ERNA
I loved that, I loved mixing with all the girls, and we went dancing to the Plaza on a Tuesday.
INTERVIEWER
And how did you meet your husband?
ERNA
There was a place called the ‘Jewish Institute’ in the Gorbals and everybody went on a Sunday, and he had just come out the Air Force. They were doing two years then. I met him then. His parents didn’t like me by the way. I wasn’t good enough. I was a German refugee.
INTERVIEWER
I think, sadly, that kind of thing happened in some families.
ERNA
It happened a lot, unfortunately, but most of the people in Glasgow are very kind and nice.
INTERVIEWER
And so, you met your husband? And you had children? I’m saying that because one of them is sitting behind you.
ERNA
Yes. My daughter. I only have one daughter. My husband wanted five daughters. I don’t know why but unfortunately, but fortunately, he saw my daughter grow up.
INTERVIEWER
I think five daughters would be a bit of a handful actually.
ERNA
But I had four children.
INTERVIEWER
So, I would imagine it would be a very busy household
ERNA
Yes, yes. They bring each other you know; they bring each other up, almost….
INTERVIEWER
And so, what did your husband do?
ERNA
He had a… what do you call it Suzanne?
INTERVIEWER
Electrical business. Suzanne added that her father was a wholesaler of electrical goods. The business was started by his father.
ERNA
I did not work in it.
INTERVIEWER
I think if you have four children, probably you’d have been very busy anyway. Did you not spend a lot of time emptying the washing machine?
ERNA
Yeah, I did have a washing machine. One of the uncle’s gave it for my wedding present. Really lucky in these days to have a machine like that.
INTERVIEWER
But you still would have to load it. And I remember that my mother, every time she did it her hair went all limp with the steam, coming up. But actually, I think the spinner was better in the old machines. And so, whereabouts did you live then?
ERNA
So, we did move to a place called Bannarbay Road in the West End. Suzanne added that Erna went with Nurse Livingstone and her family.
INTERVIEWER
Before you married?
ERNA
Yes, that was before I married.
INTERVIEWER
And so, you mixed obviously with a lot of people in the Jewish community in Glasgow.
ERNA
Yes. Yes. Yes, I was at Shul, not all the time, but I did go quite often.
INTERVIEWER
So which Shul did you belong to?
ERNA
Well, I started off Rabbi Rubinstein used to come and stay with us for the weekend. So he stayed with us for the weekend so we were at Netherlee and Clarkston Shul. Somehow, we got to Giffnock Shul. I don’t quite remember so much, then we joined Giffnock Shul later on, when I got married anyway.
INTERVIEWER
Do you remember where you got married?
ERNA
In the house. Rabbi Rubinstein married us in the house. I don’t know why that was. In Nurse Livingstone’s house, I think.
Interviewer. Oh how lovely, I think that was more of the custom then.
ERNA Oh wait a minute was she alive? I think she was already dead when we got married.
INTERVIEWER
So, when you said her sons went to America, did they stay in America or did they come back.
ERNA
Yes, they came back. They came back and they were both in the Forces. One was a sergeant, a gunner, and the other one was a paratrooper. The only one time I remember, he never told us, what he did in the airforce. But he came back one day, and he was smiling and laughing, and we asked him what it was all about, and he had, they had, bombed Dortmund where I came from to pieces, he just thought it was very funny.
INTERVIEWER
So, your sister did she get married as well.
ERNA
She got married in London. She met a London boy. She left when she was 18 she left. She didn’t get on so well with the lady that brought her up, and she left and went to London and met this Jewish fellow in London. She got married there and then came up to Glasgow and got married again. It was just a registry wedding, and then they came up made a wedding up here.
INTERVIEWER
Which is nice actually, because you would have been able to be at it.
ERNA
Yes. He was a very nice fellow whom she married. They didn’t always get on so well. He came from a very rich family. But the thing was he didn’t want to take anything from his family, so they made their own way. She stayed in London and then she became a lawyer. Afterwards she went to South Africa, the whole family…. She and her husband went,… they wanted him to take over. He was an accountant …they had a few shops there. Strange thing it was the same shops as my husband had Here. They stayed there a long time. He was actually, um he was murdered, you might say. He came out of his office one night. There was 4 of them I think and there was three black men and one white man and one of them killed him.. Suzanne added that her aunt eventually came back to the UK and settled in London.
INTERVIEWER
And so, she came back after that?
ERNA
No, she stayed there it was beautiful. She stayed there a beautiful country and her family were very good to me too, and they invited me to all the weddings in South Africa. Unfortunately, she died very recently from Alzheimer’s. Six years younger I was shocked I didn’t think she’d go first. Her daughter now lives in Cyprus. I phone her and she phones me; she also has a son who is still in South Africa.
INTERVIEWER
So, when you look back at your life, what do you what do you say is the highlights, would you say for you?