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Lilly has asked that her family name and other names in her story be changed to protect the individuals mentioned therein. The original typescript of Lilly’s story has been deposited in Shropshire Archives. For the rest of Lilly’s family’s stories see: A3695682 and A3695718

Under the new regime: the Anschluss of Austria

I was born in Vienna in 1915 and lived there with my husband and widowed mother till 1938. It was after the Anschluss (March 1938) that our family became, for religious and political reasons endangered, and we made efforts to leave Austria as soon as possible.

The day after Austria was occupied our flat in Vienna was already searched, but as we had already burned all incriminating literature the day before, all the Gestapo could confiscate were books. We belonged to the ‘Buechergilde Gutenberg', a liberal book club, and all the SS considered subversive were books with red covers. Though our flat suffered some upheaval, we were left in peace for the time being.

My cousin, Erich, however was not so lucky. He lived in a house just opposite ours and his family had a lodger, Jewish, who owned a shop at the end of the road. The SS came to look for the lodger who was not at home at the time. My polite cousin asked if he could be of any help and was duly taken away and shortly afterwards ended in Dachau Concentration Camp. The Gestapo just wanted to complete a transport. Incidentally the lodger remained free for a bit longer.

I was employed by a firm of international furniture removers and in my endeavour to leave Austria, I was introduced to a lady who turned out to be the mother of EG (an art historian). EG and his wife, who had recently had a baby, had emigrated to London two years earlier and were looking for a home help in their small flat in Hampstead. EG’s mother apparently thought I looked promising and in due course the G family procured a domestic work permit for me.

Leaving Austria for a new life in London

I obtained my Steuerunbedenklichkeits (proof of no tax debt) document in Vienna, resigned my job and on the 10 September 1938, with just my clothes and one pound in money (that was all that was allowed), I left Vienna. Leaving mother, brother and husband behind and not knowing if and when I would see them again.

On the train to London we stopped at Aachen and had to get off with our meagre possessions hoping not to be sent back. When we were allowed, we continued our journey. I still remember two girls who shared my compartment and myself sitting in each corner sobbing our hearts out.

We eventually arrived on Victoria Station where our respective employers received us with several hours delay.

The G family was pleasant enough with me but the flat was small and I had no room for myself and remember sitting on a deckchair in the kitchen in front of the gas oven (for warmth) in the evening until everyone got to bed and my camp bed was made up. My spirit was naturally very low and it did not help that I could hear the whistle of the nearby railway making me wish to return home.

About 2 weeks after my arrival the Munich Crisis (Chamberlain meeting Hitler in Munich) occurred and war seemed imminent. The G family left London and I moved into a hostel (YWCA) for a week. Shortly after return from their refuge the remaining members of the G family (father and 2 sisters) arrived in London and we moved to a larger house.

Learning a new trade

The parents (father a solicitor and mother a well-known piano teacher, one sister a lawyer and the other a professional violinist) had employed three servants in their elegant home in Vienna. They were allowed to bring their furniture and belongings and as we moved to the bigger house their goods also came. I had to help with unpacking and some of their kitchen utensils I was not even familiar with. Their carpets were too large for the rooms available and had to be turned under and this was the cause for an incident which I will recall later (A3695682).

This intellectual, artistic family was of course not a bit domesticated and I found it very tiring to wait until midday when everybody had had their breakfast to clear up and start cleaning the house. In Vienna of course they had been used to an array of servants.

My mother leaves Austria

Also I had no experience, as I had spent my previous life at an office and I knew time was running out for my mother and husband to be saved, so I persuaded the G family to obtain a permit for my mother (then in her 50s) and I could vouch for her to be an excellent housekeeper [for them]. My mother then arrived in February 1939 and convinced them. I found myself another job with a less hectic family related to the psychiatrist, Melanie Klein, and eventually a Swedish family with 4 children where I had to scrub floors from 6am and be ready in cap and apron to serve breakfast to the ‘master’ at 8 o’clock (it would have offended him to see me in my working clothes).

Eventually even my mother found the G family’s household too demanding and in May 1939 my husband managed to get out of Austria.

