大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jeffrey Calvert, a volunteer from Three Counties Action, at the Chells Community Centre, Stevenage on 17 August 2005 on behalf of Hildegard Cooper (nee Herzig) and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Cooper fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I suppose I had an interesting war. My parents, Adolf and Luise Herzig, had come to England from Austria in 1929. This was a long time before there was any hint of trouble 鈥� it was just that my father was an enterprising man.

My sister, Edith, was born in 1931 and I in 1936, so I was only 3 at the start of the war. Each year my parents took us to Austria to stay with my family, so that even at 3 my German was quite good. For some people the hatred of some things German started immediately. I remember mum being embarrassed if I spoke German in public, say when we were on the bus. But once I went to school, a private catholic school, I got used to speaking in English and my German faded.

My parents were naturalised British before I was born, but I know that they were interviewed by the 鈥渟ecret service鈥� and asked many questions, which they were happy to answer to prove they were not a threat.

My father was an 鈥渁luminium expert鈥�- at least that was the occupation shown on my birth certificate. With some partners he had owned a factory, but this was sold just before the war to Winsor and Newton, so that when war broke out he was with the firm John Dickinson in Kings Langley. Later he worked for a company called Polyfoil in Acton, London.

My mother had many family members still in Austria during the war, so of course they fought for the other side. I don鈥檛 recall my parents talking much about this, at least not to me. However, I have vivid memories of going every two months to the Red Cross to collect any letters. These were heavily censored - things used to be cut out. The letters were to keep us informed of what was happening to our family in Austria.

We moved from Kings Langley to a semi-detached house in Stanmore soon after I was born. This was where we lived during the war. It was some time after the war that we were told an astonishing story by a work colleague of our war-time adjoining next door neighbour. Apparently, during the war he had drilled a hole in the wall that divided our loft from his so that he could see in. He was convinced that we were hiding Adolf Hitler in our attic! We were told that he had also been suspicious that our house had not been bombed and he presumed that we must have put some sort of marker on our roof so that the German planes knew to avoid us. Of course we had not. In fact, just three weeks before war ended we were bombed. A V2 had landed nearby early one morning. They say the crater was the size of two and a half London Buses. Sadly 8 people died on this occasion. The road was Uppingham Avenue. We did have a shelter inside the house in a backroom downstairs. It was made of concrete. But I was not in it when the bomb fell. I recall that the airing cupboard door must have blown off as it protected me from much of the ceiling which fell in. There was glass everywhere and you could see the sky. I remember being carried into the shelter.

A wonderful friend, Mr Carden, who was a policeman, cycled all the way from Rayners Lane when he heard on the news about the V2. I remember him coming to the house. I don鈥檛 remember his first name, but I know that his wife was Swiss.

I presumed that I would have the day off school after such a scare 鈥� but no. I was sent to a neighbour for breakfast and then to school. The nuns were very sympathetic. They gave me a cup of tea and TWO TOFFEES! and told to rest.

We could not return to our house 鈥� it was so badly damaged. So we were moved to a lovely mansion in Pinner. It was in acres of grounds. It had a beautiful wishing well and I remember sheep in the fields. A Jewish family lived upstairs and we had the downstairs. It was such a wonderful mansion that we had a constant stream of friends and family who wanted to visit. We were there for 5 months. I returned to the area several times after the war to see it. I forget the exact address but it was close to Woolworths. Sadly, it is now a block of luxury flats.

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