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Gathering The Voices Scotland

Gathering The Voices Scotland

Testimonies of Holocaust survivors who settled in Scotland

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Ruth Fraser – Life During The War

INT: So when did you leave Germany? Tell us about that.

R.F: I left Germany end of 1938 together with a very good friend.

INT: And he had connections in Switzerland, that’s why you went there. Is that right?

R.F: Yes, connections.

INT: Family?

INT: What age were you then?

R.F: Twenty-three.

INT: And how did you leave? Did you walk? Or did you get a train?

R.F: No we left by train…Took the plane such a story

INT: Alright. But you flew first of all to Stuttgart and then?

R.F: The rest of the journey to Zurich by train. In Switzerland we were also by the Jewish community Supported how do you say?

INT: They helped you there, the Jewish community.

R.F: They helped yes.

INT: In Zurich.

R.F: In Zurich. But in Switzerland How do you say it, the … To try to leave the country.

INT: The Swiss government didn’t want. [the] Jews to stay.

R.F: Yes because they had too many immigrants in a small country. They also wanted to leave you, you should leave the country again. This was only for a short stay in Switzerland and they wanted you to leave the country. So I had a brother in London and there

R.F: The permission or a, a … visa to Great Britain or London.

INT: So you stayed with your brother all the time?

R.F: No I had a job with a family to work as a domestic help. ….?…. De Misses Debousire?

INT: What happened to the rest of the family?

R.F: The rest of the family. Well the parents went to Poland, my elder brother to London and the other brother to, at the time called, Palestine.

INT: And you never saw your parents again?

R.F: No. Not when the war stopped no.

INT: Right. So they presumably perished in Auschwitz?

R.F: Yes that is what we think. This was 1944. Shortly before the war ended.

R.F: I stayed with my brother and family.

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Links to Other Testimonies by Ruth Fraser

Life Before The War
Life During The War
Immigration
Settling In
Reflection On Life

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The Gathering the Voices Association is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Registered Scottish Charity Number: SC047809

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