Food for Thought is a free engaging and informative talk series on research which is relevant to people’s lives followed by dinner and discussion in community venues in North Glasgow.
I am a semi-retired clinical biochemist who has worked in in hospital laboratories all my career. Gretl Shapiro, my mother, came to the UK as part of the Kindertransport. She was brought up by Quakers in England and came to Scotland after the war. She had a successful career as a ceramicist. She was interviewed … Read more
Gretl hopes and believes that there will be no repetition of experiences like the Holocaust of the 1940s Read the Transcript INT: When you look ahead or you see something now, about any kind of prosecution ehm persecution do you get extremely upset about it? Are you moved to do something about it? G.S: Well … Read more
Gretl says that she feels truly British and has many non-Jewish friends though she is, of course, proud to be Jewish herself Read the Transcript INT: She, as a Quaker, did she ever try and suggest that you should join her in her worship? G.S: Oh, no no no. I mean I used to go … Read more
Gretl talks about life with her new guardian in Coventry and describes her education and the evacuation of her school during the war. Read the Transcript INT: This is the lady that you eventually called your aunt? G.S: Yes, yes. INT: She actually brought you up? G.S: Yes. She did yes. She brought me up, … Read more
This section describes Gretl’s arrival in England through the Kindertransport system and explains how she came to be placed with an English family. Read the Transcript INT: When you arrived do you remember how you felt? Were you frightened or bewildered? G.S: Well, yes. My sister was already here and we arrived at Liverpool Street … Read more
Read the Transcript NT: How did you come here? G.S: I came with a children’s transport which was arranged by the Quakers, the ‘Society of Friends’ INT: And where had you come from? G.S: I had come from Vienna INT: Why had your parents allowed you to come? G.S: Well, they could see no future … Read more