大象传媒

In 1944 I was six years old, living at 49 Rosslyn Hill in Hampstead. Rosslyn Hill is the extension of Hampstead High Street as it leads into Haverstock Hill, which leads south into London.

Our home was a Victorian terrace house. My bedroom was at the front of the house overlooking Rosslyn Hill, at that time very quiet because so few people had cars in those days. London鈥檚 last lamplighter used to come by every evening with his long pole to turn on the street gas light outside.

One night in May 1944, I woke up to a distant sound, a rumble that came nearer and nearer. I got up and opened one of the wooden shutters, which always had to be closed at night because of the 鈥渂lackout鈥�. I waited, looking through the window as the rumble grew louder and louder. I wondered whether to go to tell my mother, but decided not to wake her up.

Suddenly a giant machine came into view, eerily lit by the street gaslights. To my astonished 6-year old eyes it was HUGE, it seemed as high as a house. I was looking at a tank for the very first time. Standing at the window I watched a long convoy of vehicles rumble by. I remember getting so cold (no central heating in those days) that I had to get my school overcoat from the hall.

Tanks, lorries,and what I was to learn later were Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC vehicles) drove slowly by. I must have stood at the window in my bare feet for nearly 2 hours before the last vehicle passed by. I went back to bed and in the morning I told my mother what I had seen. She seemed a little alarmed and told me not to tell anyone, especially not Mr Bloch.

Hans Bloch was a German pianist, a Jewish refugee who had been accommodated by my parents in two rooms on the first floor of our house after a representative of the local board of Jewish Deputies had visited to ask my mother whether we had any vacant rooms.(He later gave recitals on the 大象传媒 Home Service.) It is now clear to me that my mother did not want me to talk about what I had seen to Mr Bloch because she may have harboured lingering doubts about Hans Bloch鈥檚 loyalties!

We understood that German Jews were victims, but there was still doubt about them. On their arrival in Britain, even Lord Moser and his family were immediately interned at a camp at Lincoln racecourse designated for 鈥淓nemy Aliens鈥� whatever their personal circumstances.

Hampstead at that time was crowded with German Jews. German spoken on the streets and in the shops and the few cafes. It was a place of refuge for German Jewry, but my mother had another reason to tell me not to say a word about what I had seen. She would have guessed it was a build-up to invasion because in 1939 when the Second World War began, she was a civil servant on the staff which secretly processed the transfer of the Woolwich Arsenal out of London into security to a depot in Wrexham I believe but I cannot be sure. It would have been a closely guarded official secret 鈥� my mother certainly never divulged the destination.

After two hours the convoy had passed, and I got back into bed. Writing this brings back such vivid aural and visual memories of the rumble and images of that huge line of military equipment proceeding through the blackness of a London night

Later in life I sometimes wondered if any German Jews in Hampstead had also stood at their windows watching the hardware of an army pass before their eyes, which was to crush Hitler and his murderous cohorts.

No young person nowadays can fully appreciate how threatened we were and how gigantic the effort to crush the barbarian who had intended to invade this nation. No other word adequately describes our enemy of that time. Sadly young Germans of today have little idea that we, the British and the Americans brought them their Basic Law which guarantees them the form of democracy which has saved them from themselves.

Moya St. Leger
W.Kensington
27 May 2004

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.