WE WERE LUCKY
An autobiography by Hilde Gerrard neé Weissenberg, born 1907 FOUNDATIONS OF A NEW LIFEIn the town where we lived - Colne - there was no bookshop and we contemplated opening a business there. We had very little money but that did not discourage us. Neighbours told us of the auction of a house with a lovely big shop on the main road. We could not bid for it but were curious to see what was going to happen, so we went to the auction. The house was large with the shop and the kitchen downstairs, four rooms on the first floor and two attic bedrooms. Opposite the house practised a chiropodist where Mr. Blakey's toenails got attention, and he saw all the people going into the auction. When he heard the house was for sale, he came over as soon as he had his shoes on.
The bidding was in progress, when this tall white-haired gentleman came in. "I thought I might be too late" he said; joined the bidding and bought the property for £1,200.00.
When he was a little boy, he played in the house with his friends and had enjoyed climbing through the windows. He loved the house. Now he was a retired bank manager and saw an opportunity of investing his money. Gerhard asked him if we could become his tenants and open a bookshop. He thought for a moment and replied that he did not know us but invited us for supper the next day. We went about seven times to his house, finally becoming his tenants and his friends.
When he heard how little money we had, he insisted on becoming the director of our firm and investing £200.00. At that time we were still aliens and needed a British partner or director. When we heard his proposition we thought a fairy tale was happening to us. We came to England as domestics - via internment, boiler man, gardener, ironmonger, home guard, we could now go back to bookselling - the job we both loved. We signed the contract with Mr Blakey, started the shop and he became our director. We arranged for our belongings, which were stored in Milwaukee, USA, to be sent to us in England.
Our belongings consisted of about 4 large wooden cases, which Mrs Swift packed for us, after we had to leave the south coast within a few hours. We directed them to a London Dock warehouse. As the London Docks were heavily bombed and we knew that we wanted to settle in Milwaukee, we sent the cases to our friends there. We wrote the name of the ship they were travelling in to Walter and Margot Heinemann and received a newspaper cutting some weeks later, in which the bombing of this ship was described. The main cargo was whiskey and the Germans tried to hit it several times and in spite of the chase the boat reached the States with all its cargo. When we opened the boxes after their return, we were so pleased to have part of our belongings again, but very disappointed to unpack the broken china, which I treasured as having belonged to my parents and for which we had paid storage. The children put the contents straight into the dustbin.
In 1946 it was very difficult to obtain book supplies. Only established booksellers received a quota from publishers and the trade was protected.
Gerhard was a trained bookseller, well read and this was an opportunity to go back to his beloved profession. In Germany the status of the bookseller is close to that of a profession and the emphasis is on the "book", which means that if you enter a bookshop you can get advice on the choice and take advantage of the knowledge of a well-read person. In England it is the "seller" not the adviser that is valued. We had very little money but that did not represent the greatest difficulty. Gerhard went to London and visited the publishers, asking them to open accounts and many of them were willing to do so. One publisher, where one of the partners became Prime Minister later on shook his hand, congratulating him on his courage to open a bookshop in a provincial town. We both knew the German book trade and the German literature but started gingerly, as we had to learn a lot about English books ourselves.
The shop was situated next to the public library, but for the rectory, which stood between them. Friends said to us: you are too near to the library; people will borrow, but not buy, but this turned out not to be the case. Our new course was set and we started. Our landlord, Mr Blakey came nearly daily to the shop and took a great interest in it. After about six months he fell ill with pneumonia. We visited him daily and he died in my arms, We missed him very much and all the 25 years we had his large photo in the office and treasured his memory to this day.
After Mr Blakey's death a good friend of ours, Lionel Cowan, stepped into the breach and became our new director. He supported us over many years with words and deeds.
Our business consisted of the book department and a stationery department. The business grew gradually and whatever we sold was of good quality. As the years went by our name became well known as a business of high standard. We only took money out for food and necessities and all the earnings were ploughed back. Gerhard bought the books and I bought the stationery and leather goods. We opened a second shop in Nelson, which is much larger than Colne. Gerhard took over the Nelson shop and I stayed in Colne. We had assistants in both shops, which gave me a chance to look after my household at the same time, as we still lived above the shop. The children had the advantage that mother was always at home.
After about one year when we opened the shop in Colne, we got a letter from the American Consulate, asking us to come for an interview in London about entering the United States.
How much heartache, distress, homelessness, would have been avoided if that permission would have come earlier! Heaven would have opened in our eyes.