Sonja was born in Berlin, where her mother ran a dry cleaning business. Unlike Jewish professionals who lost their jobs in Nazi Germany, her mother was able to work and helped support those who were no longer earning. Her Polish father left for Thailand ending up in Shanghai. Sonja and her mother escaped Germany at… Continue Reading Sonja Hancox
Sidney was born in Landau, Germany. His father owned vineyards. On Kristallnacht his father was arrested and sent to Dachau and the family was forced to move to Mannheim. Sidney was sent to Britain on the Kindertransport but his parents were murdered in Auschwitz. He arrived in Dovercourt where a Glasgow family offered him a… Continue Reading Sidney Mayer
Saskia was born in 1954 in a Displaced Persons camp outside Nuremberg. Her mother, Brigitte, suffered greatly under the Nazis as a Mischling (mixed ancestry), then under the Czechs as a Sudeten German, and finally as a refugee in a DP camp. Despite everything, Saskia and her mother made a life for themselves in Britain… Continue Reading Saskia Tepe
Ruths’ journey took her from Germany to Switzerland, London, Scotland and finally back to Germany. After coming to Glasgow to do war work she married another German refugee in 1945. In 1958 Ruth, her husband and her daughter moved to Hamburg, Germany, where her husband joined his brother who owned a chocolate factory.
Rosa was born in Berlin. She describes the devastating effects of the racial Nuremberg laws on the Jews. She came alone on the first Kindertransport. Amazingly, her mother and sister survived and joined her in Glasgow. She became an eminent paediatric nurse, wrote a widely used textbook, and was happily married to Joe for over… Continue Reading Rosa Sacharin
Rita came from Hannover, Germany and was only nine when she and her mother were arrested by the Nazis. Thanks to an aunt, she was released and came to Britain on the Kindertransport. She believed her mother would arrive soon, and did not know the truth of what had happened to her until years later.… Continue Reading Rita McNeill
Renate was born in Cologne in 1931. 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. Initially she moved with them to Turkey and then Prague. Then she came to Scotland… Continue Reading Renate Mackay
Pat (Beate) was born in 1916 in Kriegshaber, Bavaria, Germany and lived a normal village life with loving parents who were cattle dealers. After Kristallnacht, her parents sent her to Bradford in Yorkshire where she worked as a children’s nanny. After being interned on the Isle of Man, Pat worked in a clothing factory before… Continue Reading Pat Anson
Moniek was born in Wolozin, which was mostly Jewish. By the end of the war, 95% had been killed, including his father. At age 15, Moniek defaced a poster of Stalin and was sent to a concentration camp in Siberia, which saved his life. He then joined the Polish army and travelled widely before settling… Continue Reading Moniek Garber
Martin was born in 1909 in Leutershausen, Bavaria, Germany. The town became very anti-Jewish in the early 1920s. He describes his activities in the anti-Nazi movement Reichsbanner and their fight to keep Germany democratic. In great detail Martin describes the Stormtroopers assaulting the family on Kristallnacht and his imprisonment in Dachau, before managing to emigrate… Continue Reading Martin Anson
