Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport Page #3

for Refugees from Czechoslovakia.

We did have the feeling

that the position was much more urgent...

...than anybody in London thought.

Doreen Warriner said, "I don't know

what we will do about the children. "

Almost spontaneously I said,

"Well, when I get back to England...

"...I find that the Home Office

will allow them in...

"...we'll try and get some of them

into England. "

And when I went to the Home Office,

they said:

"Under certain conditions, you can bring in

as many children as you like. "

We had to produce...

...somebody who'd guarantee 50

against their re-immigration...

...which is about 1,000 today.

It was quite a lot of money.

And then I had to find a family

who'd take each individual child.

It certainly wasn't easy,

but it wasn't that difficult.

It's easier to get somebody

to take a child than to take a grown-up.

I tried to get America involved...

... and wrote to a lot of the senators...

...and got a lot of answers

saying how concerned they were...

...and all the reasons

why they couldn't do anything.

In the United States...

... a congressional bill

to admit 20,000 child refugees...

... died in committee.

One of the arguments against the bill...

... was that accepting children

without their parents...

... was contrary to the laws of God.

My father said:

"Mommy and I cannot leave,

but you're going to leave. "

I said, "What do you mean,

I'm going to leave?"

"You're going to England," he said.

"When?"

"Thursday," he said.

I knew...

...that she ought to go...

...that I ought to send her away...

...but I couldn't imagine

giving permission for her to go.

My husband said, "She must go."

He didn't listen to me.

He just arranged everything for her.

And I had to give in,

and I saw in the end that he was right.

But the hurt is unbelievable.

That cannot be described.

My father died when I was 3 years old.

My mother had to go out to work...

... so I wound up in the orphanage.

When Polish Jews were arrested

all over Germany...

... I'd found out that...

...my mother was deported.

I was on my own.

I had nobody, no one, nothing.

I went to the Gemeinde.

There was this wonderful woman

who knew me there.

She said,

"Pascha, what are you doing here?

"Where's your mother?"

I said, "My mother's been deported."

And she said to me,

"There's something happening now.

"I think you should get onto it."

It was the Kindertransport.

She said, "You'd better register

immediately because you're by yourself.

"What will you do?"

So I said, "Okay. I'll go to England."

Just like matter of fact,

as if it was nothing.

In hindsight...

... I think my sister and I...

... we owe it to my father's death...

... that we have survived...

...because they selected...

...children...

...who had problems...

...who'd lost parents or whose parents

could no longer look after them...

...to go on the Kindertransport.

Mother came home

and said that she'd enrolled us.

About a fortnight later...

...my parents were told that I could go.

A week or two after that...

...my parents decided my sister could go.

Now both of us would go.

That must have been very hard.

That would have been hard to decide

that we would both go.

We had about a fortnight before we left.

Into that fortnight,

both Mother and Father...

... were trying to give their instructions

and guidance...

... that they hoped

to have their whole lives to give.

My bar mitzvah was

a month after "Crystal Night."

It was held in an attic.

My father was not there,

he was still in a concentration camp.

It was just my mother.

I felt terrible.

There was no celebration afterwards.

There was nothing.

You read your part from the Torah, and...

...you did your haftorah

and you were finished.

And we were lucky that a minyan...

...showed up altogether.

I certainly felt...

... that the sooner we left Germany...

... the better off we would be.

My housemother wrote...

... to Baron James de Rothschild...

... asking if he would he take...

... 24 of her boys...

... her husband, herself...

... and her two daughters.

And he wrote back in January that...

...he would.

We thought of England...

... as a land of lords and ladies because...

... of the King and Queen,

and the two little princesses...

... appealed to us very much.

We saw their pictures in the newspapers.

The coronation with their ermine clothes

and crowns on their heads.

And we really thought that in England

that's how people dressed.

Perhaps not every day,

but sometimes on Sundays.

So that was our expectation of England.

I was told this was the best thing

that could happen...

...and I was so lucky...

...because everybody around me

was trying to find places...

...for their children.

And, suddenly, out of the blue...

...I had a chance to come to England.

How lucky can I be?

My parents said

I'd be able to go back to school...

... I will learn another language...

... I will live in London,

I will be able to travel on the subway...

And painted a beautiful picture.

And added, again and again:

"And we'll follow soon."

However, a few days or so

before I was to leave...

...I accused my parents

of trying to get rid of me.

I said to my parents,

"I'm really a gypsy child...

"...and now you're trying to get rid of me.

You adopted me...

"...and now you no longer want me."

I must have really, deeply,

deeply hurt my parents.

Since German policy in 1938

was to force Jewish emigration...

... the Nazis willingly let

the children leave...

... as long as they did not take

any valuables with them.

Each child was allowed one suitcase...

... one piece of hand luggage...

... and ten reichsmark.

We had four days...

... to pack and go.

My parents were so busy getting ready

the things I was going to take...

... that I don't think they nor I had time...

... to think about what was happening.

My mother prepared all our clothes.

She lovingly embroidered our names...

... on every piece of clothing,

even every handkerchief...

... every sock...

... everything.

I think I took my teddy bear.

My mother...

... always slept on a little pillow

on top of her big pillow...

... and I asked her

if I could take that with me.

She said, "Sure."

Mother had new clothes made

for both of us.

We had a dressmaker at home

who did all the sewing.

And some clothes she bought.

Otherwise, around my neck...

... because we were baptized,

hoping that would be...

... of some help...

...I had a little cross...

...and I had a little elephant...

...and I had a sort of...

It wasn't a Jewish star,

but it was a little angel.

I put them all together because I thought

the Almighty could choose...

...which religion

he would like me to belong to.

So sad the things I remember.

I remember that last evening,

when all the cousins and all the aunts...

... came to say good-bye.

There was one aunt who had twins.

She was extremely angry

with my parents...

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote