Renate talks about her love of Scottish scenery. She then tells the interviewers about her children and grandchildren. INT: I know that your life took on many twists and turns after that but we have to come to a close and ask you a couple more questions. If you look back now on your time in… Continue Reading Renate Mackay – Reflection On Life
Renate talks about her career in nursing. She describes the coincidences that led to her meeting her first husband, Fred Goldschmidt. INT: And at the end of school you decided to become a nurse, am I right in saying? RM: Yes, well, my older brother, who had gone to University at a time when a lot of… Continue Reading Renate Mackay – Integration
Renate describes her experiences as a schoolgirl in St Andrews’s. INT: Now let’s just take you to St Andrews, Renate. They must have been very pleased to have your uncle because he’d come from such a prestigious position as Director of the Einstein Tower in Potsdam. Tell us about what happened when you got there. RM: Well,… Continue Reading Renate Mackay – Settling In
Renate explains that her father was in St Andrews in Scotland being interviewed for a job on the day the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia. Renate then talks about Lawrie Wardale, the man she calls her “Scarlet Pimpernel,” who brought her and her family to safety in St Andrews in Scotland. INT: So, eventually you had to leave,… Continue Reading Renate Mackay – Immigration
Renate describes her family background. She talks about her mother’s premature death, her father’s arrest and the reason she was adopted by her mother’s sister and her husband. Her new ‘father’ was the eminent astronomer, Erwin Finlay Freundlich, and she soon found herself joining him and her aunt, first in Turkey and then Prague. INT: Today… Continue Reading Renate Mackay – Life Before The War