed Foster Family Kindertransport Reunited Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts England See Locations Full Text Ruth Barnett, 3rd foster home, East Harting Farm, West Sussex, 1949: I was 14 & still there & planned to leave school—you could leave at 14—& stay on the farm & raise animals & be a farmer. I'd have been so happy doing that. Then my mother appeared out of nowhere. Which was how I experienced it: the grown-ups made arrangements & then I was told. I think the Hoskings wanted to keep me. I think they had plans to adopt me & they took the view that four years after the war how could my parents want me if they'd left it four years. They didn't understand that Europe was absolute chaos. I mean, England was pretty chaotic, because it was so badly bombed, but all the structures were still in place in England. It was not the sort of chaos in Europe where waves of displaced people were on the move. It was a long time before I understood the chaos preventing my parents making contact earlier. But another 4 years in England postwar made it impossible for me. At 10 I'd probably have settled down after a while. But at 14 there was absolutely no way I could go back to Germany. Ruth & her brother Martin had last seen their parents in 1939 before their Kindertransport. Martin & I had to meet her at the station. I remember not knowing what to do & Martin telling me she was our mother & we should be happy to see her. Then he couldn't face her either. He looked away & was ill at ease once she arrived off the train. It was an impossible situation. She didn't speak any English & I didn't know any German. Very, very painful for everyone. Furious arguments with Mrs. Hosking. And my mother went back to Germany without me. Which must have been terrible for her, particularly as she didn’t know any English. As soon as she got back to Germany, my father served a court order on my foster parents. And my foster mother, who'd said I was one of the family, had to take me to Germany & leave me there. The final betrayal. The one person I thought was really there for me had to leave me. In my head I knew that she had to. At 14 I knew what a court order was. But in my guts, it was the final betrayal. I decided trying to be good & please people had never worked. I turned very nasty. I gave my parents a hell of a time, which I'm not proud of. They tried to make me go to school. They fixed up art lessons for me. They fixed up a horse for me to ride. I mean, they did everything they possibly could, but it had no chance of working. My mother never talked about her war experience. I think she was the most severely traumatised of the four of us. I never, ever saw my parents completely relaxed & happy after the war, together. They weren't capable of it. They'd experienced just so much tension & fear. There’s an alertness when you’re in danger. I don’t think that alertness ever left them. I was being such a nasty beast. I refused to do anything I was asked to. If they mentioned the word ‘school’ I was out the door & didn't come back till the early hours of the morning. My parents realised that it was impossible & a big mistake very quickly. They said I could go back to England if I promised to stay at school & come for holidays. I was desperate to get back to England so of course I promised. But it took a year to get the necessary documents. I went back to the family & my school. But I felt betrayed that they'd taken me to Germany. I couldn't trust anyone. But I could trust the animals. I got the emotional support & the comforting from animals that I couldn't accept from people. They’d let me down too many times. 931: Let Down Too Many Times Ruth Barnett MBE Edited from Ruth Barnett MBE's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, November 2016 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts

See Locations Greece Memories 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 Thessaloniki Locations Previous Country Next Country

Germany Bergen-Belsen Memories 928: Goodness Kindness & Helpfulness Susan Pollack OBE 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... 949: Liberation of Bergen-Belsen Susan Pollack OBE We were not human beings anymore. We were reduced to being animals - maybe more. That’s how it was. We were just – no feelings... 970: Mother's Death At Our Liberation Mirjam Finkelstein By January 1945 there were rumours. People got quite excited. There was a wooden table, we had to walk past the camp doctor... Previous Location Next Location

England Barrow-in-Furness Memories 938: Some Kind Of Darkness Eva Evans MBE I wanted to be a writer. But I never felt that I could write in English the way I could have done in German. So that was the end of that... Previous Location Next Location

