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I was five years old when the war began.
My grandparents on my dad's side were Polish Jews.
One of my earliest memories was being told that my father was Polish-Jew and that if Hitler came my dad was part of a suicide pact and had said that his children wouldn't have gone to Hitler.
There was me and my brother John.
He told us not to tell anyone.
Now this was racism.

At the end of the war already pictures were coming up on the cinema showing what was being found in the concentration camp — piles of dead bodies.
It was my last few weeks at school.
There were two beautiful girls — Vera and Beryl. They were saying that it was alright what Hitler had done to the Jews. I said it wasn't. They said "what's your name?" "Pascha? - are you a Jew?"
They then chased me and I was stoned.
They turned from beautiful girls to Vipers.
I ran off and other girls joined in, not even knowing what it was about.
I was at Rushey Mead School in Leicester and this was my last journey from that school.
I still live in the house that I did then. It was a nicer house than many had and my dad had a posh job in Africa — maybe it was envy.

This story was submitted to the People's War Website by Lisa Reeves of CSV Action Desk Leicester on behalf of Helen Pascha and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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