INT: Can I ask you when you came here, did people know about your background? Did they know about your German background and your Jewish background and what brought you to Britain in the first place?
KR: Which people?
INT: The people you met here in Dundee, the local people who became your friends and neighbours?
KR: Well, some did I suppose, yes. I mean, I didn’t keep anything… well in any case I wrote my book and it’s all in there, so you know.
INT: I was interested in that, what made you decide to write a book?
KR: Well, I had written all about the 9th November and there’s some, a friend said, well, you know you ought to write a book and Peter sort of thought that I should, I’d got quite a lot of notes anyway, I kept a diary.
INT: We were just wondering Peter, what made you come to Scotland, was it for work?
PR: For a job, yes and that brought us here, yeah.
INT: If you look back now on your time, first in England and for the last 40 years in Scotland, what you say are the high points that stand out for you?
KR: Well, having Petra and our excursions into the Pyrenees and that sort of thing, we did a lot of walking in the hills.
PR: Walking was always our recreations
KR: Exploring and staying in youth hostels, days when we went climbing and all that sort of thing.
PR: Without a tent or without a tent.
INT: That was very brave. Tell me, do you feel yourself still as German or British or Scottish, what do you consider yourself to be now?
KR: British.
INT: And any low points, obviously your experiences in Germany, but anything else that you think stands out in your life?
KR: Well, I was married before and when he died from the flu, that year when everybody seemed to die, that was a low point
KR: Of course, of course, the 9th Nov….the Kristallnacht was the…
INT: And is your background still significant in your life or do you feel you’ve moved it on and moved away from the past?
KR: Oh, I remember everything vividly, but I’m fully kind of integrated and living the life, yes.
PR: She did get back in touch with her parents’ old friends after the war and so she came to have this head, the head of her father, they preserved it.
KR: [ A friend of her father’s] He was a sculptor.
PR: Her grandparents who lived nearby had taken things from the house to old friends before the grandparents themselves were deported and so when we went to Germany after the war she arrived and stayed with Frau Röttger ,the widow of her father’s best friend and who had spent the night with them, who had sat with them the night before deportation. And anyway, that’s how she came by these things and then we went to Germany and ..
KR: And other things like jewellery and…
INT: Oh, that’s right, you said that some had been taken by a friend.
INT: And they’d managed to preserve them and photographs too?
KR: Yes, I’ve got photographs, yes.
PR: But you had to sort of cling to your memories, you know.
INT: I was just going to ask one final question, have you always been involved with Association of Jewish Refugees or how did you get in touch?
PR: Kindertransport reunion.
KR: Oh, yes, that’s right. The Kindertransport reunion, quite a long time ago, yes and that’s how I made contact with them.
INT: Right.
KR: And I’ve been to quite a lot of the reunions and things doing things together kind of thing, but of course living up here now I’m out of touch with…
INT: Well, thank you very much for speaking to us that was a most interesting afternoon.
INT: Thank you.
INT: I would just like to ask a couple more question because Peter said that you went back to Düsseldorf and you went back to visit the primary school?
KR: Yes.
INT: And now you have these beautiful calendars, so why do the children send you calendars every year from your primary school? And you said something about changing the name of the school?
INT: So did you give public readings of your book in Düsseldorf?
KR: Yes, yes.
INT: Oh my goodness, right. And did you read in English or did you read it in German?
PR: In German.
KR: In German, in Düsseldorf.
INT: Because you have a German version of the book as well.
INT: I’m right in saying that it’s been fully translated?
KR: Yes, that was translated by the daughter of my father’s friend, the writer, Röttger.
INT: Oh right. And so what happened when the head teacher heard you at one of the readings?
KR: The head teacher?
INT: So did she invite you back to your old school?
KR: Oh, yes, they made quite a bit of fuss, yes.
INT: That is lovely. And what is the name of the school?
KR: I think it’s just got the name of the place Gerresheimer.
INT: Right, but has the school not changed its name as well?
KR: You mean the Hanna Zürndorfer?
INT: Yes.
KR: Yes.
INT: So that’s your name, did they change the name to remember that you were a pupil there, that’s marvellous.
INT: So that’s absolutely wonderful, so you have a school named after you, how fantastic. And so they send you a calendar every year?
KR: Yes.
INT: How lovely.
KR: And if ever I’m anywhere near I go and visit them, yes.
INT: I don’t think I have ever met anybody who has a school named after them, I think that’s quite fantastic.
KR: It is, yes, well I’m very pleased about that, not because of me, but my father who did, who wrote for the German Düsseldorfer papers and he was quite a well-known figure there at the time. So I’m glad his name is remembered, you know?
INT: Absolutely, absolutely, it’s recognised and it’s also passing your story down through future generations as well.
KR: Yes.
INT: And did you say also that your book is used in schools as well?
KR: Yes,
INT: So I think it’s commendable that you’ve written it and it shows how important it is as well.
KR: Yes.
