WE WERE LUCKY
An autobiography by Hilde Gerrard neé Weissenberg, born 1907 INTERNMENT AND SEPARATIONThose happy days came suddenly to an end one Sunday afternoon. We were in our room, the children asleep in their cots, when the village policeman came in and arrested Gerhard for internment. The children woke up and could not understand but still remember the occasion. Battle was near the coast and for fear we might signal the Nazis, who were our bitterest enemies, the Government interned the men on 12th May 1940. Only a few days later on the 19th, the women and children had to leave the coast as well. My good family Swift had the car ready to take us to the train for London. Shortly after we started in Battle, Mrs Swift had thought it such a waste of money to pay storage in London for our luggage, which consisted of cases with household linen, carpet, china etc whilst her unused stables were empty. We wanted to stay a long time together and she made us have all our belongings directed to their house. I had unpacked everything in the clean, dry stables and now we had to leave in a few hours. I could not repack all our things and we had to leave the job to Mrs Swift, whilst we left with only a few of our possessions. The luggage had an Odyssey of its own.
All the coasts of Britain were banned to foreigners but we were allowed to be in London and so we went there. I left our suitcase in Waterloo Station, had a child on each hand and did not know where to go from there. I made my way once again to the Bloomsbury House. The children did not know why my eyes watered such a lot on that day and they were given pencils in all colours by the staff. We had no home, not even a temporary roof and had no idea where Gerhard was.
The Bullett's home was also in the banned area but I thought I could talk to them about my plight, so I rang them up. They gave me the telephone number of their friends, Mr and Mrs Scot Fawell, which I never forgot. I was a complete stranger to them and they asked us to come to their house in Addison Way, which we did. They had two daughters, Allison and Anne, who were a little older than the twins. They were Quakers, they shared their beds, giving us their own. Their children played with the twins and Ruth Fawell insisted that I rested in their garden. The understanding and kindness was wonderful and I began to think again how to keep going.
Gerhard's brother Albert and his wife Bertchen, who had also to leave Italy, did domestic service in East Grinstead. He was interned at the same time as Gerhard and they happened to meet in the same camp. I rang Bertchen, who was still at the same address and she wanted to join me, so we decided to apply together for a job if we could find somebody who would accept us with the twins. I always thought that it could not be long now before our turn came to get the American visa. We had to live in the meantime somewhere, so we advertised our services as cook and housemaid. We got an offer and accepted in Teddington; Bertchen as the cook and I as the housemaid.
In the beginning of June we moved to Mr and Mrs Price in Teddinton. He was 81, a tall straight, well-dressed man with white hair. Mrs Price was small, younger, slim and very attractive. They were both tolerant, well educated, nice people and willing to have us. The feeling against foreigners rose more and more. "Intern the lot" was the slogan amongst the uninformed sector of the population and we were "Germans". Mr and Mrs Price asked us not to go out and we tried to comply.
The house was old with two floors of high rooms and an attic. Bertchen's room was in the attic; my room with the children in the basement. The kitchen was in the basement too. It was very dark down there, as the windows were three-quarters below ground level and little light could enter. The house had a garden and the children were allowed to play there, otherwise they stayed with us in the basement. The food was wholesome but not plentiful. The house was lit by gas. It was most important that everything should be served in a very civilised style upstairs in the dining room. Since the kitchen was in the basement, it meant taking all the plates, cutlery and food upstairs.
Mrs Price was knitting for the war effort and every few weeks about fifteen ladies came to the house to a knitting parity and had tea. All went well concerning the work. Every few weeks I travelled to the American Embassy in London to enquire about our visa, believing that it could not be long now until our turn came. It was the 15th August 1940 when I went again and on my return the first bombs fell. Night after night the bombers returned. The anti-aircraft guns fired and I learned to distinguish the noises that came nearer and more frequently from one night to the next. During the day the work; during the night the bombs; there was little sleep and I learned to snatch it during the night, so long as the children slept.
