Celia was born near Hamburg, Germany in 1926. She had a happy childhood, but family life deteriorated when the Nazis came to power. In 1938, at the age of twelve, Celia was sent to Britain on a Kindertransport. Although the early years were difficult, Celia eventually settled permanently in Britain.
Celia was born Cilly Jutta-Horwitz near Hamburg, Germany, in 1926. She had an older brother called Max and they were a happy family until the Nazis came to power under Adolf Hitler in 1933.
Celia’s father was Jewish. Nazi laws restricted Jews from almost all kinds of employment. The results for Celia’s family were devastating. Her father could not find work and attempted suicide. Her parents divorced, so that her mother could get work because she was not considered Jewish. Celia and Max were sent to live in separate orphanages.
They visited their parents at the weekends. But after Kristallnacht, in November 1938, life became more dangerous. Celia and Max were put on a Kindertransport. They arrived in Britain in December 1938.
‘…to have nothing, never to belong, you’re always going to be a scapegoat for somebody.’
Celia lived in London before being evacuated to Norfolk following the outbreak of the Second World War.
When she was old enough, Celia decided to return to London to do war work. But she felt conflicting emotions about what she was doing.
‘With doing war work, I started also worrying about whether the things I was making… would come down on my parents because I know some of them were a part that screwed onto the back of a bomb.’
Max also decided to join the war effort. He first volunteered to join the Pioneer Corps, then the Royal Norfolk Regiment and finally the Airborne Division.
The war years were difficult for Celia. She had to reconcile her German nationality with wanting to help Britain.
‘It was really rather peculiar, you were torn in several directions and my nerves really got rather bad.’
Celia stayed in touch with her parents in Germany. She last heard from her father in 1941. After the war she found out he had been deported to Minsk and murdered.
Celia’s mother survived and Celia visited her often in Germany after the war. But she never considered returning permanently. She married Ken, had two children and produced a book of poetry.
Celia does not feel that her relationship with her mother ever recovered from the years they spent apart.
‘I never thought of going back, I mean, I went to see my mother but I use to look at people in the street and wonder what they’d done, I was quite paranoid, you couldn’t trust anybody.’
Celia feels the founding of Israel was important for Jews and she has visited several times.
‘I really think that [Jewish] people needed that…to have nothing, never to belong, you’re always going to be a scapegoat for somebody.’
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