When Hitler came I was once put in front of the class to show this is what a typical German girl looks like, because I had blue eyes & blonde hair. But not long after that I was chucked out of the school because I was Jewish, although I didn’t really know it until my birthday. A polite letter, sorry, etc, etc, etc.

I think it was my 14th birthday when nearly all the girls who had been invited had some sort of excuse for not coming. Then I was told that I was Jewish. I didn’t even know what it meant because we didn’t keep anything. Oh, we did keep Christmas, we had a Christmas tree, but in a non-religious way, just presents. I can’t really remember exactly, but it was quite a shock. I was like everybody else: enjoying the same things, doing the same things, eating the same things, because we ate what everybody else ate, pork, sausages, the lot, whatever. Then suddenly they got slightly different from us. I don’t think I really took it in very much.

I was then sent to an American school to learn some English for a few months. After that my parents, who didn’t really discuss things with us very much—we didn’t realise quite what the dangers were but we realised that our life wouldn’t continue the way it did then. They thought they should prepare me for life abroad but they didn’t quite know where it would be. They were thinking about Yugoslavia, they were thinking of Argentina. In the end I actually finished up in England.