I found a job as a housekeeper with Miss Sale-Barker, who was one of the first female pilots and was engaged to fly planes from the factory to the airfield during the war. She had a beautiful home in Chelsea and I was able to occupy the whole basement, complete with bathroom etc. After a while Miss Barker also allowed my husband to stay there and for the first time since arriving in England I was able to lead a more civilised life.

An eccentric neighbour in Chelsea

As a bonus the house next door was occupied by a single lady who was the widow of a high police official and maintained three servants (an English lady’s maid, a Belgian parlour maid and my mother as a cook). Mrs Lafone modelled herself on Queen Victoria and was clad from top to toe in black. The lady’s maid had to curl Mrs Lafone’s hair every morning and crowned it with a black bonnet; had to run three baths every day and while Mrs Lafone was in the bath, the lady’s maid had to iron all her underwear. Her meals had to be brought up in the lift from the kitchen to the dining room with the lady’s maid standing behind the lady while she ate. Mrs Lafone ordered all the food as well as fresh flowers for the Conservatory from Harrods but unfortunately was always short of cash and tried to hide when the collector came. She must, however, have had an income, perhaps once a year when she could settle all her debts.

Reunited with my husband

My husband, John, who had been in the Socialist Republican Shutzbund in Vienna and was imprisoned for 18 months during the Neo-Fascist Regime in 1934, left Austria via Switzerland for England in May 1939 just before his call-up papers for the German Army arrived. His entrance permit only lasted for 3 months and we had to find a job during that time to get him a work permit. I searched the ‘vacant jobs’ columns in the newspapers and tried to find something suitable. He of course only had clerical qualifications.

After several abortive tries at securing a job as a butler (and me working possibly as parlour maid) I tried a menial job at some tailors in the east end of London. As it happened the owner had been a prisoner of war in the First World War and spoke some German but was more conversant with Yiddish. He offered John a job as a machinist and, though a quite unfamiliar occupation, John picked it up fairly quickly and also found his workmates very helpful and friendly.

When he eventually could move in with me in Chelsea life became somehow more normal, even though it meant for John to cycle every morning from Chelsea to the East End and this after war broke out in total darkness during the blackout. Just after war broke out everybody tried to do their bit for the war effort. One of the tasks was filling sandbags — a rather feeble way to prevent bomb damage — but it did help to reduce damage caused by splinters. As aliens we were not allowed to join the fighting forces but could help out in this minor way. When things got more organised John joined the Civil Defence.

All the same we were getting tired of our fragmentary existence and set up home for ourselves. We found a flat in Finsbury Park, brought some furniture at the Caledonian Market, painted it and managed to be quite comfortably settled.

Outbreak of war and coping with internment

When war broke out all aliens had to attend a tribunal and were categorised in A (enemy aliens); B (of uncertain credentials); and C (refugee from Nazi oppression). We were classed C and certified as free from internment while group A were immediately interned and group B had to observe certain restrictions. [However, shortly after] war broke out, in the panic of possible invasions, the government ordered all aliens, irrespective of their tribunal classification, who lived by the sea, to be interned, as well as some haphazardly selected men from everywhere else. John was one of the unlucky ones and was sent to the Isle of Man.

Mother and I stayed in our flat (right opposite Finsbury Park) and first incendiary bombs set everything alight and shortly afterwards bombers arrived. There was also a family of Hungarians in the house who had two small children. We huddled in the cellar together every evening but that was not really secure. So mother and I queued every evening at Piccadilly Circus Underground Station with some newspapers to rest on the platform. One of the really awful experiences. Young and old, sick and well, everyone slept on the platform and the trains shattered all night. Toilets were provided in the underground tunnels and while it was safe from the bombs it was horrible just the same.

Leaving London for Wales

I was relatively young and careless but my poor mother, who had already had enough misfortune in her life, was reduced to a nervous wreck and so we decided to follow the Hungarians who had already evacuated to a place called Rhydycroesau in Wales. We arrived from London by train and bus with just a few of our belongings (the rest was left in London with our landlady and we never saw it again).

Lilly’s story continues in part 2: Finding an international family in Shropshire A3695051

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