Description
Object description
Austrian Jewih civilian in Vienna, Austria, 1930-1938; civilian refugee in GB, 1938-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Vienna, Austria, 1930-1938: family home; family and memories of childhood; details of photographs donated to Imperial War Museum including education; impact of Nazism on family; story of seeing Hitler speaking in Vienna; question of mixing with non- Jewish children; religion; experience of Kristallnacht, 8-9/11/1938; organisation of place on Kindertransport; preparations for journey including presents from father and on arrival at Lyons hostel; contact with Gestapo on German-Dutch border; activities in Netherlands. Aspects of period as civilian refugee in GB, 1938-1945: reception on arrival; forced donation of clothes to orphanage and reaction; children and staff of hostel; description of Joe Lyons hostel, The Haven, in Camden Town.
REEL 2 Continues: rations including organisation of refugees' education; learning of English; memories of Lyons family members; organisation of moves of parents including subsequent contact with parents; death of grandfather in Austria; move of paternal grandmother to Britain; settling of parents in Britain; evacuations to Taunton and Isle of Wight; return to mother and subsequent homelessness; accommodation with Quaker woman; civilian work; reason for move to Wales; life in Welsh boarding school including internment of father on Isle of Man; reunions with school friends; civilian work of father after internment including story of believing he had been drowned on the Arandora Star; settling of parents in Britain. Aspects of period as civilian in GB from 1945: return to live with parents; reasons for not attending university and civilian work; degree taken through Open University.
REEL 3 Continues: settling into life after boarding school; fate of family in Vienna; question of attendance at Kindertransport reunions and Jewish identity; marriage; return visits to Vienna; compensation received from Austrian government; memories of Uncle Ludvig.