INTERVIEWER
So, you came up to Glasgow, and so where did you live in Glasgow?
ERNA
That’s when they took me straight to Nurse Livingstone then.
INTERVIEWER
And where about did Nurse Livingston stay.
ERNA
She stayed in Stamperland, Stamperland Hill, and she had bought this house. There wasn’t much room. I slept in the same bedroom as her sons we slept in bunks. I slept in the bottom, and they slept in the top, there was two of them, I don’t know how these boys, they were slim at the time. And that’s it, then they went away to America, the children from Britain were going to America. I don’t remember at the time, but the boats were being torpedoed and Nurse Livingstone asked me if I wanted to go. But I said no, I didn’t want to go. So, she kept me, and the boys went.
INTERVIEWER
So, you would have gone to the local primary school?
ERNA
Yes. And then there was two girls I met there, one was called Myra Gaskovtich and one was called Myra Shulman. They have gone now, one went to South Africa, One went to Canada. I know they both died unfortunately, and they used to take me down the road to the school. But I was in a class with children of five because I couldn’t speak the language. And it was the headmistress actually, it was Netherlee School, it was the headmistress that taught us. I just tried to make out the best I could, you see. There was a German teacher there. She was German, she married a British guy and when other children left at lunchtime because they were five-year-olds, I went on to a class with this German teacher. She just taught sewing. She taught me English at the same time. So that helped me and then later on Nurse Livingstone sent me to elocution. She wanted me to lose my…my German accent,…which I don’t have as you can hear.
INTERVIEWER
Absolutely.
ERNA
That’s yes, my English got better, I think.
INTERVIEWER
And did you hear from your parents while you were here.
ERNA
Well we did, and Nurse Livingstone tried to get them jobs. She even said she wanted a gardener. I mean these gardens how small they are, and a cook. She did not need a cook; she was a very good cook herself. But she couldn’t get them. She tried different things.
So, I never saw them again. But I saw two of her sisters and her brother.
INTERVIEWER
That’s your mother’s sisters?
Erna
Yes. I’ve only met a sister of my father’s once; she was in Poland. I remember she was a tall redhead and I looked very like her only she was tall, and my father was small as well.
INTERVIEWER
And where did your aunts go? The two aunts that you met.
ERNA
Oh, they were in the Camps. They were in Belsen, and they were in Auschwitz, but they got out. Whereas my mother and my grandmother died there. Whatever happened to them we didn’t exactly know, and we never found out what happened to my father. We never found out where he went. I believe he was taken to the Camps. But we could never find out.
My sister tried and my husband tried as well, but we could never find out what happened to them at all.
So that was that you know, and Nurse Livingston used to say to me put it all to your back don’t forget it, but don’t dwell on it. You’ve got a life now.
INTERVIEWER
And so, did your sister come to Glasgow as well?
ERNA
Yes
INTERVIEWER
Oh that’s nice!
ERNA
Yes. They sent her to a lady called Minnie Shear he was a Fogel. Did you ever hear of Fogels, they had a shop at the Gorbals, and Minnie was the youngest one. She couldn’t have children or something and she took my sister in. I lived in Stamperland Hill, and she lived in Randolph Drive round the corner.
INTERVIEWER
Oh, that was great.
ERNA
We were very lucky we could do that. Nurse Livingstone couldn’t take her she was too young. She was still working; it was very difficult for her husband he also worked. He made the guns that shot the planes down you know. So, I was left on my own overnight very often, as her sons were away.
I remember one night, I locked all the doors, and she came home. We had a phone, and I didn’t hear the phone. They tried on the phone. They tried throwing stones at the window. No, I slept on – they could not get in.
INTERVIEWER
Oh dear, So, what happened? Did they come in?
ERNA
The next day I let them in. There was a big row.
INTERVIEWER
And did your sister also come in the Kindertransport?
ERNA
No, no she came with this woman. She arrived in Glasgow the day before the war was declared. And we don’t know who the woman was. My parents must have sent her with this woman.
INTERVIEWER
Suzanne (Erna’s daughter also attended the interview) thinks she maybe came via France. Suzanne added that she remembered her aunt showing her papers that suggested she came through France. She had the correct paperwork and arrived in September.
INTERVIEWER
And how did you find living in Glasgow?
ERNA
I did not know much better.
INTERVIEWER
Once you had got over the shock of the tea being served incorrectly?
ERNA
Yes. Yes. They were very kind to me. I mean, it was rations and the boys fought over everything. ‘You got more than me but give it to Erna’ I was very lucky, very nice family.
There is nobody left now the only one that’s left is Sylvia. I call her my cousin. She was a cousin of the family.
