- Contributed byÌý
- parkside-community
- People in story:Ìý
- Edwin and Connie Rosenstiel
- Location of story:Ìý
- Putney, London
- Background to story:Ìý
- Civilian
- Article ID:Ìý
- A7882590
- Contributed on:Ìý
- 19 December 2005
During the war my grandparents were labelled ‘enemy aliens’, they were German refugees in Britain. During spring 1940, Hitler was capturing more and more countries and many expected the Germans to evade England any day. Because they were Jewish refugees my grandparents would have been in great danger if this had happened, so they decided to hurry up and get married before they were invaded, and they ended up having to get married on Hitler’s birthday because that was they only day available.
A lot of German and Italian refugees were suspected of being part of the ‘fifth column’ and were interned in camps. The police started calling round in the mornings for people so they started going for morning walks. When eventually they were told to report to the police station, they went down there and discovered that the police station had been bombed the night before and by the time the police had found the paperwork for it, they had stopped interning.
I think this may be one of the only times that the bombs had any sort of positive effect.
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