I was one of the lucky ones [in Buchenwald]. The fellow who shaved me said ‘3 tips for you: keep your eyes open, your mouth shut & your legs moving. People were whipped. Some committed suicide. We were forced to witness an execution. Not very pleasant. We were inside a large forest in winter. I don’t know what other prisoners did but I looked at nature & forgot about the fence. The snow-covered trees were a sight to behold. In the meantime the German Jewish Refugee Committee in connection with the [UK] government after Kristallnacht instituted a scheme – have you heard of Kitchener Camp? It was for ex-concentration camp inmates only. They allowed us to come on a 9-month permit.

How were we received? Well, they didn’t put the red carpet out [laughs], they didn’t realise Big Dick was coming you see! Well, nice, you know, we were allocated our quarters, told what to do, given little tickets for the dining room & stuff. We were taken to help out possibly to a farm & I did some hop picking. We got paid for that. Apart from that we got 6d to buy our food, that was our pocket money. We had reasonable lives there. Then the war broke out & they came to classify us A, B & C aliens. Anybody A status went straight to the camp. B if you were a bit iffy but you were tolerated. C you were a friendly alien. Then a bit later they came & gave us a transfer into the army. I was definitely C – do I look like an enemy alien? My wife came over & stayed in Sandwich. Then there were other wives so they made room in the camp for wives. My wife stayed in the camp for a while, so although I had to sleep, you know we were, we had to find our marital pleasures elsewhere. Eventually she went to London when I joined the army & was sent abroad.