Description
Physical description
small metal fork with decoration round the edge of the handle. The handle is engraved with the name 'Berta'.
Label
Bertha Leverton brought this fork in her luggage when she was evacuated from Germany to the United Kingdom on the Kindertransport in January 1939: 'When I was one year old, my grandmother Malka Zimmerlinski, who lived in Nuremberg gave me a set of cutlery, fork, knife and spoon. Only the fork remains.' Bertha came from an Orthodox Polish-Jewish family who lived in Munich, Germany. She was included in Kindertransport because, although having been born in Germany, she held a Hungarian passport and was deemed to be in greater danger than her German-passport holding friends. These friends were eventually murdered and Bertha remained the sole survivor. A family in Coventry took her in to be their maid and eventually took in her brother and sister (Ingelhard Malka Sadan). Bertha's parents managed to escape from Germany in 1940 and finally made their way to neutral Portugal. From here they were able to travel to England in 1944, where they were reunited with their children.
Bertha conceived and organised the Fiftieth Anniversary Reunion of Kindertransport in 1989 and was a principal organiser of the 1999 Sixtieth Anniversary reunion. She also compiled and co-edited a collection of remembrances of the transports entitled 'I Came Alone'. For more information about Bertha's experiences see: 'I Came Alone : the stories of the Kindertransports', edited by Bertha Leverton and Shmuel Lowensohn (1990).
History note
Bertha Leverton brought this fork in her luggage when she was evacuated from Germany to the United Kingdom on the Kindertransport in the late 1930s:
'When I was one year old, my grandmother Malka Zimmerlinski, who lived in Nuremberg gave me a set of cutlery, fork, knife and spoon. Only the fork remains.'
Bertha came from an Orthodox Polish-Jewish family who lived in Munich, Germany.
Bertha was chosen to be in the Kindertransport because even though she had been born in Germany she had a Hungarian passport. Therefore, she was supposedly in more danger than her friends who had German passports. Sadly, all her friends were murdered and Bertha was the only one to survive.
A family in Coventry took her in to be their maid and eventually took in her brother and sister (Ingelhard Malka Sadan). They do not seem to have been treated very well by their foster parents.
Bertha's parents managed to escape from Germany in 1940 and finally made their way to Portugal which was a neutral country. From here they were able to travel to England in 1944, where they were reunited with their children.
Bertha conceived and organised the Fiftieth Anniversary Reunion of Kindertransport in 1989 and was a principal organiser of the 1999 Sixtieth Anniversary reunion.
She also compiled and co-edited a collection of remembrances of the transports entitled 'I Came Alone'.
For more information about Bertha's experiences see: 'I Came Alone : the stories of the Kindertransports', edited by Bertha Leverton and Shmuel Lowensohn (1990).
'Into the Arms of Strangers : stories of the Kindertransports', by Mark Jonathan Harris and Deborah Oppenheimer (2000).
Engraved on the handle
Berta
