In March 1939, I went on the Kindertransport to Belgium [from Vienna]. It’s generally thought that the Kindertransport was only for England. But people in Belgium, Holland & France also took children. I was just dispassionate about the whole thing.

I got to Brussels. The Neumann family. They had 2 small children of their own. They treated me as part of the family. I was made to write home to Vienna. I thought that was a bit of a chore rather than something that I was keen to do. The only time something went wrong, the only time I felt alienated, so to say, was when I caught mumps at school. Liesl Neumann, my–let’s call her foster mother–was anxious about her own little children. They lived in a 1930s house with a room upstairs & an open flat roof. It was very hot. The roof was tarred. I remember being exiled to this place, really felt unhappy. But that was the only time. Otherwise I had my first girlfriend, the niece of Hugo Neumann. We went to the cinema. I learnt to ride a bicycle. I got some very bad reports about my misbehaviour, but apart from that…