And… they [Jewish refugees from Bratislava who came without their children] were desperate for their children to come over. So they asked my father to do something about it. And the only thing they could think of is that my mother would go with her passport, and four children on the passport, would go to Bratislava, pick up four children, bring them to their parents and go back, backwards and forwards. Didn’t quite work out that way. But she did go to Bratislava. And she took four children, but they didn’t speak a word of French. And they had to cross Austria which was in German hands, and there were all the Nazis. It was a nightmare journey, literally, because the children weren’t allowed to talk. And one was called Jacques, the other one Danièle, the other one Philippe, the other one Francoise. Not a word of …French. And Germany wasn’t like it is today, obviously; it took them forty-eight hours I think… till she got to Strasbourg. And when she got to Strasbourg, her father came, no her uncle came to fetch her at the station, she collapsed because it was too much of a strain. So her parents made my father …swear that he wouldn’t send her again; it was too much. So, four children were saved, and then the war came.
