Description
Object description
Austrian Jewish civilian emigrated on Kindertransport from Austria to GB, 7/1939; interned in GB and Australia, 1940-1942; private with Pioneer Corps in GB, 1942; NCO with Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in GB, 1942-1945; NCO with British Army and Allied Control Commission in Germany, 1945-1948
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Vienna, Austria, 1923-1938: family; education; experiences of anti-Semitism including steps taken to resist; awareness of political situation in Germany; political problems within Austria in 1920s and 1930s; knowledge of military activity around world; discussion of 1938 Anschluss with Germany including arrival of Nazis in Vienna; events following Anschluss including exclusion from school; affects on father's business; treatment of Jewish people; visit of Adolf Hitler to Vienna including attendance by family's maid at his speech.
REEL 2 Continues: story of father's friend talking about effect of Nazism on Jewish people in Hamburg; initial attempts at emigration; opinion of term Kristallnacht; arrest and imprisonment in Dachau of father following Kristallnacht, 9/11/1938-10/11/1938; arrangement of place on Kindertransport; details of train journey from Vienna to Netherlands; voyage to Britain. Aspects of period as civilian in GB, 1938-1939: arrival and conditions at Dovercourt camp; treatment received including opinion of entertainments; knowledge of English language including lessons at Dovercourt.
REEL 3 Continues: length of period at Dovercourt; further details of English lessons; description of foster selection process; period at Barham House near Ipswich; accommodation in Ilford; involvement in religious life; education; contact with family; separate emigration of parents and brother; news from war; reasons for not expecting a German invasion; description and result of enemy alien tribunal. Aspects of internment in GB, 1940: arrest and events at police station, 17/5/1939; period at Kempton Park Racecourse including accommodation; details of stay in camp at Huyton.
REEL 4 Continues: camp song; accommodation during internment on Isle of Man; details of course taken; relationship with guards; fears during invasion scare; reasons for volunteering for move to Canada; treatment during march through Liverpool. Aspects of journey from Liverpool, GB, to Sydney, Australia, aboard HMT Dunera, 7/1940-9/1940: treatment from British soldiers onboard; conditions below deck including use of barbed wire; knowledge of destination; physical exercise; state of passengers on arrival in Australia.
REEL 5 Continues: arrival in Sydney. Aspects of period interned in Australia, 1940-1942: train journey to internment camp at Hay; reception on arrival; details of guards; climate; description of accommodation; coping with climate; organisation among inmates; supply of meals; rations; later punishment of troops aboard HMT Dunera; items issued in camp; desire for release; reaction to possibility of joining Pioneer Corps; inmates sunk on return to GB; joining of British Army; period in camp at Liverpool; details of route taken on voyage to GB including period in Halifax, Canada; description of voyage across North Atlantic; second internment on Isle of Man and re-joining of British Army. Aspects of period as private with Pioneer Corps in GB, 1942: posting to Huyton; health problems and hospitalisation; story of haircut in St Helens.
REEL 6 Continues: pattern of training; background of troops; background to leaving Pioneer Corps. Aspects of period as craftsman with Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in GB, 1942-1945: changes from Pioneer Corps; duties in No 4 Workshop; continuation of education by correspondence including change of accommodation to aid study; gaining of place at university; period at London School of Economics. Aspects of period as NCO with British Army and Allied Control Commission in Germany, 1945-1948: posting as army interpreter in Germany after war; reactions on coming into contact with Germans including story of interrogation of local Nazi leader; translation work including reflections on trials attended; role with Allied Control Commission in Westphalia; inspection of prisons including story of visit to children's prison; reactions to death row including construction of guillotine; protection from executions by colonel; story of pregnant prisoner on death row.
REEL 7 Continues: involvement with de-Nazification programme; story of talk with unrepentant senior German officer including help gained from army discipline; return to Vienna; reunion with childhood friend Paul Sondhof including account of Sondhof's experience during war and its results; contact with concentration camp survivors; family members lost in Holocaust; death of mother; reunion with father in 1947.