Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport Page #5

so tense that I was vibrating.

The Nazi border guard...

... very officiously came around...

... and made some of the children

open their suitcases.

They shouted at us...

...and threw their weight about.

They were looking for

new things people had.

Children had new clothes and things.

They didn't like that.

They gave the children a tough time.

Children kept crying and crying.

We were there quite a while.

They took their time

and enjoyed doing what they did to us.

Then suddenly we were in Holland.

Everyone was cheering:

"Those damn Nazis!

They should drop dead! Now we are free!"

There was howling, yelling, shouting,

and singing.

It was the best party I've ever been at...

... although I didn't really understand

what was happening.

I was holding a big girl around the waist,

and she was holding me.

They knew the songs they were singing.

They were probably Zionist songs...

...but I sang along

because it was so much fun...

... to be part of this party.

Not only were the frontier guards

on the Dutch side very nice...

... they had a contingent of ladies...

... who brought us cocoa...

...and Dutch zwieback.

It was like manna from heaven.

It was wonderful.

You suddenly felt

as though you'd been clad...

...in a cloak of lead or iron...

...and it had been taken from you.

It was a wonderful feeling of freedom.

We started to smile.

I don't think any of them

had smiled for a long time.

It was wonderful.

Then the train went on

to Hoek van Holland.

We got onto the boat...

... which took us to Harwich.

It was an unpleasant trip because...

...the English Channel...

...is one of the worst places

in wintertime to cross.

We had small children

and people got seasick.

It was some how-do-you-do.

I have a very vivid memory of waking up...

...and seeing the sea for the first time,

with the sunrise on it...

...and thinking how beautiful it was.

It was only the British Channel...

... but it seemed

a long way from home in 1939.

And so, it was a mixture...

...of elation because we saw something

so beautiful, and saw the sea, while this...

...fear within me, which never left me

for those six years, of:

"What's going to happen...

"...at home?"

Refugees from terror.

The first boatload from Nazi Germany.

Vanguard of an army of helpless children.

Uprooted from their homeland

in a modern exodus.

Each Kindertransport

was lead by adult escorts...

... on the condition that

after delivering the children...

... all escorts would return home...

... or else the transports would be ended.

A couple of times I traveled with them.

At one transport the customs official...

... checked and said, "We have a problem."

He said, "This young man here

brought a violin...

"...which is very, very expensive.

"This is not an ordinary violin."

I said, "Well, don't forget...

"...these young people

take music lessons...

"...and obviously

he liked music very much...

"...so he took his violin along."

This didn't sit well...

... so I gambled.

I said to that boy:

"Can you play something?"

And he said, "Sure."

And he was playing God Save the King.

And that boy couldn't be stopped.

He played all three stanzas.

When he was finished,

the guard looked very happy.

I asked the fellow, "Are you now

convinced, sir, that he likes music?"

And he said, "Yes!"

So, the boy got his violin into England.

Then came the arrival...

... at Liverpool Street Station.

Everyone was being picked up...

... and I wasn't.

I remember sitting

in an enormous arrival hall.

And I just sat.

Nobody came to me, nobody talked to me.

I think I must have sat for an hour.

Maybe longer, I don't know.

Then came two people,

who were my guardians...

...and they introduced themselves.

They explained that they lived in Lincoln.

They didn't speak one word of German...

...and I didn't speak one word of English.

If they said, "Lincoln,"

that could have been anywhere.

Never heard of the place.

My mother sent me off saying:

"Whoever is going to be good enough

to take you in and give you a home...

"...you must treat as a temporary mother."

When we arrived back

from Liverpool Street...

...and we all went to bed...

...in the evening...

...I went up to her,

put my arms around her...

...and she pushed me away.

And her words were, "That's sissy."

She may have said something else like,

"We don't do this, that's sissy."

But the words "That's sissy"

have never left me.

The children arrived in England

at the rate of about 300 a week.

Those who were not already placed

in foster homes...

... were taken to temporary centers

hastily set up in summer holiday camps...

... like Dovercourt.

They did try and keep us busy.

The memorable part

of this camp experience was...

... that it was one

of the coldest winters in history.

We all went for breakfast to this big hall.

The snow came in through the cracks.

We had this curious food. We had kippers.

What little Austrian-Jewish child

has ever heard of kippers?

Here was this salty,

shoe leather on our plates...

...and it had snow on it. It was interesting.

While we were sitting around the stove...

... always with our coats on

and with our little gloves on...

... groups of people would come...

... to choose children

to take away with them.

We called it the "Cattle Market"...

... because every Saturday and Sunday

we were told to put on our best clothes...

...and visitors used to come.

We felt a bit like the monkeys in the zoo.

We were being stared at and evaluated.

People were chosen, taken away

from the tables, and interviewed...

... if you were suitable

to be taken to their families.

Most families...

... wanted little blue-eyed and blonde girls...

... of about three to seven.

Little boys were accepted as well.

And the older children found it

a bit more difficult...

...to find foster parents.

Of course, by that time,

they hastily established hostels...

...to take a big influx of the children...

...who weren't chosen quickly,

because we had to be chosen fast.

In and out, the camp was filled.

Every week,

another transport would arrive.

I was writing a letter to my parents...

... and one of these ladies in a fur coat...

... bent down to me and asked me...

... if I would like to come to Liverpool.

I said, "Yes, I would like

to come to Liverpool."

She said to the other woman,

"Oh, she speaks English."

By speaking English, I mean,

I could understand:

"Would you like to come to Liverpool?"

And I could say "Yes."

Then they said to me, "Are you Orthodox?"

I said, "Yes."

They wrote that down.

It was understood that I was going to go

to Liverpool the next day...

... and when the ladies had gone...

...I wrote in my letter to my parents,

"By the way, what is Orthodox?"

My brother had been chosen first...

... to be the playmate

of a little boy in Coventry.

Then they asked me if I'd like to go

to a family there.

Of course, I jumped at the chance.

I wanted to be near my little brother.

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