Marianne Summerfield BEM, Breslau, Nov 9, 1938: My father was asked to report to Nazi headquarters. Stupidly, although my mother told him not to, he just walked into it. My mother lost her milk immediately. She was feeding me & immediately lost her milk. The shock. He was sent to Buchenwald. My mother got very bad asthma. She's convinced it happened because of the upset with Kristallnacht & everything that was going on. My father had terrible nightmares for years & years afterwards. But when my daughter was born on the 9th of November, the nightmares stopped. Never had them again. It was as though it wiped the slate clean. My mother became very anxious after that. Always- ‘die Wände haben Ohren’ [the walls have ears]: you mustn't say anything as somebody might be listening. That carried on with her. My father had to write a letter to say that he was treated all right in concentration camp. Because Hitler didn't want the world to know what was going on. But my father signed the letter to my mother, 'Asor'. Your son, Asor, which is quite significant. Asor means not true. It’s Yiddish [אסור 'forbidden']. But my mother understood it immediately. That was a code word. Very difficult, it was very difficult. My mother wasn't very domesticated. My parents had a pet, a cat, & they had to get rid of the cat. Jews were not allowed to have pets. It had to be put down. But my mother was very brave. She dressed up & went to the Gestapo headquarters & flirted, & she was lucky. She was allowed in, because she was blonde & blue eyed, so they didn't think that she was Jewish. That saved her life, my life, my father's life. The Nazi official was very rude & shouted & said, ‘I'm not interested in you & your problems.’ My mother said, ‘Well, I'll wait until you've finished.’ And when he had finished, it took 5 hours, he changed & said, ‘I'll help you now.’ He helped find some missing papers. So, my father then came out of concentration camp. And they gave him the fare money to go home, because he had no money anymore. Probably 8 weeks after he was arrested. Didn't speak about it. His skin was always unsteady, always has skin cancer, my father. He had huge boils when he came out of concentration camp. I'm convinced that the skin was unsteady because of his treatment. He never went into the sun; we didn't understand skin cancer. But it had a very marked effect upon my father, he lost his ambition. He became happy with very little. As long as he had his little house, his wife & child, that's all he really wanted. He had to leave within five days, because his visa would expire. So he left for England to start the new life & my mother & I came soon afterwards. My mother hardly recognised him when he came out. He was so emaciated, in a terrible state. My mother heard Hitler speak once, early on. She went to a rally & heard him speak, because she looked so Aryan. And I never understood again, why they didn't get out earlier. Because that time it wasn't as difficult to get out. I've always asked people, ‘What year did you get out? Why did you leave earlier?’ But they had – my mother had the responsibility to get – you know, she didn't want to leave her mother or mother-in-law. 990: The Shock Marianne Summerfield BEM 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 990: The Shock ← Previous Memory All Memories Next Memory → Marianne Summerfield BEM Read Full Text Previous Memory Home Memories People Places Experiences About Contact Menu Close Next Memory ← Previous Memory Credits & tags Adapted from Marianne Summerfield BEM's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, November 2023 • Learn More → Marianne Summerfield BEM Buchenwald Encounter With Nazi Officials No Longer Allowed Pets November Pogrom / Kristallnacht Pre-war Camp Read AJR biography Next Memory → See Instagram & Facebook posts Germany See Locations Full Text Marianne Summerfield BEM, Breslau, Nov 9, 1938: My father was asked to report to Nazi headquarters. Stupidly, although my mother told him not to, he just walked into it. My mother lost her milk immediately. She was feeding me & immediately lost her milk. The shock. He was sent to Buchenwald. My mother got very bad asthma. She's convinced it happened because of the upset with Kristallnacht & everything that was going on. My father had terrible nightmares for years & years afterwards. But when my daughter was born on the 9th of November, the nightmares stopped. Never had them again. It was as though it wiped the slate clean. My mother became very anxious after that. Always- ‘die Wände haben Ohren’ [the walls have ears]: you mustn't say anything as somebody might be listening. That carried on with her. My father had to write a letter to say that he was treated all right in concentration camp. Because Hitler didn't want the world to know what was going on. But my father signed the letter to my mother, 'Asor'. Your son, Asor, which is quite significant. Asor means not true. It’s Yiddish [אסור 'forbidden']. But my mother understood it immediately. That was a code word. Very difficult, it was very difficult. My mother wasn't very domesticated. My parents had a pet, a cat, & they had to get rid of the cat. Jews were not allowed to have pets. It had to be put down. But my mother was very brave. She dressed up & went to the Gestapo headquarters & flirted, & she was lucky. She was allowed in, because she was blonde & blue eyed, so they didn't think that she was Jewish. That saved her life, my life, my father's life. The Nazi official was very rude & shouted & said, ‘I'm not interested in you & your problems.’ My mother said, ‘Well, I'll wait until you've finished.’ And when he had finished, it took 5 hours, he changed & said, ‘I'll help you now.’ He helped find some missing papers. So, my father then came out of concentration camp. And they gave him the fare money to go home, because he had no money anymore. Probably 8 weeks after he was arrested. Didn't speak about it. His skin was always unsteady, always has skin cancer, my father. He had huge boils when he came out of concentration camp. I'm convinced that the skin was unsteady because of his treatment. He never went into the sun; we didn't understand skin cancer. But it had a very marked effect upon my father, he lost his ambition. He became happy with very little. As long as he had his little house, his wife & child, that's all he really wanted. He had to leave within five days, because his visa would expire. So he left for England to start the new life & my mother & I came soon afterwards. My mother hardly recognised him when he came out. He was so emaciated, in a terrible state. My mother heard Hitler speak once, early on. She went to a rally & heard him speak, because she looked so Aryan. And I never understood again, why they didn't get out earlier. Because that time it wasn't as difficult to get out. I've always asked people, ‘What year did you get out? Why did you leave earlier?’ But they had – my mother had the responsibility to get – you know, she didn't want to leave her mother or mother-in-law. 990: The Shock Marianne Summerfield BEM Adapted from Marianne Summerfield BEM's interview with Dr Bea Lewkowicz for AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, November 2023 • Learn More → Text adapted and edited by Susanna Kleeman Facebook & Instagram Posts