大象传媒

An evacuee鈥檚 memories of life in wartime Bedford Part One 鈥� The build up to war in Islington. Evacuation from Islington with the Owen School to Bedford.

Part one of an oral history interview with Mr. David Bernstein conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

鈥淚 was born on the 19th August 1928 in the City of London Maternity Hospital which is bang in the City of London, well Moorgate. It was 鈥楤litzed鈥� in the war and has never been re-built. I lived initially in a part of Islington. So it鈥檚 North London and the school that I went to was Owen School. And the school I was evacuated with was also Islington so really my upbringing was in that area.

Talking about the build up to the declaration of war the most important and the nearest to the war was 1938. In 1938 we had what was called the 鈥楳unich Crisis鈥� where it looked virtually certain that we were going to war concerning Czechoslovakia. Every day we went to school ready to be evacuated and this was a year before the war! We were packed, everything packed, we had gas masks then. This was a year before. Some of us had gas masks, not all of us had gas masks but we were ready for the war that was going to happen. And then there was a meeting in Munich and at that meeting there was a plan drawn up by which Britain really left Czechoslovakia in the lurch. The Prime Minister was called Neville Chamberlain, he went to Munich and he came back holding a piece of paper saying, 鈥楶eace in our time! I have a piece of paper signed by Herr Hitler鈥�. I went to the pictures after that happened and I saw a newsreel, I went with my father. We went to 鈥� I forget the film 鈥� but I always remember the newsreel because there was Chamberlain waving this piece of paper and my father shouted out in the cinema 鈥業t will be torn up next week!鈥� And I felt terribly embarrassed, you know fathers don鈥檛 do things like that. Then everybody around us said, 鈥楬ear, hear鈥� and clapped him and I felt very proud.

The coming of the war was very evident, that something was going to happen. Incidentally I was very sad we weren鈥檛 having a war in 1938 it was a great adventure and we were told we had to go home, it wasn鈥檛 going to happen, 鈥楶eace in our time鈥� it said, so! But the coming of the war was almost omnipresent to me at nine, ten, eleven years old. The First World War was always there because people talked about the First World War and I suppose the aftermath of the First World War was ever present and so one lived in this interim and of course todays historians regard it as one war with a 20 year armistice. Michael Foot in fact called a book he wrote, 鈥楾he 20 Year Armistice鈥�. It was eventually bound to happen and of course the Treaty of Versailles and the stupid way in which the Germans were treated in fact laid the foundation for Hitler, etc., etc. Even as a little kid you were aware. I was at a school called Newington Green, that鈥檚 the name of the area as well, Newington Green, that was my primary and my junior school. The school was knocked down in order to be re-built and that all went on in 1937 and 1938 and old clever clogs Bernstein at all of the age of 10 said, 鈥業t鈥檚 a waste of time building a new school because it鈥檚 bound to be bombed.鈥� That was before, that was 1937, 1938 when I said that and I was right, it was bombed! It was a great new school and we were as it were sort of evacuated down the road to another school while this was being built. But you see the whole time there was this whether consciously or not, you were aware of something about to happen. I like to remember that because it wasn鈥檛 post facto, I wasn鈥檛 saying I do this and remembering it in 1960 something but at the time these things did impinge.

And of course near where I lived there were the Fascists - Moseley, Black Shirts marching, fighting going on. There was not far from us, well you鈥檝e got Hackney, Dalston and a little further on you鈥檝e got the real East End and there was a lot of fighting and you just couldn鈥檛 avoid seeing it. My parents, because my father is Jewish, my mother鈥檚 not Jewish so I was aware of all the anti-Semitism but my parents were very relaxed. I think sometimes perhaps too relaxed because I went out, I went to these, not intentionally to the meetings but I was in the area so I saw one or two bits and pieces of that as a ten year old that鈥檚 right.

I got the Junior Scholarship to Owens and so I had to leave the junior school but the war came in between. It was 1939 - 1st September was the day of evacuation. For the week before that I had to go to Owens with my stuff and my case packed and other people like me who had a new school, they had a new place to go to, evacuation 鈥� life was totally changing. We were there 鈥� each day we鈥檇 go and come home in the evening. And we鈥檇 go and during the day we had entertainment put on by the Masters and by the Prefects and we were told what we had to do and it was actually great fun, the weather was good! We had lots of lectures and what was called an 鈥楨pidiascope鈥� show. An 鈥楨pidiascope鈥� was like a forerunner of the slide show and so every day there were games to play so it was like an extended holiday. And then one day we were told 鈥榃e were off!鈥� and that was September the 1st 1939.

You were making new friends. There were one or two people who were at my junior school who came with me but otherwise it was new friends and then of course you were thrown into this melting pot once you got to Bedford. I was an only child and going away. The parents, you have to think about it, I didn鈥檛 think about it much at the time, I don鈥檛 think I could empathise as to what my parents were feeling. Later of course I could and when I became a parent of course, my goodness if that were to happen today

We went to school on Friday 1st September 1939 - we didn鈥檛 know we were going away though. The news that morning on the radio was that Hitler was going to, he probably had already, invaded Poland and that was the signal and so on the Friday we got the signal and we had to go. Now you see the important thing to remember, well one of the important things to remember, about the evacuation is that it was probably one of the best planned operations that that Government and the Local Authorities ever did. Because the plan had been put into process for well over a dozen years and there was a Committee run by Sir John Anderson, he of the 鈥楢nderson鈥� Shelter 鈥� and this Committee were very prescient, they got virtually everything right. For instance they said that we can鈥檛 rely on all the main line stations because there would be a big clog up if everybody goes there so a lot of the evacuation will have to go from outlying stations - not simply within London but outside London. We went from Mill Hill. From Islington our nearest station would be St.Pancras to Bedford or maybe King鈥檚 Cross going somewhere else, so they were just down the road from us. But we went from Mill Hill.

