大象传媒

I came to England on June 1st 1939 with my 2 sisters, as mentioned above. I was born in Berlin, Germany, on 23 November 1923. In 1935 we 3 sisters were sent to a Convent School in a little border town in Bohemia, then part of Czechoslavakia. After my father settled his affairs, making sure he still attended the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936, he followed. My mother had arrived a month earlier. My father was forced to pay a hefty tax to the Nazi state, called the REICHSFLUCHT/STEUER. That was the German rule. My father, KARL GUMPEL, was once a wealthy man but, as a Jew, he lost his position as director of a firm called EDEKA. That was in 1933. All this is mentioned in my book THREE LIVES IN TRANSIT.

Soon afterwards, we moved to Prague. After the German invasion in March 1938, my father fled to Poland with an attach茅 case. We stayed behind in a cheap hotel, with our mother. In her desperation, she heard about the Children鈥檚 Section who tried to save youngsters up to the age of 16.

The ladies from the committee called. They came from England. They admired my mother and hoped that they could save her too. But first they had the difficult task of finding someone who would take her 3 daughters. 鈥淢y girls must not be separated鈥� she pleaded. One day we heard a Miss Harder was prepared to take us. The day came and we arrived in England on 1st June 1939. We waved goodbye to our wonderful mother at the station. She had a white handkerchief in her hands. It receded 鈥︹��. We never saw her again.

All this is set out in my book, seeing my father, who had managed to make it to England鈥︹�hen meeting Miss Harder at Liverpool Street Station.

Later on, exactly 49 years after our arrival, I found out that a man called Nicholas Winton was the organiser behind the rescue of the children. I met him and have kept in touch with him. So have my sisters. He visited me, often with his late wife, also when my husband, Walter, was still alive. It sparked off my desire to write our story, THREE LIVES IN TRANSIT. (You have my permission to quote from it). Now he is Sir Nicholas Winton. I was invited to his 95th birthday party by the Czech Embassy. The Ambassador spoke movingly about his marvellous deed, along with helpers. He stressed that we were among 669 who survived. The children who were left behind perished.

The Ambassador was nice enough to have a chat with me. Told me he was impressed with my book, which is in their library. As I am ill, it was a rare outing I shall never forget.

My book includes the lives of my sisters and friends and other family members. There is also a chapter about my army service from 1942 to 1946. Of course, I could not include everything. On my 21st birthday, in 1944, I was so lonely! No family to be with, nowhere to go. A Geordie soldier, with a heart of gold, made me a huge cardboard key! I meant to keep it always, but one day I had to move to much smaller accommodation and I had to part with it. It made me sad.

I recently spoke on HOME TRUTHS about our Miss Harder (August 20, 2005). www.bbc.co.uk/radio 4/hometruths. 20050 822-refugee shtml.

I give you permission to use all the material including events mentioned in my book.

When I was a maid in Epsom, we had air raids all the time and I refer to this, etc. etc.

The older I get (82 in November), the more I think how much we owe to Miss Harder. It is only recently that I found out her forenames, Bertha Emily. Barbara Winton, the mother of Sir Nicholas, told her about us. Miraculously Miss Harder decided to take us into her life! I shall always treasure the one and only photograph of her (included amongst illustrations in my book).

Next to my mother鈥檚 last picture, aged 45, I have an inscription.

FOR MY MOTHER
GRETCHEN GUMPEL
WHO MADE THE ULTIMATE
SACRIFICE OF SENDING
HER THREE YOUNG DAUGHTERS
TO SAFETY IN BRITAIN

This Rose is dedicated by Lore Selo at the Beth Shalom Holocaust Memorial Rose Garden in Laxton, Notts.

Re our forenames:
Mine was HANNELORE
Lisa was LISELOTTE (also LILO)
Romie was ROSEMARIE

But as usual, our names were shortened in Germany, I was LORE, here LAURA, Lisa and Romie are now retired. The former is Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota. The latter was, and is, a much respected teacher.

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