shoe bag

Shoe bag made of red cotton with red ribbbon drawstring at the neck. The bag is decorated with small dark blue and yellow flowers. A label bearing the name 'Calvelli-Adorno', embroidered in blue, is sewn on the inside of the neck.

This shoe bag was made for Elisabeth by her mother before she left Germany on one of the Kindertransports on 27th June 1939. Elisabeth recalls her experiences: 'Before we left, my parents and grandparents had organised an excursion to the Rhine -we had tea in Rüdesheim. We said good-bye to our parents in the station hall; Ute, a young cousin of ours slipped into our carriage before we left to say good-bye. My brother (12 years) travelled with me (13 years) -we both wrote letters in the train to our parents -these were posted in London on the 28th June. My brother wrote in pencil, I wrote in ink, both, of course, in German script (Sütterlin). My parents kept the letters until war broke out (August 1939) and we resumed correspondence about September 1945 via a US soldier -there was no regular post at that time. My parents and young sister Agathe survived -my father having had a Jewish mother went into hiding for the last weeks/months. My Jewish step-grandmother came back from Teresienstadt in June 1945, very ill, died in December. My father, Franz, a state lawyer (Judge in Germany) lost his job and from April 1933 onwards earned his living with music and played for a while in the FrankfurtKulturbund Orchester, a Jewish orchestra founded in 1933/34 with Jewish musicians who had been sacked from official orchestras. He had to leave this orchestra in 1938 because he was not wholly Jewish. Arrived with my brother Ludwig Calvelli-Adorno. We had a guarantor family in Purley, and they picked us up at LSS -they found us immediately. I think we had labels round our necks and our guarantor held up a piece of cardboard with his name on. They did not keep us when the war broke out. My brother Ludwig was for a time at Barham House, Ipswich, and I spent 3 months at the Beacon, Rusthall, near Tunbridge Wells. After various moves we eventually joined up in 1942, with an English couple in Rickmansworth and stayed with them for 10 years. I came back to Frankfurt in December 1955 to marry Kurt Reinhuber and I have lived here ever since. I have three children and six grandchildren. I am so untypical, have suffered so very much less than nearly every other kinder . . . my parents survived (my father having had a Jewish mother) and I am now living in Germany.'

This bag was made for Elisabeth by her mother before she left Germany on one of the Kindertransports on 27th June 1939. Elisabeth says of her experiences: 'Before we left, my parents and grandparents had organised an excursion to the Rhein -we had tea in Rüdesheim. We said good-bye to our parents in the station hall; Ute, a young cousin of ours slipped into our carriage before we left to say good-bye. My brother (12 years) travelled with me (13 years) -we both wrote letters in the train to our parents -these were posted in London on the 28th June. My brother wrote in pencil, I wrote in ink, both, of course, in German script (Sütterlin). My parents kept the letters until war broke out (August 1939) and we resumed correspondence about September 1945 via a US soldier -there was no regular post at that time. My parents and young sister Agathe survived -my father having had a Jewish mother went into hiding for the last weeks/months. My Jewish step-grandmother came back from Teresienstadt in June 1945, very ill, died in December. My father, Franz, a state lawyer (Judge in Germany) lost his job and from April 1933 onwards earned his living with music and played for a while in the FrankfurtKulturbund Orchester, a Jewish orchestra founded in 1933/34 with Jewish musicians who had been sacked from official orchestras. He had to leave this orchestra in 1938 because he was not wholly Jewish. Arrived with my brother Ludwig Calvelli-Adorno. We had a guarantor family in Purley, and they picked us up at LSS (no need to go into the hall so many children have reported on) -they found us immediately. I think we had labels round our necks and our guarantor held up a piece of cardboard with his name on. They did not keep us when the war broke out. My brother Ludwig was for a time at Barham House, Ipswich, and I spent 3 months at the Beacon, Rusthall, near Tunbridge Wells. After various moves we eventually joined up in 1942, with an English couple in Rickmansworth and stayed with them for 10 years. I came back to Frankfurt in December 1955 to marry Kurt Reinhuber and I have lived here ever since. I have three children and six grandchildren. I am so untypical, have suffered so very much less than nearly every other kinder . . . my parents survived (my father having had a Jewish mother) and I am now living in Germany . . .'.

Calvelli-Adorno