大象传媒

After arriving at Douglas we walked through the streets to the railway station and we were taken on the narrow guage steam train to Port Erin. We got off the train with hundreds of others and were marched up the promenade by Sergeant Pike- a large woman. She just said 'Follow me' and strode off. We were loaded down with luggage and very tired and we deliberately lost our escort. My mother stopped at the nearest hotel- the Eagle- now demolished- and enquired about accomodation. Eventually the landlady agreed to have us. We had a room with a double and single bed which I shared with my mother for a year.
I used to help another internee- a dress-maker from Austria- and I would hand-sew the long seams on clothes she made for her clients. We had no sewing machine. I used to knit my own socks out of scrap wool and I used to crochet collars and jabots and sell these to the wealthier internees.
We could go to the Regent Cinema for sixpence and enjoyed going for walks and swimming. During the time I was on the Isle of Man I had no formal schooling. I didnt particularly worry about this-I was far more cocnerned about when I was going to see my father again.
In the hotel the landlady had taken all the carpets up and removed any decorative or luxury items- they weren't going to waste money on these internees! Every morning we had a roll call at breakfast and curfew was roughly at sunset.
In 1942 - 2 years after arriving- we left the Isle of Man and went back to our house in Wembley London. We were continually harrassed by the Home Office to vacate our house as it was considered 'enemy alien property' but we managed to hang on to it. It wasn't until November 1953 that this Sword of Damocles was removed from my mother's head.
I married after the war and in 1950 travelled to Vienna avoiding the Russian zone- and there I was reunited with my father whom I hadn't seen for 11 years. Since we'd parted he had ended up being sent to the Russian Front, was captured by the russians, escaped and made his way back to Vienna weighing only 5 stone. He was nursed back to health by my grandmother having been pushed to her house on a handcart. It was a very emotional reunion with my father.
I am back here on the Isle of Man this August 2005 for the re-enactment performance of internment 65 years on and I have found it a very emotional and rewarding experience.

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