Highlighting a Few Useful Accounts

Clara will not be daunted. Her life will not end when her beloved husband dies too young. She will become a second mother to the young children who live away from home in order to visit a rather special school.

"Girl in a Smart Uniform" is the third book in the Schellberg Cycle, a collection of novels inspired by a bundle of photocopied letters that arrived at a small cottage in Wales in 1979. The letters give us first-hand insights into what life was like growing up in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.

The house on Schellberg Street needs to stay strong. Will it and those who work in it be strong enough? Will Renate ever feel at home again? And what of those left behind?

Jessie is excited when her gran gets a white Alsatian puppy, but with Snowy's arrival a mystery starts to unfold. As Jessie learns about Nazi Germany at school, past and present begin to slot together and she uncovers something long-buried, troubling and somehow linked to another girl and another white dog…

An honest personal account of an extraordinary true story of survival

Ruth Barnett "Person of No Nationality"

Ruth came to England in 1939 with her older brother Martin. Her father was a Jew and her mother was German. She had a slightly different experience form our own Renate Edler, whose mother was a Jew and whose father was German, but there are many parallels.

Like Renate, she didn’t know whether she was German, Jewish or English. Renate had most problems with her Jewishness but perhaps Ruth had more problems with being German: she was very young when she first left Germany. Both girls forgot their German.

The uncertainty about identity caused both girls to become depressed. Both girls ended up sleeping for a long time when they finally gave into their tiredness.

Amusingly Ruth had the opposite problem from Renate when it came to beds: the German bed with its bed roll and square pillows puzzled Ruth when she went back to Germany for the first time. Renate was puzzled by the sheets, blankets eiderdown and bedspread when she first arrived in London.

Ruth’s story shows that though the Kindertransport was well-intentioned and though it did save many lives, it did not supply a happy-ever-after ending. Both girls had three different foster homes. Ruth had some bad experiences in her first foster home. Renate was well-treated everywhere. Both girls found their parents alive again. So in many ways they were more fortunate than some of the other Kinder.

The worst for both of them was the feeling of not belonging anywhere. Renate had her serendipitous German passport but returned to Germany in 1947 as a British citizen with a British passport. Ruth had to travel as a “Person of No Nationality”. But both girls suffered from confusion about whether they were English, German or Jewish and therefore lacked an identity.

The question is, is this resolved for Renate?

Ah, well, you will just have to read the book. While you’re waiting for it to be finished, you could read Ruth’s book. 

                            

The Holocaust Centre

I visited the Holocaust Centre yesterday. It is a really good museum and appropriate memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. I managed to get to talk to one of the survivors, Ruth Barnett. Like my mother-in-law, she survived by coming to England. She experienced similar feelings of unworthiness that my main character shows in my novel.

The two exhibitions at the Centre are very impressive: the Holocaust Exhibition and the Journey. The main exhibition is quite hard-hitting. It seems likely, from what I read there, that Clara Lehrs was shot, not gassed. That seems quite frightening but actually being gassed was not a pleasant way to die. Many victims lingered for quite a while.

The Journey is aimed at KS3 children and gives a real sense of what it might have been like to be a Jew in hiding and then a child on the Kindertransport. It is an extremely well thought-out exhibition. It replicates a German house where a Jewish family lived, a German school room, complete with picture of Hitler on the wall, a street scene on Kristall Nacht, a Jewish tailor’s shop with a hiding place, and a railway carriage which show films about the Kindertransport and the transportation to concentration and death camps. The final room is an exhibition. Throughout the Journey, one hears extracts for Leo’s diary. Leo is a young German Jew who starts to find life difficult and is then brought to England on the Kindertransport.

There are many opportunities to listen to and read survivor reports throughout the museum. The library also has a vast collection of many more. Normally, if there is a school group visiting, a survivor comes to speak and if there is enough space, the general public can listen as well.

The Memorial gardens are beautifully peaceful and provide a good space for some quiet contemplation. Over 800 people have planted white roses in memory of an individual who perished in the Holocaust.  A pity we did not know about this in time to do something for Clara Lehrs. But perhaps we can find something similar or start our own initiative.

If you know me, you will not be surprised that I bought three more books whilst there.     

I’m hoping to get there again. I was really well looked after by all of the staff there yesterday.