Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport Page #9

...and an apple, and an orange...

...and they were giving second helpings.

It was unbelievable.

As the war progressed...

... reports of mass arrests and deportation

of Central-European Jews...

... began to reach Britain.

In the spring of '43, the city of Berlin...

... was cleansed of the last Jews.

They came and took...

...my family and myself along.

We were taken to a collection point.

After a couple of days, we were deported...

...to Auschwitz, though we did not know...

...when we got to the train,

which consisted...

...of cattle cars, where we were going.

We landed in Auschwitz

and the moment we landed there...

... we were commanded to leave

the trains...

...women with children to the left

and men to the right.

That was the last time that I saw

my wife, my then wife, and child.

Lory Cahn and her family

were deported to Theresienstadt...

... the Czech ghetto the Nazis

used to deceive the world...

... about how humanely they

treated their prisoners.

In time...

... the population of Theresienstadt

exceeded its capacity.

One day...

... they came into our barrack,

and my name was called...

... to report to the railroad station.

I went to the railroad station.

As they called your name,

you had to go and see this SS guy...

... and he crossed you off the list

and then you went into the car.

I got there and I repeated my name.

He said, "You're not going."

I had no idea.

I didn't dare ask why or what...

...but that was the end of it

and they sent me back.

And this went on for maybe two weeks.

I'd been at the railroad station,

I think, four times.

And I was a complete wreck.

To say good-bye to your parents...

...one time...

...a second time, a third time

and a fourth time...

...and once before, when I

was in the Kindertransport...

...it was... just absolutely devastating.

Every time I said good-bye...

... I think I tore a little

piece out of my mother...

... and out of my father,

and also a big piece out of myself.

The last time it happened,

I said to the guy:

"Would you terribly mind,

but I want to go."

"Are you sure of that?" I said, "Yes."

He crossed my name off, and I went.

Little did I know

that we were going to Auschwitz.

It was a long period where I did

not hear anything from my parents.

I said, "Well, it's wartime..."

I found all kinds of reasons and excuses.

Then, finally, I received a letter

from my father in which he said:

"Tomorrow I'm going to be

deported to an unknown destination.

"And it may be a very long time

before you hear from me again. "

Then I received a letter from my mother.

She said, "Tomorrow, I'm going

to be deported from here. "

She encourages me to be good...

... honest and courageous...

... and to hold my head high...

...and to never give up hope.

And this at a time when I think she knew...

...what might be happening to her.

Then there was

one more communication from her.

A postcard dated September 4, 1942.

It's written in real shaky handwriting.

She's saying that she's traveling...

to the East...

... and is saying a very final good-bye to me.

But for many, many years...

... I would see the postcard in front of me...

... and I would see she's saying:

"Traveling to the East."

Yet I would understand that she's saying...

... she's traveling in an easterly direction.

Then I would say to myself:

"Maybe she's going back to Kippenheim.

And maybe that's good."

And the final good-bye, I didn't understand.

I always felt I should be grateful...

...that we'd been saved,

and that these people had taken us in...

... and that I should be happier there.

But facts are facts,

and it wasn't a good place to be.

Uncle Billy, who was not

a very courageous man...

...every night, he would

go into the country...

...and he took us with him.

We went to escape the bombs...

...until one day, the people

where we were staying...

...we all slept in a

room there in a cottage...

...and the people said

they didn't want the German children.

So we didn't go to the country anymore.

One day the sirens sounded...

... and what was known as

the "Coventry Blitz" started.

And then the bombs started to fall.

We stayed at Auntie Vera's

mother's who had a boarding house.

All night long...

... the bombs rained down...

... and Coventry was a very hot place to be.

We were in one house

and that was bombed.

There was a big fire upstairs

and everybody rushed out.

In the morning, when Auntie Vera

and Uncle Billy came back...

... and they saw one of the

boarding houses without any house...

... just a spiral of a bedstead...

... they were very shocked,

and they thought we'd been killed.

They rushed over to the other house...

...and there we were all drinking tea,

as alive as anything...

...and that was the only time

I saw Auntie Vera cry.

I think relief, because...

...I guess she had a heart after all.

- Jorgensky!

- Here!

- Tzufevich!

- Here!

- Leventhal!

- Here!

- Alba!

- Here!

- Rosenthal!

- Here!

- Tozic!

- Here!

- Tolina!

- Here!

Yes, they all have names like those.

This company, which I command...

...is almost entirely composed of

German and Austrian anti-fascists.

It is one of the fifteen alien

companies in the Pioneer Corps.

The Dunera scandal

and the harsh treatment of refugees...

... began to shift public opinion

in England against internment.

The government started

releasing internees...

... and allowed them to join

the British armed forces.

Those who wanted to go back to England...

... they would send back

under one condition:

They would join the army.

I was anxious to get into this.

First of all, I hated the Germans.

I hated their guts...

...and I wanted to be part of it.

Besides,

what was I going to do in Australia?

Sit in Australia throughout

the whole war? God forbid!

Girls, this is urgent.

If you're over 17-and-a-half and under 19...

... you can volunteer for the ATS.

The sooner you come,

the wider the choice of jobs available.

Come on, girls, it's urgent!

When I was 18...

... I had to do either

work of importance...

... or join the forces.

I decided to join the forces.

I also felt I was saying thank you

to England for saving my life.

I think, as a soldier, I felt...

...suddenly I was in

an environment where...

...I was the same as everyone else.

For the first time in my life, I think.

Because I think in Lincoln, I, more or less...

... think, I existed.

Because I was waiting for tomorrow,

and tomorrow, and tomorrow.

I had lots of friends and...

... I did things I hadn't done before.

I felt like everybody else.

The people on my left, the people

on my right, we were all the same...

...and that, I think,

was the first time in my life...

...I felt that I could do everything

the other people were doing.

I wanted to do something

to help finish the war.

I said, "I want to go into nursing."

The first year, I nearly gave up.

I found it very difficult...

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