Testimonials

Ike, born in Hamburg, came from a very religious family. He remembered little of his journey to Britain on the Kindertransport. Once in the UK he quickly integrated. He describes his experiences in the Queen’s Scouts and in National Service. Ike became an academic specialising in bacterial and viral genetics. He fulfilled a life’s ambition … Read more

Henry grew up in Nuremberg and trained as a chef. He came to Scotland on the Kindertransport but due to a misunderstanding he was interned as a possible spy on the Isle of Man at age 16. He became the leading chef in the Glasgow Jewish community and received the MBE for work with disabled … Read more

Halina was born into a politically active family in Warsaw in 1929. Her father was a Bundist and imprisoned by the Tsar along with Trotsky’s wife. Her family escaped to Russia and ended up in Siberia in extreme conditions. After the war she came to Glasgow and trained as a science teacher but changed to … Read more

Gretl was born in Vienna and had a happy childhood until the Nazis came. She was sponsored by the Quakers to come on the Kindertransport to England, where her sister was working as a domestic. She originally stayed in Coventry but was evacuated several times because of the Blitz. She became an entomologist and moved … Read more

Gerda was born in Beuthen, Upper Silesia, Germany, in 1919. In January 1939, she was forced to flee the Country arriving in the UK. Her parents were not so fortunate, They were transported to Auschwitz whence they perished. Gerda was subsequently dispersed, by the Jewish Committee, to Glasgow where she stayed the remainder of her … Read more

George was born in East Prussia. His mother came to Glasgow first and then he joined her on the Kindertransport. He travelled from London on his own but his mother went to the wrong station in Glasgow and he had to be rescued by a Yiddish speaking taxi driver. He was very sporty and gave … Read more

Frieda’s father was a baker and she lived on a farm. Aged 18, she came to the UK as a domestic but lost all her family. She had a difficult marriage and had to raise 5 children on her own. She worked as a pedlar round Glasgow. Read More

FRIEDRICH (Fridyes in Hungarian) LOTHAR WEISS, better known as Fred Weiss, was born in Miskolc in Hungary on May 23rd 1921. He lived most of his adult life in Glasgow, Scotland and epitomised the ideal of how a poor young refugee could make good by hard work and strong will. Read More

Evelyn was born in Leipzig in 1933. Evelyn and her mother were deported to Poland in 1938 but managed to escape to Britain as her father had set up a factory. Her Polish grandparents did not survive.  The other grandparents lived in Berlin throughout the war.  Her father set up a furrier’s business in Glasgow. … Read more