The first sirens frightened them, so we invented a game. As soon as the sirens sounded they both climbed into a fireside chair, which stood in the kitchen and had a high back. We drew and played, I had the idea that the back of the chair could have protected them, when the house collapsed. We had no air-raid shelter near and as we were already in the basement there was no sense in moving anywhere else. Bertchen moved down from the attic into our cellar as well but Mr and Mrs Price could not be pursuaded to move down. Dinner had to be served upstairs and the sirens coincided with the fall of night but they would not hear of changing their habits. Mr Price said: "I am not going to be told by Hitler to change my way of life". Many times I thanked God that the plates and I didn't roll down the stairs together during the noise and shaking of it all.
From East Grinstead Bertchen heard that her former employer, a lady of about 50 and her son, who came home for his leave, went to church. During the service the church had a direct hit and both were killed instantly.
Gerhard, who read about the bombing, wrote from the Internment Camp, Douglas, Isle of Man, in his letters how much he wanted to be with us. Some of the internees were to be transferred to Canada and he thought that we might be able to go with him in the transport. We should be in readiness if he should send us a wire to join him. We packed a suitcase with our winter outfits and were imagining the snow and the new life there - and were waiting to be called. The plans were changed and he wrote that he migh be sent to Australia, and we might be able to join him and should be ready for the journey to Australia. We emptied the suitcase, packed summer things and transferred bur imagination to the hot wide open spaces in Australia. The call to join Gerhard and travel with him never came. They stayed in the Isle of Man and Bertchen and I continued to post custard powder, jelly etc to supply the brothers with the ingredients for their side line - their café business. In the afternoon, when they had time, they produced delicacies like jelly and custard, sold it and that provided them with pocket money.
The fire fighting rota was introduced and Mrs Price told me to go for training to the Fire Station in Teddington, as having got British hospitality I ought to do my share for the war effort. I was glad of any opportunity to fight back. I learned how to extinguish small incendiary bombs; how to carry even heavy men and how to find my way trough a house in darkness. One order however I was sure not to obey: in case the house caught fire, I was to go upstairs, take a large sized oil painting portrait of her son in uniform and carry it to safety. She must have forgotten that I had two small children to bring to safety. Mr and Mrs Price were very nice people and it was a relief to be able to talk to them.
On the 11th October we had a terrible air-raid. Flares came down as markers for the bombs and the anti-aircraft guns came into action. The bombing was very near us and even houses in our immediate area were desyroyed. Unfortunately Anlaby Street was in an unprotected area; the district just round the corner had been declared a protected area. The people, especially the children in the protected area, had been evacuated, but the neutral area had not and we were forced to continue living in the front line. The full moon was the worst time for us, as it showed the bend of the Thames and the target seemed to have been the National Physical Laboratory, which was very near our house. On the 15th November in a dreadful air-raid during which about two hundred houses were destroyed, we lost all our windows. The frames also broke and we were surprised and grateful to be still alive. In December the raids increased even more and I had to put the children under a heavy table, imagining that it would protect them from the rubble of the house. Sometimes Bertchen had a nervous breakdown and no wonder.
I went again to the American Consulate to find that the conditions had changed. In order to be given a visa - if one had reached one's turn - one had also to produce a boat passage. There were scarcely any ships going, so once again we were caught in a new tangle. As soon as one had obtained the demanded papers, they were thinking of something else that was needed and so putting an obstruction in our path to reach America.
The war continued with all its fury over our heads. Molotov cockails, time bombs, bombs, the anti-aircraft guns, I knew them all - that means their sounds - but what I did not know was how to continue to live with them. I felt I must get out.
I went once more to Bloomsbury House, because I thought I had a bright idea, which was to ask for Internment for myself and the children.
I had to work for our living during the day, at night there was the bombing and fire watching - I had little strength left. In the Isle of Man I thought, they were interned but they had peace, were looked after and I wanted to get in. When I stated my idea and my wish to be interned, I heard the man telling me that I must he mad; that they were working all hours to get the men out and that I should get home - so I went back to the cellar in Teddington.
Ernst and Edith Wiener, who were from my home town in Germany and who also went to Italy, had now a domestic job in Settle in Yorkshire. I made up my mind to go North to see if I could find a spot to live and work away from the bombing.