大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Reading on behalf of Susan and has been added to the site with her permission. Susan fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was born and brought up in Breslau, which was then a German city about 300 km. south east of Berlin, but now belongs to Poland and is called Wroclav. Discrimination against Jewish people had been getting worse and worse since Hitler came to power in 1933, but people always hoped that things would blow over, and my father did not want to emigrate to another country. He had fought for Germany at the front during the First World War, and had been severely wounded and awarded the Iron Cross for gallantry. He died in April 1938, when I was 17 years old.

Although Jews were not allowed to hold weapons, he had kept a pistol in his desk, and told my mother that if the Nazis came to arrest him, he would shoot himself. After his death, I knew that we would have to get rid of the pistol, so one night I went for a midnight walk to a nearby park with a boy-friend and dropped the pistol into a lake, taking great care that nobody was watching. Maybe it is still there鈥�.

At the end of 1938, Jewish people were ordered to hand in all their valuables, gold and silver, to the authorities. I had inherited a ring from my father which was very dear to me and which I did not want to lose. I had heard that an English lady was taking people鈥檚 jewellery with her back to England, provided the owner could give her an overseas address to which to send it. I gave her the ring and asked her to send it on to an uncle in Chicago. To my joy,I got it back after the war!

By then it had become obvious that it was essential to emigrate, but that was not easy. The United States was not accepting any more Jews of German origin, and Britain would only allow women to immigrate as domestic servants or trainee nurses. Fortunately, a cousin of my father鈥檚 was already living in London, and she managed to get me a permit as a domestic. You had to be at least 18 years old, so I had to wait for my eighteenth birthday in April 1939 before I could prepare to leave.

I remember that at that time, masses of tanks and military vehicles were passing through Breslau towards the Polish border, and people were always told that it was for manoeuvres. But as it turned out later, Hitler had already ordered the invasion of Poland, and the Soviet Union (which was then allied with Germany) would also invade Poland from the east.

Eventually, I arrived in London at the end of July 1939, about 5 weeks before war broke out. My mother was unable to get out in time and remained in Germany. But though it was impossible to write direct to an enemy country, we managed to exchange letters through people we knew in neutral countries, like Switzerland and the United States. My mother鈥檚 letters stopped in 1941, and after the war I found out that she had been taken away with thousands of other Jewish people and shot by the Nazis.

A short while after my arrival in London, I managed to find a job as a nanny, looking after a four year old boy. One day, my employer gave me money to buy ice creams for the little boy and for myself, but I only bought one for him, as I wanted to buy a stamp for a letter to my mother. When my employer heard about that, she asked for the money back and made me feel like a thief!

One time when I was in the West End, I went into one of the Lyons Corner Houses, which were cheap restaurants. As I had to be careful with money, I chose the cheapest dish on the menu, costing one old penny. It was Yorkshire pudding, which I thought was some kind of sweet. The waiter was very suspicious but brought it anyway. I was very disappointed and thought: 鈥淚 have heard that English cooking is not up to much, but this is ridiculous!鈥�

When the war started, my employer insisted that I leave immediately as I still had German nationality and so was considered an 鈥渆nemy alien.鈥� I was in real difficulties, but fortunately, friends of my parents who lived in north London accepted me as a domestic help, and I stayed with them for over three years. My employer鈥檚 youngest daughter, who was about thirteen, was anxious for me to improve my English and persuaded me to buy the Daily Mirror so that I could 鈥渓earn proper English.鈥� In reality, she wanted to follow the cartoons.

As we lived near the North Circular Road, bombs often dropped close to the house, as the Germans tried to disrupt traffic. Our floor tiles were all cracked. The windows had to be covered with blackout material on frames, and there were no streetlights. We had sandbags in the garden, to be used in case any firebombs landed there. One night, a fire bomb hit our roof but bounced off and fell into the garden. We were glad to have the sandbags handy to put it out! I was sleeping in the attic at the time, just below where the bomb hit, but after that, I slept downstairs! Our dog - a spaniel 鈥� was allowed out into the dark 鈥渢o do his business鈥�, but he didn鈥檛 seem to mind. During the winter, when it was foggy, it was particularly difficult to go out in the dark with only a dim torch. One time, I went out to post a letter and mistook another person for the letter box! I apologised profusely.

As an immigrant from Germany, I had to register with the police and was not allowed to leave my registered address without permission. At a tribunal, we were classified as A, B or C. Fortunately I was classified as 鈥淐鈥� (definitely not dangerous), and so became a 鈥渇riendly enemy alien!鈥�

In 1943, I was called up for war work. I didn鈥檛 want to work in a factory, so at the age of 21, I joined the 鈥渇emale army鈥�, i.e. the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service, now the WRAC). After three weeks basic training, I worked in Newcastle-on-Tyne for three months as a dental orderly, then trained as a medical orderly in York, learning to bandage and give injections etc, and ended up in Nottingham, where the Army Post Office was based. The ATS girls working there mostly had permed hair (which was fashionable) and did not wash it often enough, so they frequently needed 鈥渄e-lousing鈥�, and that was my main job!

One day, when I was on leave in London, I happened to meet a girl I knew in Breslau. She was a sergeant (three stripes, whilst I was only a lance corporal with one stripe!). She told me that she was working with the Intelligence Corps, where her knowledge of German was useful. She put my name forward for transfer to her unit, and after a day-long interview at the War Office, I was transferred in December 1943 and made Sergeant. We were attached to a prisoner-of-war camp in Buckinghamshire holding prisoners from all three services. At first I had to type intelligence reports, but as my typing skills were very basic, I was soon transferred to another section dealing with prisoners鈥� documents.
大象传媒 was classed 鈥渢op secret鈥� and we were not allowed to discuss it with anybody outside. We worked shifts, often late into the night, but were privileged to leave the camp at night, when not on duty, without needing a 鈥渟leeping-out鈥� pass. One day I had to deal with the paybook of a prisoner whose name was familiar - he had been my English teacher at school! As I knew that he was not a Nazi, I put in a good word for him.

It was in this camp that I met the man who became my husband, in June 1945. His story is also on this website (鈥淭o Britain with a Cello鈥�).

After the end of the war in Europe, service personnel were discharged according to age and length of service. However, married ATS like me got preferential treatment, so I was released early. It was not easy to find a job, as all demobilised service people were looking for work, and employers gave preference to those who had previously worked for them. One of my officers was connected with the organization which was then setting up the United Nations, and got me an introduction. As a result, I found a job in the UN as supervisor in a Duplicating Section. At Christmas time in 1945, we had to produce an urgent report, and I had been 鈥渓ent鈥� several soldiers to help out. Unfortunately, since it was Christmas Eve, they had too much to drink during their lunchbreak. I had to alert my superior, who got them removed from the office as they were of no use in their drunken state!

One day, early in 1946, King George VI came on a visit of inspection, and he asked me several questions about our work. He was quite short, seemed very shy, and had a severe stammer. The Daily Sketch - a popular newspaper at the time 鈥� took a photograph showing the two of us together!

I enjoyed my time in the army and later with the United Nations, though it was often hard work. The pay was not very good by today鈥檚 standards but that did not matter to me. When I returned to civilian life and had to set up a home from scratch, everything, including furniture, was still rationed. But when you married you were given coupons to furnish just one room: either dining room or bedroom. I chose the dining room and bought four chairs, two easy chairs and a sideboard. I had to buy second-hand bedroom furniture. But the quality was so good that we have the easy chairs and the sideboard in our house to this day!

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