INT: And how did you come? Was it a train and boat or…? LM: Well yes it was a very strange arrangement. I’d never been out of the street you might say and suddenly we’re told, I remember this my mother said “C’mon, we’re going” and I had a wee parcel or something and my … Read more
INT: Today is the 26th of July 2013 and we’re here to interview Leo Metzstein. Leo, can I begin by asking you when you were born? Where were you born? And were you always called Leo Metzstein? LM: Yes I was born on the 27th of July 1932 in Berlin and I was always named … Read more
KH: Hungary is a horribly anti-Semitic country, always has been, still is today. INT: Yeah. KH: And today it’s getting worse and worse. INT: And your second cousin carried on living in Hungary? KH: Oh yes, I have four second cousins in Hungary. INT: Oh right. KH: My granny’s sister had two daughters as well. INT: Yeah. KH: And one of them had a … Read more
Kathy and her granny were allowed to leave Hungary and decided to emigrate to Israel. Kathy wanted to remain in Hungary to finish her education but that was not possible. In the beginning, aged 16 she worked in a factory, which she hated. She moved to live on a Kibbutz, which she loved from the … Read more
KH: I grew up in Budapest with my granny and my aunt. At the age of sixteen my granny, my aunt and I were allowed to leave the country and go to Israel where I lived until I came to Scotland when I was…I think thirty-five when I arrived in Scotland. INT: So tell me a … Read more
Kathy was one of the very few to have survived the Munkacs Ghetto as tragically, all the inhabitants, including her mother and baby sister were sent to Auschwitz. She talks more about her mother in the section under Reflection. KH: I was born towards the end of 1942 in what turned out to be several countries. … Read more
Kathy was born in 1942, her father was taken away by the Nazis when she was just one year old. Initially, she was sent to the Munkacs Ghetto with her mother and baby sister. Kathy explains that even as a child she knew it was not a good idea to let people know she was … Read more
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 … Read more
INT: And then after the war, what happened after the war? Did you go on to university, did you get a job? PR: You had to do war work during the war. KR: Yes, I did some war work, now what was it, yes, because of my ability to speak German, the Ministry of Economic … Read more
INT: So when you were evacuated, did you all stay in a big school together or did you stay with people? KR: No, we were, my whole class were loaded into a lorry and … PR: You went by train and then lorry. KR: Pardon? PR: You went by train and then from the station, … Read more