WE WERE LUCKY
An autobiography by Hilde Gerrard neé Weissenberg, born 1907 MORE CHANGESThe children and I started our journey to Harpers Farm. It was an old house with a small kitchen, four dogs and an Indian man servant, Feroh Shah, in it. After a few days Elizabeth and Bobbi, our hosts, went to London taking Feroh Shah with them and leaving us at the farm. The offer to take us was made out of a generous heart but, as they left, they made no provisions for food. I began to boil cabbages out of the garden. Christmas came and we got a lot of chocolates sent by our refugee friends from London. I fed the children on chocolate. After Christmas Gerhard got a few days off and came to visit us. We continued using cabbages and it was amazing in how many ways one could prepare cabbages. After his departure we wanted to settle down. The light went out and I smelled burning. It was a bitterly cold day, lots of snow and the pipes were frozen.
I followed the burning smell to the bedroom and found the electric wires on fire, the wood round the fireplace scorched and the curtains in flames. My children were downstairs with the four dogs. I wondered what to do first. The nearest house was a long way away, but the telephone worked. I rang Elizabeth's mother in the village and people came to help put out the fire. It was a frightening experience, when the curtains were in flames, the water pipes frozen, nobody to help me near. All smelled of burning.
Next morning Elizabeth came to release us from a very cold bare house. She took us to their London home in Regents Park. I don't know how they came to possess such a beautiful house, because money was very scarce. In London we met Robert and Feroh Shah again as the three lived there, whilst we were at the farmhouse. The family was looking for a cook and now that the children and I were staying with them in London, they suggested that Gerhard should come back from Weston-super-Mare to be their cook. He worked his notice there and joined us.
We had no money but were together. Just as we ate cabbages for days, or rather weeks, at Harpers Farm, we now ate rice, which Gerhard found in large quantities in the Regents Park house larder. We had the rice in all imaginable variety, as supplies of fresh food and money did not seem to be forthcoming.
After only a few days in the London house, we heard Elizabeth calling us in the night to help her find her husband, who had run out into the snow-covered park, dressed only in his pyjamas. He felt persecuted since he fell from a horse in India. He could not sleep, the nights became frightening, especially as he ran through the house with a dagger.
Ater bringing the children safely to Britain, I was terribly afraid he might harm them, so I went with them to Bloomsbury House. It was the Centre for all Jewish Refugees to get advice or help. I told them the circumstances and they agreed to take them into their "Home for Friendless Children" at Highbury. The home, which was full, was run by refugees. Visiting time one hour on Sunday.
I came back to Regents Park without the children, but did not want to hurt Elizabeth and Robert and told them a white lie, saying that I had met a friend, who insisted that the children stay with her. Gerhard and I continued to stay with them for the time being. They were both so warmhearted and we felt sorry that such an illness should overshadow their lives.
Elizabeth and Robert were so nice to us and asked us to invite our friends, who were scattered in different jobs, none of them having a home of their own. I rang and wrote to our friends inviting them and Elizabeth promised not to provide anything but a cup of tea. On that day she did not let me go into one of their rooms to tidy up. In the evening, when it was opened we saw that Elizabeth had prepared sandwiches and cake. About thirty friends arrived and both of them joined us and we all enjoyed a party. It also became an important day for some, who met there and never parted.
We could have stayed on but we had to earn money and we also wanted our children with us. We advertised therefore offering our services as domestic "married couple" and accepted a post in Sussex. Elizabeth understood our situation and years later both came to visit us in Yorkshire. We corresponded with them for many years.
It was a wonderful moment When we could collect our children from the "Home for Friendless Children". Whilst they were there we had not been allowed to see them during the week. I knew that the whole lot of children went for a walk during the morning, so I waited at some hidden place to watch them trotting along, two in a row. They wore strange clothes although their own were in their suitcases. It did not matter so long as they were well. They did not see me and I would never have wanted them to see me, as the tears ran down my cheeks, as I trailed that walk. Now I could collect them and we all could take the train to Battle.
Our employers were the family Swift and Mrs Swift and one of her daughters met us at the station and, after a drive, we were soon introduced to their large house. Mr Swift was a Commander in the Royal Navy and we were made very welcome by them and their large family, who were grown up. We had nice servant's quarters, the family played with the children and let them into their garden. It was all wonderful and we were so grateful. They in turn appreciated our work and as my niece Ulla had a few days holiday and I happened to mention it, they insisted that Ulla as well was to come and visit us.
My sister and brother-in-law lived in Berlin. He was a dental surgeon. He came into the general round-up of Jews in a concentration camp and his release depended on producing an entry visa into another country. They managed to get the visa to Shanghai and with that his release. Their daughter Ulla was chosen by her school for a children's transport to Britain and so their path divided. Ulla, after finishing her schooling, became a sister and midwife in the Elizabeth Garret Anderson Hospital in London.
The days with the Swift family were the happiest that we had in those years. Mrs Swift paid me a compliment, which cheered me up. She said to me: "Hilde, we never had such clean toilets as we have at present", - and that gave me hope that if things got worse I could always make my way as a lavatory cleaner with such a recommendation! How else can one show one's gratitude if one is employed to clean, than by doing it as well as possible. She thought that everything sparkled.