We went by tube from The Angel, Islington and then I think we got a bus to Mill Hill but I have a very good friend called Alan Locke and he probably knows this very well. We got a steam train from Mill Hill on the LMS, London Midland Scottish line, and that took us to Bedford. None of us knew where we were going. The Staff didn鈥檛 know, I mean our teachers didn鈥檛 know, the Prefects didn鈥檛 know and there were bets made, people were saying things and making silly jokes 鈥� we are going to Canada 鈥� but why this way? That鈥檚 to fool the Germans, and all this sort of rubbish was going on, it was a great event, I loved it. Where are we going? A sense of adventure! And there was also 鈥� it was unreal and wouldn鈥檛 last long and what happened in the First World War, people said 鈥榦h, you know you鈥檒l be home by Christmas鈥� they were saying that in this war as well. There were the gray beards who said, 鈥業t will be a long haul.鈥� But the majority of people felt that Hitler couldn鈥檛 last, he didn鈥檛 have the food, they didn鈥檛 have the supplies or resources to last through a long war so we were kind of relaxed!

The journey was longer than it subsequently took to come back on the train because we used to get trains back occasionally. Because it stopped quite often so I think the whole journey probably took about three to four hours. That was from Mill Hill not from St.Pancras. But it was a question of, I think, of trains stopping and waiting, people getting off at interim stations. We got off at Luton for a bit and just walked about on the platform and then back into the train. Then we arrived at Bedford.

It was very interesting and again people say we weren鈥檛 taken to the Cattle Market, I maintain that we were taken to the Cattle Market but anyway. There were people there, the Women鈥檚 Voluntary Service, WVS later the WRVS, and there were Scouts and they had clipboards and we were first all taken, marched really from the Station to a central point and from that central point we were taken to various parts of Bedford. We were walked from, well let鈥檚 say if its not the Cattle Market it was opposite where the Corn Exchange is, and my lot were marched to Goldington Green, to a school. It was a long walk, it had been a long day already and then a whole lot of us were in the Church at Goldington Green. I don鈥檛 think we were entertained, we entertained ourselves. One of us had a ball and we played football on The Green. Every so often we were shepherded into a room and we would sit down and one of these ladies with a clipboard would take us as a crocodile down the roads in that area. And at the time you think this is an adventure - when you look back at it you think so many things, so many factors that influenced your future life were decided in those few minutes. Because you鈥檇 walked down and you鈥檇 have this lady in front, a very nice lady, and she had a list of people who had said in the pre-planning that they would take an evacuee or two evacuees. So she鈥檇 go down and she鈥檇 ring a bell, here鈥檚 number 8 who鈥檚 going to take somebody, so she鈥檇 ring a bell and a woman would come to door, probably a woman, and she鈥檇 say to her, 鈥榊ou said you鈥檇 take two, which would you like?鈥� We were being sold if you like. I can say that, I didn鈥檛 feel that at the time and of course the longer it went on the longer you were still there you felt that you鈥檇 been really rejected. Then people would say things, 鈥榦h, I don鈥檛 think I do want one鈥� or try to get out of it - 鈥業 think only want one now really鈥�.

But I was taken in by Mrs Ethel Smith at 72 Newnham Avenue that was a house, I lived in a flat and this was a house! And there was a dog called Rover, I鈥檇 never had a dog and I always wanted a dog. And there was a Rover car as well in the drive - AMJ 725 - and these were middle class people, out of my league. There was the younger sister of Mrs. Smith, Doreen and she worked in the Telephone Exchange in Bedford. This was September the 1st and war was declared on September the 3rd 1939. On September the 3rd rumours went all about parts of Britain having been bombed and she鈥檇 been on the telephone exchange and this is ironic because they got a phone call from Coventry - which was to be really heavily bombed later in the war 鈥� and Coventry rang Bedford and said, 鈥楬ow are you doing, we understand that you have been 鈥樷�橞litzed鈥�, you have been bombed?鈥� And of course they hadn鈥檛 and she told us this, Doreen, I don鈥檛 suppose she should have told us. So there I was in a house and life was changing.

I stayed there not all that long, Mrs. Smith felt that it was a bit too much for her. But for the first few months I was there. I鈥檇 call her Mrs. Smith but they were referred to as billet ladies. There was no term for billet dad or foster father. Some, I believe were encouraged to call them mum because they were a temporary mum or just Mrs. So and so but maybe some were very modern and called by their first name but I called her always Mrs. Smith.

After three months she couldn鈥檛, she felt it was too much and Mr. Smith knew a window cleaner and this window cleaner said, 鈥業 think my wife would take an evacuee鈥�. And this lady鈥檚 name was also Ethel Smith and she lived in York Street which is by Russell Park. Quite a step down from Newnham Avenue. I could have called her Auntie Ethel but it was just Mrs. Smith and she was fabulous and this was the second one not the first one. And this Mrs. Ethel Smith was just lovely, fabulous and so was Mr. Smith. When I came to door she said, 鈥楧o you like rabbit?鈥� I鈥檇 never had rabbit and I said, 鈥榊es.鈥� I鈥檇 never had it. We had it for dinner which is lunch, we got it for dinner. And the following day Mr. Smith got me a dog! I鈥檇 left Rover behind.

And that was just magic, he got me a dog, yes. His name was Peter, he was a puppy and we grew up together. He was your mongrel, a real Heinz 57, a knock-out, black and white. I stayed there with a break, with a six month break somewhere else because she had to put up her relatives who had been 鈥橞litzed鈥�. So for six months I was staying somewhere else and then I came back and I think Peter survived the war and I went home at the end of the war. Wasn鈥檛 that marvellous! A total stranger!鈥�

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