大象传媒

I was 12 years old when world war 2 started and my story mainly covers the years at secondary school.

In 1938 I had noticed a sudden influx of Jewish schoolchildren, but was unaware of the reason, but now realize they were refugees from Nazi Germany.

I was attending Grammar School near Princes Park, Liverpool, and in early 1940 the Germans started bombing the Liverpool Docks, jettisoning any extra bombs over the residential districts as they departed after every raid - we spent most nights in the cellar.

Gradually, children in the more heavily bombed areas started missing school making it impossible for the teachers to keep an up-to-date register. My friends and I soon realised that no-one would ask questions if we didn't turn up at school.

One day, ignoring all instructions on what to do when an air-raid siren sounded, we played truant and casually roamed around Princes Park. Suddenly, suddenly we heard the noise of a diving German reconnaisance plane which had spotted us and was taking a closer look. Scared out of our wits, we had enough presence of mind to roll under the nearest park benches - the plane soon flew off, but we had learnt our lesson!

Shortly after this event, we received a direct incendiary bomb hit on our house and it was decided we should be evacuated to Lytham St. Annes before moving to Wales. This was meant to be temporary, but the whole school went down with hepatitis causing considerable delay. Finally, we arrived in Towyn, Merioneth (now Gwynedd): the house was near a beach and the scenery was beautiful. None of us wanted to leave in 1944 when many evacuees were returned home - myself to Oxford.

One particular tune none of us ever wanted to hear again was "Men of Harlech" which we had to sing at assembly every morning at the local Welsh school. As the curriculum at this school was at least a year behind our standards at the Liverpool Grammar School, most of us ended the war with no 'O' or 'A' levels. In other words, Hitler had ruined our education and probably that of thousands of other schoolchildren!

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